44
“Over 50% of my clients are friends
and neighbors, or people who can’t afford their pets,” she relates. “This has made billing them very challenging and has occasionally led to rocky friendships. Emergencies often end up being com- munity service work and are my greatest debt load.” Inventory management is also a big
issue; inventory items become worn and are subject to expiration in her low- volume practice. Her large animal work is highly seasonal, and can lead to 80-hour workweeks in the spring and summer. “It is very challenging to find times to
“There is no question that a mobile practice is much more challenging to manage than a
typical small-animal practice.” —Sandy Brown, DVM
restock and clean the vehicle during these periods,” she says. Car maintenance is an extra expense, and things like car repairs can lead to short-term shutdowns of the mobile practice. “There is no question that a mobile
practice is much more challenging to manage than a typical small-animal prac- tice,” Brown says. “In my rural practice, I spend a lot of my time driving around the countryside, which certainly may be viewed as a benefit, especially in the beautiful White Mountains.”
Tri-County Mobile Veterinary For Daniel Mora, DVM, a mobile ser-
vice seemed to be in the cards. He spent extra time in the equine mobile service during school at the School of Veteri- nary Medicine at the University of Cali- fornia, Davis, and his first veterinarian job more than a decade ago also entailed mobile service. “My earliest recollection of a veteri-
narian was a mobile vet who would come out and treat our livestock,” he says. “I’m a farm boy.” Within a year of graduating, he was operating his own mobile clinic. Mora is based in Woodland, near Sac-
ramento, Calif., covering a three-county area with a number of urban communi- ties in the vicinity. His mixed practice is mostly rural but includes urban clients, with cats, dogs and chickens. Along with his equine patients,
his practice includes a large number of camelids; because there are few
camelid veterinarians in his geographic area, he has found himself traveling 80 to 100 miles to visit llamas and alpacas at area ranches. A mobile practice fits Mora’s lifestyle,
which is one of the biggest benefits for him. There is also very low overhead for a mobile practice, especially when start- ing out. “I like being outside,” he relates. “The
hours are probably the same (as those in a fixed clinic), but good or bad, you’re outside. You will see your local world, and it’s the only way to work with large numbers of animals and livestock.” Challenges include limited revenue,
because “You see more clients in a fixed clinic,” he explains. Weather is also a factor. “You are going to get rained and snowed on or melted and burned from the heat, windblown and so forth.” Tri-County Mobile Veterinary oper-
ates with a mileage-based ranch/house call fee.
“Often, this is a deciding factor for
people when they are looking for service. With livestock, of course, the cost of the care really can’t exceed the cost of the animal,” Mora says. “Affluence or need plays a big part. Generally (because of the ranch call fee), it is cheaper to take one’s pet to a brick-and-mortar clinic or ‘parking lot vaccine clinics.’ If more clin- ics start charging an ‘office call fee,’ I would consider that a good thing for me.” Mora uses old-school marketing tech-
niques; he is listed in area telephone books and advertises in feed stores and on rural country store bulletin boards, along with relying on word of mouth. Although he has noticed that his prac-
tice appears on web searches for “mobile veterinarians,” time constraints are a big hurdle in preventing him from becoming active on the Internet, and on Facebook. “A web page is probably next,” he says, “but I don’t see it being very interactive since I don’t have the time.”
Mullen’s Mobile Veterinary Hospital For nearly 20 years, Andrea Mullen, DVM, has provided mobile veterinarian
Trends magazine, November 2012
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68