Why Hiring Can’t Wait: The Urgency, Impact, and Strategy of Veterinary Hiring

by Jamie Hurst, RVT | Blue Heron Consulting

The clock is already running. Every day a role sits open is a day of lost productivity, increased burden on remaining staff, and deferred revenue. The vacancy doesn’t pause—its cost accumulates in real time.

Across the veterinary industry, the timeline to fill roles is already long. According to AAHA’s 2022 industry survey, it takes an average of more than 15 months to fill a vacant associate DVM role and nearly 13 months to fill a credentialed veterinary technician position. Starting late doesn’t just delay progress—it puts you further behind.

This challenge isn’t temporary. The veterinary workforce shortage is structural, not cyclical. Research from Mars Veterinary Health projects a shortage of up to 24,000 companion-animal veterinarians by 2030, even accounting for new graduates. At the same time, demand for care continues to rise, with pet healthcare spending expected to grow 3–4% annually beyond inflation over the next decade. Your patient load isn’t going to shrink to match your staffing—your staffing must grow to meet your patients.

The Real Cost of Being Short-Staffed

Short-staffing is often framed as an inconvenience. In reality, it is one of the most expensive and disruptive challenges a practice can face—impacting finances, efficiency, patient care, and team stability all at once.

Financial Impact

The cost of turnover is significant—and often underestimated. SHRM estimates that replacing an employee costs between 50% and 200% of their annual salary, depending on the role. Gallup places that estimate at 1.5–2x annual salary, with a large portion of the true cost hidden in reduced morale, lost institutional knowledge, and slower workflows.

Burnout further compounds the issue. A 2022 peer-reviewed study estimated that veterinarian and technician burnout costs the U.S. veterinary services industry between $1 and $2 billion annually in lost revenue. Understaffing is not just a staffing issue—it is a financial one.

Revenue & Efficiency Impact

Staffing levels directly determine what your practice can produce. The AVMA identifies an optimal veterinarian-to-staff ratio of 1:4 to 1:5 for peak revenue generation. When practices operate below that level, doctor productivity is capped.

Short-staffing also reduces appointment capacity. When you can’t staff appointments, you can’t generate revenue—or provide care. Front-desk shortages lead to missed calls, failed follow-ups, and lost appointments. Missed phones mean missed revenue and missed patient care.

Patient Care & Compliance Impact

The effects extend beyond operations. Understaffing degrades the quality and thoroughness of patient care. Overextended teams rush discharge conversations, skip steps, and make more errors.

Client compliance suffers as well. Preventive care, treatment follow-through, and recheck appointments all decline when staff are stretched too thin. Over time, this leads to poorer patient outcomes and weaker client trust.

There is also a compliance risk. DEA log management, controlled substance protocols, and OSHA requirements all require consistent attention. A lean, overextended team increases exposure to regulatory issues.

Culture & Retention Impact

Perhaps the most damaging impact is on culture. Short-staffing is self-perpetuating: as workloads increase, burnout accelerates—and the people most likely to leave are often your strongest team members.

The 2023 AAHA Path to Better Retention survey found that approximately 30% of veterinary professionals in clinical practice plan to leave their jobs, and many plan to leave the profession entirely. This is not a talent pool the industry can afford to lose.

As strain builds, morale drops, team cohesion erodes, and client interactions begin to reflect internal pressure. Your reputation—with both clients and future candidates—is at stake.

Hiring Must Be a Leadership Priority

Recruitment cannot be treated as a background task. In fact, the busier and more short-staffed your practice becomes, the more critical it is to actively recruit—not less.

Treating hiring as reactive guarantees you will always be behind. With extended timelines for key roles, a proactive pipeline is not a luxury—it is operational infrastructure.

Practice leaders should build hiring into their regular rhythm: reviewing candidate pipelines, staying engaged with applicants, and treating recruitment with the same seriousness as a high-priority clinical matter. An open role should be viewed the same way as a critical piece of equipment being out of service—you wouldn’t wait months to fix it.

The Right Fit Over the Fast Hire

While urgency is real, rushing to fill a role with the wrong candidate often creates more damage than the vacancy itself.

Hiring out of desperation can lead to poor-fit hires that disrupt culture, reduce performance, and ultimately restart the hiring process. Culture fit and values alignment matter as much as credentials. A technically skilled hire who doesn’t align with your communication style or service standards can erode the environment your team depends on.

The cost of a bad hire compounds quickly—through poor performance, team friction, and eventual turnover—bringing you back to the same replacement costs, with added disruption along the way.

Urgency and selectivity are not opposites. The solution is not to lower your standards—it’s to start sooner and run a more intentional, consistent process.

It’s also important to set realistic expectations. Even after identifying the right candidate, notice periods, onboarding, and ramp-up time mean a new hire may not be fully productive for 60–90 days or more. Communicating these timelines clearly across leadership helps avoid rushed decisions that can have long-term consequences.

The Bottom Line

The cost of staying short-staffed—across revenue, patient care, compliance, and team culture—almost always exceeds the cost of the search itself. Hiring well is not a distraction from running your practice. It is one of the highest-leverage decisions a leader can make for their team, their patients, and their long-term success.

Start now. Be selective. Stay the course.

Key Data Points at a Glance

Sources: AAHA 2022 Industry Survey; AAHA 2023 Path to Better Retention Survey; SHRM Turnover Cost Research; Gallup State of the Global Workplace; Mars Veterinary Health / AAVMC Workforce Research; AVMA Benchmarking Data; PMC/NIH — Economic Cost of Burnout in Veterinary Medicine (2022).