The veterinary industry continues to face staffing shortages, and many teams struggle to do more with fewer hands. However, if hiring isn’t feasible, you can find innovative and effective ways to run your practice efficiently and maintain high care standards. Leveraging your existing resources, utilizing relief professionals, and outsourcing non-medical tasks can optimize your practice and ease your team’s workload. Here are eight practical strategies to help ensure a successful practice. 1. Utilize relief veterinarians If your team is stretched thin, consider hiring a relief veterinarian. Whether you need temporary coverage for a veterinarian going on vacation or maternity leave or a long-term commitment to ease your caseload, relief veterinarians are a great option, because they help maintain continuity of care without overloading your full-time veterinarians. A relief veterinarian’s support can improve your team’s workflow efficiency and client satisfaction, and allow everyone to focus on delivering the best care possible without feeling overwhelmed and burned out. 2. Leverage relief veterinary technicians Relief veterinary technicians also can improve your team’s efficiency by providing skilled support when you need it most. Relief vet techs can perform tasks such as assisting with surgical procedures, managing patient care, and communicating with clients, and can integrate with your team and lighten their workload during busy periods or staffing shortages. Extra hands on deck can reduce your core team’s stress and help maintain high-quality care. 3. Empower your veterinary technicians Allowing your veterinary technicians to fully utilize their knowledge and skills is a great way to improve your practice’s efficiency. Veterinary technicians are highly trained individuals, capable of performing a wide range of tasks. By delegating appropriate tasks, such as patient monitoring, dental cleanings, client education, and taking radiographs, you allow your veterinarians to better focus on complex cases. In addition, this allows your vet techs to feel valued and trusted, which boosts overall team morale. 4. Outsource non-medical tasks Non-medical tasks, such as laundry, cleaning, and inventory management, in your practice are essential but labor-intensive, and they pull your staff away from patient care. Outsource these tasks to a reliable service, so your team can focus on their patients and clients rather than these mundane tasks. In many cases, outsourcing these services can also save you money. For example, consider the cost of cleaning your veterinary laundry in-house. In addition to purchasing a suitable washer and dryer, you’ll have to cover the water and electricity bills, buy detergents and disinfectants, and pay hourly staff to wash, dry, sort, and fold the laundry. You also have machine maintenance and repair costs, and the increased potential for post-surgical infections. 5. Implement technology Automating time-consuming, repetitive tasks and streamlining workflows can improve team efficiency. Electronic medical records (EMRs) reduce the need for manual data entry, saving your team time and minimizing errors. Automated scheduling and client communication platforms handle appointment reminders, confirmations, and follow-ups, allowing front-desk staff to focus more on personalized interactions. Inventory management software can efficiently track supplies, which helps to prevent shortages or overstocking. These tools can reduce your team’s manual workload, freeing them up to spend more time on patient care. 6. Use remote support Remote support, such as telehealth and remote staff, can free up in-clinic resources. With telehealth services, you can manage easy follow-up appointments, triage minor concerns, provide advice for non-urgent cases, and reduce the pressure on your in-house team. Remote front desk staff can answer phones and manage client inquiries from anywhere, ensuring pet owners receive the attention they expect without adding to physical demands on your team. 7. Eliminate inefficiencies Look critically at your workflow. Can you eliminate inefficiencies and make your team more productive? Seek advice or insights from your team members. You may even consider bringing in an unbiased advisor because recognizing areas where your team needs to improve can be difficult. 8. Foster a positive practice environment If hiring isn’t an option, you definitely don’t want to lose any team members, so keeping your current employees happy and motivated is critical. Implement wellness support, such as flexible scheduling, mental health resources, team-building exercises and get-togethers, and regular check-ins, to ensure your team members are happy and content in their jobs. Your practice can be successful without adding employees. By leveraging your current resources, embracing technology, seeking relief service help, and outsourcing non-medical tasks, you can increase your team’s efficiency, productivity, and profitability. Contact Veterinary System Services if your practice needs additional support. We’re here to help.

Veterinary professionals pour their hearts and souls into their careers, devoting their entire lives to caring for animals. By extension, they are also often green-minded and care deeply about the environment. With such a passion for nature and all living things on our planet, we generally strive to preserve what we can, reuse what we can recycle, and waste not whenever possible. Yet, amid these noble intentions exists a peculiar phenomenon—an emotional affair with trash. Yes, you read that right—trash. Why has this peculiarity developed, and why must the veterinary industry change this mindset? Read on. The paradox of practice In my experience providing medical-grade laundry services for veterinary practices, I have been astounded by the emotional weight that accompanies the seemingly mundane task of handling laundry. I took some time to comprehend the depth of this connection, and as I delved deeper, I was able to unravel its roots. The crux of the matter lies in the paradoxical nature of our profession. While we pride ourselves on practicing good medicine and upholding the highest standards of care, we often find ourselves using donated linens—a motley assortment of worn-out blankets and towels deemed unfit for household use but somehow suitable for veterinary care. These items, which belong in the landfill, are “generously” redirected to veterinary hospitals. While they may be appropriate for shelter pets awaiting their forever homes, you should never use stained and dirty towels in your surgical suite. The cost of compromise These well-intended donations inadvertently cause a perplexing predicament. You are expected to deliver compassionate and effective treatment, yet are forced to use substandard, worn, stained, and sometimes still dirty linens to comfort and care for your patients—a stark contrast to your professional ethos of excellence. We have convinced ourselves that since these items are "donated," they come at no cost. But, in reality, there is a non-monetary cost—you compromise the principles that originally drew you to veterinary medicine when you ignore your core values and use what essentially is trash. Breaking the feedback loop This peculiar dynamic is akin to a feedback loop and reminiscent of addictive behaviors like smoking. Nicotine provides a false sense of satisfaction, while using donated linens provides a fleeting sense of resourcefulness and cost-saving, but masks the underlying issue. By accepting and rationalizing the use of inferior materials, we betray the essence of our profession—compassion and excellence. A call to action It is high time to reevaluate our approach. Our profession already is grappling with compassion fatigue and burnout, and we cannot afford to overlook this critical aspect. Relying on donated linens may seem innocuous, but it represents a larger issue of complacency and compromise despite our commitment to provide pets with the best care possible. As veterinary professionals, we owe ourselves and, more importantly, our patients, to break free from this cycle and demand better. It is time to challenge the status quo, reassess our priorities, and seek sustainable solutions that align with our values and principles. We can reclaim the integrity of veterinary care by advocating for proper resources and refusing to settle for anything less than the best. This is not only about combating compassion fatigue or burnout—it’s about preserving the essence of what it means to be a veterinary professional. It is about recognizing our worth and refusing to compromise on the quality of care we provide. Let’s make this observation a catalyst for positive change in our industry. Let’s embrace a future where every aspect of patient care reflects the compassion and excellence that define our profession. Ditch your emotional affair with dirty, donated laundry and turn to the professionals for help. Contact our Veterinary System Services team to discuss using the medical-grade linens that your patients deserve.