Consolidate That!

Today we are doing one of our first dives into Galaxy Vets by bringing in a special guest from inside the organization, Dr. Lauren Catenacci, our Head of People and Culture.

The conversation starts off with a brief understanding of what culture is and its relationship to core values. Hear about the three levels of analysis used to assess the cultural fit of potential clinics and some practical examples of culture within an organization.

Topics discussed: 

• An explanation of organizational psychology and defining culture. 
• Building culture from your core values.
• How culture can evolve.
• The three levels of analysis to assess the cultural fit of clinics.
• Some examples of how culture plays out in practice and the psychology underneath.

Ryan Leech and Dr. Ivan Zak cover the most recent burnout survey results. This year's survey looks at the change and dynamics of burnout from 1,600 veterinarians across different demographics, including gender and work-life balance. 

Our hosts share the innovative techniques and experiments that Galaxy Vets will be implementing that support the ultimate goal: preserving the mental health of each of employees to mitigate the high rates of burnout and suicide in the industry.

Topics discussed: 

• Key findings of the survey on burnout.
• What factors contributed to lower burnout rates among veterinarians.
• How consolidation can bring positive results to our industry when done right.
• Five core values of Galaxy Vets.
• Some insights for the onboarding process at Galaxy Vets. 

Ivan and Ryan are thrilled to be returning with this first episode of our second season, where they discuss the formation and insights into Galaxy Vets, including strategy, leaders, practices, and more. 

Topics discussed: 

• Kicking off with an exciting pivot; season two includes our Galaxy Vets journey.
• Framework called Three P's and Three S's.
• Galaxy Vets mission: giving veterinary medicine back to veterinarians.
• Reinventing how we do vet medicine, vertical integration, providing equity, and more.

Austin Hair, Partner at Leaders Real Estate Development, shares his experiences locating, leasing, acquiring, and moving to the perfect property. We discuss how long-term leases protect the tenants, and when is the right time to reach out for help from a broker.

Topics discussed:

• Choosing to buy or lease, depending on the lifecycle of your consolidation journey.
• How long-term leases actually protect the tenants.
• Establishing your location vs. moving to a new space
• Best strategies when negotiating a lease.

In this episode, we sit down with Dr. Edward Kanara, Founder of Kanara Consulting Group, to talk about the difficulties of unified management, and how businesses can only function optimally if leadership decisions are made with best medical care practices as the priority. 

We discuss the challenges of differing goals between management and veterinary medical practitioners, and how with the right approach these spaces can be unified to create thriving businesses that still prioritize patient care.

Topics discussed:

• The difficulties of unified management and creating win/win value propositions.
• How leadership must understand that employees have to believe in what they're doing. 
• The importance of explanatory communication coming from corporate. 
• The importance of workplace culture; staff retention is crucial in the current environment.
• Ed brings to the table the potential benefit of hybrid commission models.

Instinct Science Software’s Founder and CEO, Dr. Caleb Frankel, joins us today to guide us through the changing dynamics and goals in the veterinary market, and how Instinct is becoming a full-blown PIMS. Diving into software as a huge factor in work-life balance and burnout, this episode focuses on the ways that it's also a definitive avenue to resolve the burnout crisis. 

Topics discussed:

• How staffing issues and burnout are tied to software choices.
• How PIMS providers frequently appear and disappear, and the challenges they face. 
• Caleb talks about tackling the tricky issue of data protection.
• Discussing consolidation issues of how management and vets have differing goals.
• How consolidators need to take heed of the warning signs regarding staff retention.
• The ways Instinct is unique; easy installing, solving ancillary problems, and more!

Today we are joined by Klint Kendrick, the author of The HR Practitioner’s Guide to Mergers and Acquisitions Due Diligence, to cover various topics, from how to incorporate Maslow’s hierarchy of needs into your business, to the integral role that trust plays in organizational leadership. 

Without the proper communication and change management plan, employees can be left feeling confused, stressed, and insecure, which can have tangible consequences for your staff turnover, customer retention, and ultimately, your bottom line. 

