• More specifically to focus on small animals/house pets or "city" veterinarians as opposed to "farm" veterinarians.
• This does not include concerns such as new graduates entering the field or related to their studies.
• The focus is on profit and practice growth rather than on the individual veterinarians.
• An ideal outcome would be a ranked list of the main issues that prevent profit and practice growth.
• In addition, to find also what practices are doing to overcome those profitability problems.
• Alternatively, in case data is not available on profitability issues, to find the daily activities conducted by a veterinarian and rank them by time spent on each one.

Data Availability

Guilt and Ethics

• Given the increasing humanisation of pets, small animals veterinarians are now faced with an ethical dimension, and would feel guilty to raise prices, and pricing out treatment for injured or sick pets who represent everything for their owners.
• The main motivation of veterinarians was to care for animals and profit was not a priority for a long time.
• As a solution to solve this feeling, veterinarian practices could elaborate a clear profit generation policy and clearly communicate it to all staff.

Excessive Discounts

• Some practices might give excessive discounts that might not be intentional, or might be given unevenly and not be part of a practice policy.
• The charging policy might not be clear enough and not defined properly.

Missed Charges

• Missed charges could also have a negative impact on the bottom line of a veterinary practice.
• There might be routine missed charges that accumulate during specific times when the practice is too busy.
• The solution is for each doctor to daily review their charges for each client thoroughly. 

Excessive Drugs and Supplies Expenses

• Some practices suffer from a ratio of expenses that is too high compared to their revenues. 
• An effort can be made to reduce and control these expenses such as total drugs, supplies, lab expenses, office expenses, food, and similar items.

Inventory Management

• Some Veterinarians are not aware of their inventory levels or could wrongly estimate the real amounts of inventory, which would incur extra costs.
• It is crucial to conduct a thorough inventory twice a year. 

Veterinarian Daily Tasks

•  Surgery is conducted in the mornings usually.
• This involves drawing blood samples, and other surgery preparation procedures.
• Appointments can then be conducted late mornings which include visits and vaccinations.
• Afternoons would involve more appointments, patient visits, x-rays, and communications with owners.

SUMMARY