Veterinary Hospital Offers Clients An Invaluable Glimpse Of Daily Operations

My proactive and visionary practice manager, Ingrid Culver, conceived the idea of having a hospital open house for fall 2016 and with the coordination our cherished medical team, pulled off a memorable and enjoyable event for all that were involved.  An open house is an event where we open the hospital to client tours, pets and families are all welcomed to attend, and there are fun raffles, prizes, giveaways, and of course, food.  Of course, dogs are also most welcomed to come and we rewarded them with yummy dog treats and even doggie ice cream!  Our turn out of 60 or more people (and at least 30 dogs) exceeded expectations and many in attendance were already excitedly talking about us doing it again next year.

Seeing the facility alone was very eye opening to the clients who were amazed at the level of sophistication of medical equipment, dental and surgical suites, treatment area, and our new boarding kennel.  Seeing it first hand really added value to the services we provide in the eyes of the clients and made them evermore excited at the level of medical and surgical options available to their beloved furry family members.

Just as in anything else, there is nothing like seeing how we care for the pets first hand and all that goes into, for example, a spay procedure; something generally perceived by our clientele as routine or even mundane.  However, after visualizing the depth of monitoring equipment, crash cart, anesthetic equipment and surgical packs, many clients shared with me that they really never understood a spay as procedure that necessitated such adherence to medical protocol.

I would advise any veterinary hospital owner that is proud of the level of service, surgery, and medicine that they provide, to strongly consider having an open house.  I believe the more that we open our doors to the public, the more pet owners will see the value in high quality medicine and be more inclined to bring their pets to facilities like mine rather than consider bargain basement, high volume places for their furry family member’s care.

Dr. Roger Welton is the President of Maybeck Animal Hospital in West Melbourne, FL, Chief Editor of the Veterinary Advice and Information Website, Web-DVM, and founder/CEO of Dr. Roger’s Holistic Veterinary Care.