Progress 09/01/20 to 07/19/24
Outputs
Target Audience: During the last four years there were over 70 recent graduates with five years or less experience in practice, who served in under-served areas, whose practices consisted of 10% or more of food animal practice, and otherwise met the application requirements, and applied to attend the Your Practice Now and Next Generation Workshops. Successful applicants were allowed to bring a second person from their practice for a nominal fee. We have found that when two individuals, from the same practice, attend, when they return home, they are capable of instituting change better than one can. The attendance for the year one was 65 with an additional 16 accompanying people. Attendance for the year two workshops lagged, with 57 attendees and 9 accompanying people. If we assume an average practice has 3 or more doctors, we can estimate that over 200 veterinarians benefited from these workshops. Changes/Problems:Due to the Covid Pandemic, the scheduling of the workshops was delayed a year, from 2021-2023 to 2022-2024. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Although the project has not provided any new formal opportunities for development, as advanced degrees, it has equipped the attendees to better utilize existing opportunities. Several attendees applied for and received Rural Practice Enhancement grants through NIFA. Based on the three-month follow-up conference calls and the exit survey, this project has enabled many of the attendees to utilize segments such as the value proposition exercise to become leaders in their practices in strategic planning. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Information about the workshops has been disseminated by AVMA in the JAVMA. Information about the workshops will be submitted for distribution by AABP-L, Vet Truck, AABP Facebook, and Bovine Veterinarian Magazine. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Much of the implementation of the concepts of the workshops took place in the 3-24 months since the workshops. To quantify the compliance and utilization of the various concepts a post workshop survey was undertaken. The five core goal areas were divided into 16 subtopics for analysis in the survey. Following are the results of the survey. Demographics Of the respondents 5 were associates, 29 were owners. Nine of the 29 owners had become owners in the last two years Twenty nine of the respondents were in the same practice they were in when they applied Survey Question Format Attendees were asked to respond to various questions utilizing the following scale: 5. Helped the practice performance significantly; 4. Helped the practice performance moderately; 3. Did not implement or did not make a difference; 2. Moderately decreased performance; or 1. Significantly decreased performance In addition, they were asked how the workshop's materials improved or changed their practice or their understanding of each issue. This portion of the survey was optional. Following is a list of subtopic names, percents 4 and 5 and attendee comments: Managerial accounting, 94%, "This workshop helped me gain the confidence to raise our hourly rates which helped increase our revenue significantly. The spreadsheet from Dick is AMAZING". Value proposition, 82%, "Helped me understand my strengths, which helped me focus on the parts of practice that not only make me happy but that help generate income as opposed to trying to be everything for everyone". Partial budgeting, 82%, "This part helped me understand the value of breakeven and how to charge appropriately for a new service I wanted to add. It also helped me understand how to account for upgrades in equipment". Financial metrics, 88%, "This was the most helpful part of the workshop for me. I am the only vet in my area that works on cattle and so I have no guidance for how much I should be charging. This gave me the tools to figure out how to have a sustainable financial practice}. Non-financial metrics, 74%, "The concept of billable hours and the metrics that I should achieve were incredibly helpful". Operational changes, 79%," Using tech more for client communications and entering charges which has helped with time management and efficiency". Budgeting and forecasting, 79%, "Saw success in second year compared to first year. Forecasting gives good guideline/goal for next years". HRM,76%, "I am currently creating an employee handbook and Job descriptions. Our practice has never used either of these documents before. My goal is for employees to better understand performance expectations". HRM leadership, 85%, "I use DISC on a daily basis! This was crucial in understanding how to better work with coworkers and how to be a good manager". HRM Performance, 79%, "All employees now have annual reviews scheduled and new employees also have probationary reviews. The reviews are also now more structured with a form that both employee and management complete in advance and discuss at the review". Consultation, 88%, "One of my favorite parts of the workshops was the one-on-one consultation of the practice financials. It gave me a much better understanding of the cash flow of the practice and areas I could improve to become more profitable". Practice valuation, 82%, "I had never used a profit calculator before or had the opportunity to calculate practice value vs ability to cash flow. This was a huge eye opener and I wish we had more time to focus on this aspect". Written plan statements, 68%, "Without these plans statements I would not have accomplished near what I did It was a way of holding myself accountable". Balance sheet metrics, 79%, "I did not know a