Our Business is Solid - We Practice Excellence

To Friends, Associates, Colleagues and Team Members,

With the toughest winter in decades dumping fresh white snow on all parts of the East coast and Mid Atlantic areas and with record low temperatures in Florida we are off to the greatest business challenges we have seen since I have been a veterinarian.  These are the times that teach our practice leaders how to create and execute new ways of communication and influence.  Trying to get pet owners through the news of and the reality of the weather is at this moment our greatest challenge.

In spite of these challenges the affiliated teams are doing a great job of keeping the practices open and making sure those pets with serious and even critical needs are being attended.  It is a pleasant experience to see the attitudes that our practice leadership demonstrate in these times compounded by the worst recession that any of us will likely see in our lifetimes.  In spite of all this our business is solid.

Our Leadership Meeting referenced in my blog last month has had profound responses from our teams and we are anxious to get going and apply what we have all learned together.  Dr. Tom Butera’s ongoing CE webinars are not affected by the current weather and our dental CE will predictably stimulate new and creative thoughts on how to better serve our clients.

On another note I reached out to all of our teams to direct me to practices in their locations that may be now or in the future for sale.  Pet Partners will be aggressive in the months ahead in selecting new affiliates to join our family of veterinary practices.  If you are reading this blog with the idea that you wish to sell your veterinary practice please contact me directly and I assure you that our communication will be confidential.

As stated throughout our website the Pet Partners operating model is different and we are all proud of that.  Unlike the branded model used by VCA Antech and Banfield we retain the community brand that the hospital was before our purchase.  We do not change name, signage or in any way associate the name Pet Partners with the client side of the hospital.  It is our thinking based on results in human medicine that this is important to the client.  Though every one of our practices provide better levels of care now than they did at purchase this comes from within the practice by the influence of our CE and awareness initiatives.  Pet Partners does not dictate the medicine, the protocols or the drugs used.  What we do is influence the back office systems, the administrative and management aspects of the practice and allow more contact with the client and more time and attention paid to the pet.  We are a medicine first Company with business and profits a product of good medicine.

We place high value on the goodwill of the practice and this goodwill points directly to the people, especially those who serve on the support teams.  In all our purchases we value the people the most.  I have stated over and over that we are in the “people business” and happen to provide veterinary care.  So if you are in the mindset of selling your veterinary clinic, of selling your veterinary practice, of selling your veterinary hospital please contact me directly and we will see if Pet Partners is right for you.  You will definitely find this veterinary directed organization a breath of fresh air.

Best regards as we work toward Spring,

Ted A Sprinkle, Jr.
Chief Executive Officer