Historically, the business model of veterinary practices up and down the country was straightforward. As a new graduate, you entered the profession by joining a local, independent practice, were mentored by the senior vet and in a few years, often looked to take over ownership. It was the default pathway and one that even as recently as twelve years ago, when I graduated, I was frequently asked about – ‘do you think you’ll look to own your own practice soon?’ But in the late 1990s, things were changing. The idea of corporate-owned veterinary practices was born. Now, over twenty years later, corporate practices are starting to outnumber independent practices in the small animal field. But who owns these ‘corporates’ and how does this affect the veterinary profession?
Table of contents
What is a corporate practice?
Until 1999, it was illegal to own a veterinary practice if you weren’t a vet. Then the law changed and opened the door to non-vet owners such as large companies or corporations. These corporations are run like any other business, with a board of directors, shareholders, managers and an appointed clinical lead vet in each practice. A company will approach the owner of a veterinary clinic and offer to buy the practice. Thereby taking over the business side of things but still allowing the practice to function as a veterinary surgery. They will go on to buy other veterinary practices and so create a ‘group’ of surgeries across the country, which can include both first opinion and referral centres. Pet owners may not even realise a practice has been sold. But within the veterinary profession, the whole idea is a highly contentious issue.
The pros of a corporate veterinary practice
Money
For the practice owner who has sold to a corporate, the immediate benefit is obvious – money. Veterinary practice can be lucrative and businesses can be sold for large sums of money. In some cases, this may allow the previous owner to retire, maybe early. In others, it will allow them to stay on in the practice, in a leadership role but without the stress of having to manage the payroll and deal with employment issues or worry about tax. And it means they can dedicate more time to being a vet again.
Employee benefits
Large corporations often have employee benefit schemes in place. These may include more holiday allowance, pension opportunities, private health care and enhanced maternity or paternity leave. Some can even include gym memberships or discounts off other services.
Greater opportunities
Being part of a group means greater opportunities for practices to work together. And potentially allows for more accessible specialist care. It can also make it easier for a vet to relocate to a different part of the country but still be able to work for the same company.
Further Education
All vets must undergo a minimum of 35 hours of further training a year in order to stay up to date with their knowledge and skills. This can be costly but many corporate practices are able to offer a large amount of this education free or at reduced cost. They may also be able to provide easier routes for vets to earn certificates in specialist areas of practice and so further their knowledge and career.
New graduate schemes
Entering the veterinary profession as a new graduate is incredibly daunting. The most important thing is that a newly qualified vet enters a practice that can provide them with as much support as they need. Traditionally, this was often a mixture of having the senior vets on hand to help out with a tricky operation. But also a little bit of ‘being thrown in the deep end’, especially with out of hours work. This suited some graduates but not all. Nowadays, many corporate practices have structured new graduate schemes in place to allow one on one mentoring and access to support groups alongside other new graduates. This can be hugely beneficial for their confidence. And is billed as being one way to help reduce the large dropout rate for recently graduated vets.
For pet owners, all this can mean that the vets they see have more job satisfaction. And potentially have greater access to specialist knowledge when treating their pets.
The cons of a corporate veterinary practice
Profit
The main concern that always comes up when discussing corporate veterinary practices is the idea that they will put profit before pets. There may be pressure on the vets to up-sell to clients on either procedures or products in order to meet targets.
Clinical choice
Many corporates will have arrangements with veterinary drug companies in order to supply their products. This means that for the vets working there, they may be restricted as to which drugs they can use. Often, this will only be a restriction on the brand of a drug, not the drug itself. But they may find it much harder to get access to a product that isn’t on the ‘preferred drug list’. Therefore there is the hovering concern that patient welfare could be compromised.
Decision making
Other decision making can also be delayed. In an independent practice, any new ideas can quickly and easily be passed to the practice manager or head vet and any changes implemented as needed fairly rapidly. In a corporation, there may be certain protocols to follow. Things such as the purchasing of new equipment or any changes to practice procedures will need to be signed off by a chain of command. This can obviously take a lot longer.
Out of hours
Although when a practice is taken over by a corporate, the idea is that the clients should not experience any real change in service; one area which may affect them, is the out of hours provision. This can be very variable by practice and corporation. But some practices that traditionally did their own out of hours, may end up outsource this to specialist out of hours providers. This most certainly is not always a bad thing, as the vets working there will specifically just do out of hours work. Hence are likely to be less tired than a vet who has just worked a full day shift too. But it may mean that clients have to travel further to get to these clinics and the costs will likely be higher.
A third option?
In the UK, there is a third option of veterinary practice ownership; that of a community of independently owned veterinary practices. Each practice retains its independent business model but also works as part of a larger team of practices. The idea behind this is to get the best of both worlds. Allowing practices the freedom to make their own decisions on every aspect of their business. Yet still being able to share resources, knowledge and experience with other members of the group.
No matter what the business model of a practice, they will all work to ensure the best for our pets. At no point should client care be compromised. The reality is that many young vets these days don’t want to run a practice. Or if they do, they would rather not be burdened by the business side of things such as tax and employment legislation. So the three models of veterinary practice ownership in the UK all have their place. One way should not be seen as superior over another. In Ireland, however, they are proposing to once again ban the ownership of veterinary practices by non-vets; a move that has divided the profession.
Whatever the outcome and whatever the effect on the UK veterinary scene, one thing is clear. Veterinary practice is changing, in some aspects maybe for the better, and in others, maybe for the worse. But vets will still be vets and enter their chosen vocation with the same commitment and desire to help animals and their owners as they always did.
Discussion