lot about what to do with my accounts receivable this changed the way I managed this problem. I also improved my inventory turnover significantly". Retirement planning, 71%, "Motivated us to be more aware of ways to fund retirement while in practice ownership and to explore offerings for team members as improvements to existing retirement benefit". Profit profitability worksheet exercise, 91%, "Once again it was valuable to go through this exercise and have an understanding of what goes into determining profitability and identify factors to monitor as my business grows". The results of the survey demonstrate that 14 of the 16 topics rated greater than 74% with "5" being, "helped the practice performance significantly" and "4" being "helped the practice performance moderately". The topics retirement planning and written plan statements rated a combined percentage of 74% or lower. These topics should be evaluated as to content before further workshops are undertaken. It is difficult to access economic values to practice changes. When the Next Generation Veterinary Practice Analysis was completed, I did two surveys, one like the one described here and one trying to quantify changes economically. The results of the one trying to quantify changes economically ended up very vague, had a low participation rate and told me less about the outcome than the one used in this report. Even though workshop attendees all signed confidentiality forms, many participants were reluctant to share all financial data. The comments section, although qualitative, gives typical glimpses of the impacts the workshops had on practices. Many practices because of the value proposition session added new services including ET, at home euthanasia, milk quality labs, digital radiography, lung ultrasonography, implementing a haul-in facility, and breeding soundness exams. Even though some of the practices showed increases in total income and owner income, most made more than one change to their practices. In the initial pre-workshop homework certain metrics were associated with and had an impact on profitability including: Gross margin related to call fees after vehicle expenses are subtracted. Some practitioners did not realize they barely covered vehicle operating expenses with their call fees. Gross margin from the sale of products, primarily drugs and vaccines. Some practices had a near zero margin. Percent of gross income for support staff. Those over 24 percent generally had a lower income per owner. In most incidences, practices that were strictly food animal practices, had a higher profitability as measured by cash available to owners, than mixed animal practices. Larger practices, with five or greater practitioners, were more likely to be profitable. The clients of the attendees will benefit from these workshops in several ways: Many workshop attendees practice in sparsely populated areas and have clients with a variety of species of animals. Attending the workshops and learning to offer services to these clients in a manner that is profitable to the practitioner will ensure that the practice can grow and continue to offer a variety of services. Practitioners who attend the workshop will remain in practice and thus the availability of veterinary services will remain, close by, reducing call fees and increasing the availability of veterinary care. Having a veterinarian in a livestock producing community benefits the local clientele in the case of foreign-born disease outbreaks such as the recent HPAIoutbreak. Timely identification, early specimen sampling and isolation are keys to controlling these types of outbreaks. Associates and owners who understand and practice HRM principles presented by Richard Stup, a member of Cornell University and our HRM presenter, will have less employee turnover. Understanding factors that influence practice value, as presented by David McCormick, our presenter on practice valuation, will benefit owners, associates and the clientele in the long run.
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Progress 09/01/22 to 08/31/23
Outputs
Target Audience:The target audience is recent graduates, out of veterinary school five years or less, who are practicing in rural underserved areas in practices that provide 10% or greater food animal medicine services.Graduates must be citizens of the United States. Applicants who have access to the financial records of their practice will be favored in the selection process over those who do not. Since this was the seond year of the project (delayed a year because of the Covid pandemic) four workshops were held, two year two and two year one. The attendees of the Hereford and Jersey workshops had completed the year one workshops in 2022 and were thus eligible to attend the year two workshops in 2023. The Shorthorn and Brahman groups had applied, were accepted into the workshops in the fall of 2022, and completed the year one workshop in 2023. Changes/Problems:Due to the Covid pandemic the onset of this project was delayed so that the end of the project will be in August 2024 instead of August 2023. The main changes were in scheduling. A secondary change was that we are reporting progress in the projects a year late. Due to the pandemic, many educational presentations have switched to the virtual format. Early in the workshops a higher percentage were virtual. However over time that number was reduced. The AABP staff, that had experience in presenting an entire annual conference virtually, was able to pitch-in and adapt to the needs of individuals who were not able to attend the live workshops. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?