Topics discussed:

• A breakdown of the roundtable approach that Klint takes to M&A.
• How to help employees start their ‘change journey’.
• Why you should inform employees of your plans at the appropriate time.
• The hard factors to consider when doing due diligence: finance, operations, and compliance.
• The soft factors to consider when doing due diligence: leadership and culture.
• Insights into Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and its role in your organization.

Our guest Shawn McVey of Pathway Vet Alliance joins us to cover the keys to effective process implementation in a veterinary hospital, the importance of structure in the workplace, and the five main issues experienced in veterinary practices.

Topics discussed:

• Main cultural issues that are experienced in veterinary practices.
• Keys to implementing processes effectively. 
• The importance of structure in the workplace. 
• Five main issues experienced in veterinary practices. 
• Examples of processes that should be in place

Today we are joined by Angela Morisette from Scratchpay. She walks us through Scratchpay's various services and pivots and how they go to market with large consolidators. 

We also hear a detailed description of the user's experience and some interesting findings when working with veterinary groups.

Topics discussed:

• How Scratchpay differs from CareCredit.
• The different ways that Scratchpay goes to market with large consolidators.
• How sending out a digital invoice versus a paper statement drastically increases collection rates.
• How Scratchpay is complementary to both insurance and wellness plans.
• Diving deeper into problem-solving for common wellness plan issues. 

Dr. Tom Bankstahl, CEO at Veterinary United, joined us for this inspiring conversation about his aspirations for a long-term veterinary-owned group and keeping a safe space for veterinary medicine.

Tom also runs us through how he implements his People First policy, how he is creating spaces for people to grow as people as well as professionals.

Topics discussed:

• Putting people first, and Tom's implementation of that principle in his organization.
• What is NLP, and how it can be used to help people understand their emotions.
• The power of happiness. 
• Attracting people that mirror your energy.
• Tom speaks about the growth process as an independent practice, versus backed by investors.

Today on Consolidate That! with Dr. Ivan Zak and Ryan Leech, we discuss continuous improvement in the veterinary world. Ivan talks about the difference between continuous education and continuous learning cultures, and how many veterinarians experience burnout once they’ve completed their studies and find themselves in a repetitive practice environment. 

Topics discussed:

• The difference between continuous education and continuous learning cultures.
• Reasons veterinarians love to learn and continue to learn.
• How consolidators should look at implementing opportunities for people to learn.
• Micro-learning and micro-accreditation: a good way to structure education for consolidation.
• How continuous learning cultures need to be structured and systematized.

In this fascinating episode, we are talking to Shawn McVey, co-founder of Pathway Vet Alliance. Shawn has had phenomenal success with helping veterinary businesses move from reactive and inconsistent practices to successful, profitable, and fully integrated workspaces. 

Providing real-world examples from his many years of experience, he also talks us through his journey with numerous clinics and associations that formed and benefited his journey to conceptualizing and implementing Pathway. 

Topics discussed:

• A fascinating overview of the behavioral psychology behind why people are veterinarians.
• Realizing that there is a huge emotional intelligence problem that needs attention and management. 
• Finding out the most vulnerable points of veterinarians, mostly stemming from communication.
• Partnering with Jasen Trautwein, and turning 2 practices into 27 in just a year and a half. 
• Discussing burnout, the suicide rate, and losing touch with the world outside of your practice.
• Diving deep into Pathway planning, culture, and choosing core values.

Our guest, Kevin Burke of VetPay, introduces us to the payment processing industry and how it has evolved over time. We've touched on why consolidators should be looking at their payment processing statements every month and how VetPay has made sure to keep up with the changes, while at the same time providing their customers with lower prices, a high degree of transparency, and personal customer service.

Topics discussed:

• Competition in the credit card processing space.
• How VetPay differentiates themselves from other payment processors.
• The biggest drawbacks and benefits of integration.
• Analyses that VetPay does for consolidators who come to them for advice on optimizing their consolidations. 
• Benefits of interchange plus pricing as opposed to flat rates.

