New handbook relieves vet clinics of cumbersome admin work

Do you as a clinic owner recognize yourself in that managing an independent veterinary clinic today means significantly more than only taking care of the clinical work? You are not alone. Today clinics typically face many non-care tasks each day, taking focus away from caring for animals. At VetFamily, we work daily to relieve and remove cumbersome admin tasks for our member clinics to allow them to focus their valuable time on taking care of animals and customers.

A recent study shows that veterinary clinics typically spend only 50% of their time on care work, while the rest of the time is primarily spent on administrative tasks, for example procurement, accounting, and HR related tasks. But they want to increase the time they spend on caring for animals and on tasks to develop their clinic. VetFamily enable our member clinics to achieve this by empowering clinic owners with practical knowledge and easy-to-use tools through our newly launched Leadership Handbook.

Concrete support for vet clinics

The new handbook, currently available in Norway and Sweden, includes over 60 helpful and time-saving documents and templates, describing everything from staff appraisals to work environment policies to employment law. All the content is selected and adapted to specifically suit a veterinary clinic. The purpose is to facilitate the everyday life as a clinic manager with ready to use templates and up-to-date knowledge on the most common and important areas. Regardless of who handles the HR issues, it is important to have set policies and an action plan for all areas of the clinic. One clinic owner who has been using the handbook as support in her daily work is Elisabet Ellström of Din Veterinär Smådjurskliniken in Helsingborg, Southern Sweden.

Hands-on help in one place

"The handbook is a great source for clinic owners given that it gathers all the relevant, up-to-date information in one place. I do not have to spend time browsing different web pages for templates or other material. On top of my administrative tasks, I also work in the clinic, so I need all the help I can get with updated and relevant information about rules and regulations, employer obligations as well as recommendations for how to structure administrative clinic work”, says Elisabet. She continues to explain that the handbook also works as a safety net, making her feel more comfortable and secure in her work. "Whenever I am to do any updates, for example in a policy such as work safety, hygiene, radiation, etc I always make sure to double-check with the handbook that I have covered everything or if I need to do anything else".

Making it easier to get going with clinic development

At Din Veterinär Smådjurskliniken, developing the clinic has become easier for Elisabet, thanks to the handbook. "Through the handbook, I've also gotten inspired to take on other parts of our clinic's procedures and processes that have required a facelift sooner than I would have otherwise. As a next step, we will continue to work with enabling shorter decision pathways, be present and to be compassionate in our leadership through employee meetings as well as delegate responsibility to improve engagement. Even for me who has worked with managing a clinic for many years and have pretty good knowledge by this time about our structure and ways of working have gotten loads of new information and inspiration to develop my clinic and employees further. I think this handbook can be valuable for all clinics no matter of size."

Elisabet's recommendations for clinics on how to succeed with leadership at the clinic:

• Include employees and nurture their engagement
• Delegate responsibility, but without increasing administrative work.