Nothing Reported
How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Informaion has been disseminated through news releases and through AABP newsletters and podcasts. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?There will be two supportive conference calls for each of the year two workshops to address attendee challenges. We have discovered from our experience that dialogue including fellow attendees helps to develop solutions that are overlooked when problems are addressed by staff only. There will be three workshops for the two workshop groups that are transitioning from year one to year two. These conference calls are a tiime of sharing and often the instructors play the role of facilitatiirs rather that educators.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
In 2023, AABP held four workshops that were designed to address the goals of the workshops. Two of the workshops, Hereford and Jersey, were year two workshops, The Hereford group had sixteen individuals sign up and the Jersey group had twenty-nine sign up. Seventeen signed up for the Brahman group and sixteen signed up for the Shorthorn group that completed the year one workshop. Year one attendees had a session focused on managerial accounting, learning how to organize and use data to improve practice performance, how to use value proposition as a strategic management tool, how to utilize budgeting in business planing, what the DISC analysis can tell us about ourselves as well as others and about HRM regulations and guidelines we should be aware of in managing a practice. New material was presented to the year two workshops.In the area of HRM. The HRM presenter, Richard Stup, PhD of Cornell University, built on the year one material by utilizing the Strategic Leadership Exercise. A portion of the HRM year two session was devoted to using the DISC program and the Leadership Exercise to address actual HRM challenges the attendees are facing in their practices. Using these tools led to robust dialogue and recommendations the attendees could take home and use. Other HRM issues that were addressed were employee recruitment, interview techniques, onboarding, implementation of SOPs, effective performance reviews for employees and other pertinent issues. In the area of practice valuation, David McCormick CVA, employed by Simmons Associates, focused heavily on practice valuation, listing the three ways practices can be valued and why the income basis is most applicable. David led the workshop attendees through the VetPartners' "Valuation Essentials for Veterinarians" exercise, a tool that practioners can use to calculate quickly the value of their practice. Other topics included how to increase the value of a practice to benefit both the seller and the buyer, and various metrics that can be used to measure the results from changes that may be implemented in a practice. On the issue of personal finance, David discussed the importance of saving for retirement while young, estate planning, how interest compounding works and other personal finance issues.
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Progress 09/01/20 to 08/31/21
Outputs
Target Audience:The target audience will be recent graduates, ideally out of school five years or less who serve underserved areas or provide vital services that are not available in the area they serve. Graduates must be citizens of the United States and serve in practices that have a minimum of 10% of their income from food animal practice. Applicants who have access to the financial records of their practice will be favored in the selection process over those who do not. Changes/Problems:Due to the Covid Pandemic, AABP was not able to hold the two year one workshops that were originally scheduled for 2021. AABP is requesting that we be able to proceed with the workshops scheduled for 2021, 2022, and 2023 in 2022, 2023, and 2024 respectively. The application process for the two workshops to be held in 2022 will open in September of this year and close near the end of November. Workshops are scheduled for March 3-5, 2022 and June 2-4, 2022 in Des Moines Iowa. Goals to the workshops remain unchanged from the goals listed in the application submitted in 2020. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?
Nothing Reported
How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?
Nothing Reported
What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Workshops will be instituted as proposed in the original application. Procedures and goals remain the same.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Due to the Covid Pandemic, AABP was not able to hold the two year one workshops that were originally scheduled for 2021. AABP is requesting that we be able to proceed with the workshops scheduled for 2021, 2022, and 2023 in 2022, 2023, and 2024 respectively. The appication process for the two workshops to be held in 2022 will open in September of this year and close near the end of November. Workshops are scheduled for March 3-5, 2022 and June 2-4, 2022 in Des Moines Iowa. Gaols to the workshops remain unchanged from the goals listed in the applicaiton submitted in 2020.
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