One of the highlights of my week is catching up and talking shop with my close friend and practice manager, Linda. On a sunny patio over an icy G&T, she commented, “our practice is looking into sending a technician to that Mobilizing RVT course you told us about, but $5000 is a big CE expense for a technician”.
“Good thing it’s not ce”, i immediately countered.
If you’re thinking that training a technician to take wellness appointments in your practice is a continuing education exercise, you’re only seeing part of the picture. You are actually doing something much bigger for your practice by evolving your care delivery model.
As our industry progresses and RVTs are seeing a broader scope, some practices have recognized the need to evolve and are making changes. Most practices already have RVTs performing blood draws, injections, and nutritional consults on their own, and expanding this scope to include wellness appointments is another step forward.
As a leadership team, one of the most exciting things you can spend money on is business development. It’s where the magic happens. By changing the way your business runs, you can make your people happier, service your clients better, and grow your bottom line. The choice to expand your wellness care team to include technicians as primary caregivers involves training, travel, consulting, planning, management time and marketing. Your total spend will likely be close to $15 -20 thousand. This is not continuing education. It’s a business development decision, and a great one.
If you’re reeling from the sticker shock, consider this: continuing education expenses are employee benefits with an indirect impact on your bottom line (at best). CE is a recurring employee cost that needs to be negotiated, tracked, and tightly controlled to keep salary and benefit expenses in line. As a one-time business development spend, you only need to look at your return on investment to justify the cost of the Mobilizing RVT course.
“Considered as a business development expense, this is a no-brainer,” I practically shouted, attracting some looks from nearby tables. “When it comes to setting up a technician to take wellness appointments, the practices we have worked with have taken less than 60 days to reach ROI, and seen a twenty-fold increase in ROI over the first year. It’s incredible!”
Don’t get me wrong – there are a slew of valid reasons for mobilizing your RVTs. DVM burnout, an inability to service client demand, RVT job satisfaction and retention, and solving recruitment problems top the list, but they don’t reflect directly on your bottom line. But the here’s amazing part: it doesn’t matter why you decide to mobilize your RVTs. The ROI is still there, along with the other benefits.
“I like the way you think,” Linda responded with her slightly sly, 100-watt smile. “That’s exactly the framework I needed.”
RVT Integrations 