How to avoid discounting for the consultation…

16.02.2016 One of the things that many vets struggle with is money, even as a student I find it incredible the amount it costs to practice good medicine. And it feels awful hearing so much money asked for what I consider to be just the basics. There seems to be a triangle of client, finance and medicine. And that is before we start with the patient. Luckily in the UK there are them few clients that have insurance – this takes one point of the triangle away – which enables good medicine. The rest of the time it can be an uphill battle. Now I believe that finance is an enabler – it lets you do the fun stuff, lets you treat patients, and lets you eat. Without it you are limited with what you can do, even when you have the knowledge. I hate how much things cost – even the simple like syringes, needles and IV fluids cost are expensive in quantity. Then you throw in the staff costs, building, utilities and waste disposal costs it adds up. So the client comes in, you talk, take a look at the patient, determine a course of treatment. And then you turn to the computer to charge this all up. You are there, wondering if it is really worth the £4 per minute of your time that you have spent there. Worse it’ll be something that you could not really help – either because it was an exotic species you rarely see, too small or specialist for you to treat. Is it really fair to charge the client still even though you googled up a list of common differentials before bringing the client through into the consult room? You know what? I think there may be a better way… As a vet student I am quite, however I notice everything. I know how important consultation and communication skills are so I pay special attention here. And I’ve seen a lot of practice now with a lot of different vets. I saw a lot of discounts, trying to do things for the least money possible, and sadness at charging. However there was one vet that I saw do something different. They opened the clients notes and read up any history. They then started the clients bill with the consultation charge. And then they brought the client in. They never had to think about the consultation fee, never felt the need to discount and never finished feeling guilty for charging because this was already done as a fact before the client stepped through the door. For me, this was an important lesson, and I hope that it may help others out there that also struggle with the cost of the consultation.