Today we are joined by Matthew Flann, veterinary surgeon, and director at Pennard Vets. He explains the transition to an employee-owned model, how this model has influenced Pennard Vets’ ability to hire veterinarians, how the company’s internal culture has changed, and how the employees’ 70 percent ownership affects the decision-making process and strategy of the company.

Topics discussed:

• An introduction to Pennard Vets and how they came to be employee-owned.
• How the decision to transition into this model was received by the company’s employees. 
• How this model has influenced Pennard Vets’ ability to hire veterinarians.  
• Insight into how the company culture is changing since the introduction of this new model.
• The system through which employee ideas are communicated to the management team.

During episode #40, Clint Latham, the Founder of Lucca Vet, gives an overview of what cybersecurity in the industry currently looks like and sheds light on where consolidators’ vulnerabilities lie. Our conversation touches on what consolidators should do when they acquire a practice, how to keep data more secure, and the value of psychological safety in your workplace. 

Topics discussed:

• The state of cybersecurity in the consolidated veterinary landscape
• A business email compromise that commonly occurs
• Finding the middle ground between server and cloud
• Cint’s advice for what consolidators should be doing immediately after acquisition
• Basic things we can be doing to keep our business data more secure

In today’s episode, Yang Shi, the Co-Founder and CEO of VetSnap, rejoins Dr. Ivan Zak and Ryan Leech to talk about consolidators and the hospital technology stack.

We discuss the process of selecting what software to roll out first in hospitals after the acquisition, the importance of building a strong relationship with the vendors, and how the powerful inventory management VetSnap helps clinical staff.

Topics discussed:

• Ways to surface up the most valuable opportunities to pursue;
• Building an ongoing relationship with your software vendors;
• The importance of focusing on the clinical team;
• Supporting hospitals after initial deployment;
• The benefits of finding vendors that are in the early stage of growth;

Greg Schimpff from VetSnap shares his experience and expertise on the management of vendor partnerships and understanding acquired hospitals' preferences. 

We also discuss better communication practices and the exciting innovations that Greg has noticed in the field during the last decade.

Topics discussed:

• The importance of trust and familiarity for building relationships in the procurement field.
• A look at the value stream for procurement, and its evolution over time. 
• Dealing with acquired hospitals and inherited vendors. 
• Greg's process for aligning with vets and medical teams to keep different parties happy.

Today's conversation will touch upon a crucial topic in our domain - recruiting. Our guest, Stacy Pursell, CEO and Founder of Therio Partners and The Vet Recruiter, joins us to explain how the relative shortage of qualified veterinarians leads to an array of imbalances in the hiring space. We discuss the top priorities for candidates and receive great advice and recommendations. 

Topics discussed:

• Talent shortages in the veterinarian space and the challenges of filling important roles. 
• Top factors for veterinarians looking for work. 
• How Stacy approaches helping employers and candidates and facilitates the process.  
• The future of veterinary hiring.

In today’s episode, Dr. Ivan Zak and Ryan Leech continue their conversation about value stream mapping, this time analyzing it from the perspective of the various different levels within an organization. 

They cover how to transition from an idea to a business plan, the tool which makes it easy to visualize your value stream, and what the exploration phase of acquisition entails. 

Topics discussed:

• Hospital level value streams in comparison to consolidation level value streams.
• Why it’s important to have a process for creating processes within an organization.
• Examples of the steps involved in hospital improvement processes.
• The value that is provided by Kanban boards in the value stream mapping process.
• How processes eliminate waste within an organization.

In our special episode of the Consolidate That!, Dr. Beth Davidow, Clinical Assistant Professor at Washington State University, and Dr. Karen Felsted, CPA, Founder and consultant at PantheraT, join Dr. Ivan Zak to discuss the evolution of partnership models and how sellers can get the best terms for themselves and their employees.

Topics discussed:

• Different partnership models and their pros and cons
• Ways to increase practice valuation
• When it’s a good time to sell a practice
• Things you have to ask the buyer
• What effect does acquisition have on the team