How have veterinary businesses performed during 2021?
We are just finishing analysing a number of clinics annual results and we are definitely seeing an improvement in business health over 2021.
Average profitability is up by 3% and revenue per full time veterinarian is up by $30,000, this is due to a higher average transaction fee, more pet owners and a higher average client spend. It looks like the industry is now stabilising at this current level, with the initial trend of monthly increases for the last year now leveling off, so we expect 2022 to look similar to 2021, as long as the Australian economy doesn’t suffer a sudden set back.
A different approach to monitoring how well you treat your patients
We have started to analyse clinics differently for 2021 and as well as the traditional approach of comparing clinics KPIs ‘per full time equivalent’ eg. number of dentals per full time vet equivalent we are also comparing clinics KPIs based on the number of patients they see eg. what % of their patients have dentistry, radiography, vaccinations etc. This gives a better idea of whether the veterinarians are working as good patient advocates as it does not depend on how many clients the clinic has or how busy it is. It is purely a measure of what % of patients that are seen actually receive certain services.
This new analysis is also looking at how many patients each client presents to the clinic – and this is surprisingly lower than anecdotal reports of how many pets the average client has. Even more interesting is looking at the number of animals that have had something purchased for them at the clinic yet have not seen the vet for a consult or vaccination in over 12 months – massive missed opportunity!
For those of you that are clients who have annual benchmarking with us all this new information will be in you reports and we will spend some time at our workshops discussing how best to interpret and use it. Lots of exciting information for the year ahead!
Dog Tales!
Don’t get caught napping on the job! I don’t hear too well, so when I’m asleep I don’t always know when mom or dad ‘ninja’ feed me – leave a morsel of food for when I wake up as a reward for being good. Last week I heard that ‘Chica’ my sister STOLE my ninja treat from right under my nose….imagine that! It got me thinking about napping on the job, and some of you are a bit tired from working too hard (much like me) and as a result you may have forgotten a couple of very important things: Did you ‘finalise payroll’ for 2021 – if you haven’t done this then your team can’t get their tax returns done, and they will know you were napping. Have you paid the superannuation from June? – many of you will have paid ‘most’ of the super towards the end of June but not the last payrun or two. Now if the ATO know you’ve been napping on this one they will steal your ninja treat and your next dinner too in the form of fines, so make sure you are all up to date! I’m off for a quick power nap to recover from writing this….
APL Accountants, 2 Genoa Court, Cleveland, QLD 4163, Australia
