By Stith Keiser | Blue Heron Consulting This article was written for and featured in Clinician's Brief. I recently spent a few days onsite with the new owner of a small animal practice. We had also met the previous evening and over dinner discussed her primary concerns. She said the practice was extremely busy—a good [...]
By Stith Keiser | Blue Heron Consulting This article was written for and featured in Clinician's Brief. During my recent presentation on veterinary medicine compensation models, a Michigan State University student asked why 25% of production is used as a rule of thumb for compensation and benefits. “Why not a higher percentage?” he asked. I [...]
By Stith Keiser | Blue Heron Consulting This article was written for and featured in Today's Veterinary Business. As a consultant, I get nervous butterflies each time I prepare to review a veterinary hospital’s valuation with a friend or client. The video calls summarize the individual’s ability as a practice owner to build a legacy [...]
By Stith Keiser | Blue Heron Consulting This article was written for and featured in Today's Veterinary Business. I will never forget my first staff meeting as the new owner of a rural mixed-animal, one-doctor practice. To this day, I can still feel my nervousness and excitement. I vividly recall walking into the hospital’s small [...]
By Stith Keiser | Blue Heron Consulting This article was written for and featured in Today's Veterinary Business. I’ve been fortunate to wear various hats in my career — hospital manager, veterinary association business manager, adjunct faculty member, consultant and small animal practice owner. The first one, which I’ve never removed, is the now-weathered, dusty, [...]
By Stith Keiser | Blue Heron Consulting This article was written for and featured in Today's Veterinary Business. It’s 3 in the morning, cold, dark and rainy. I’m 3 or 4 years old and sitting in the backseat of my dad’s truck as he heads out to deliver another calf or fix another prolapsed uterus. [...]
By Stith Keiser | Blue Heron Consulting The waves lapped at a pink hued sand beach in the Bahamas while two actors, presumably grandparents, frolicked with their grandkids. The next scene focused on a similarly aged couple leaning over the balcony of a glistening river cruise ship with the Rhine, adorned with European architecture, drifting [...]
By Stith Keiser | Blue Heron Consulting This article was written for and featured in Today's Veterinary Business. I sat next to a registered veterinary technician at a recent continuing education meeting. As we chatted, she explained that she was no longer in practice. Her employer informed her that after over a decade of service, [...]
By Stith Keiser | Blue Heron Consulting This article was written for and featured in Today's Veterinary Business. If I could assign one word to the feeling around change in this hospital, it was “fear.” Not the kind of fear like that feeling of excitement or pre-game jitters, but the primordial, fight-or-flight type of fear. [...]
By Stith Keiser | Blue Heron Consulting This article was written for and featured in Today's Veterinary Business. I was speaking at a veterinary conference when an attendee, a midcareer owner of a multidoctor hospital, asked, “If you could identify one factor that separates average or even good hospitals from the great ones, what would [...]
