It’s 2022, and the CDC just announced vet med deserves a modern experience. It’s time we all focus on creating a modern experience. Your clients crave it, your employees need it, and your business will thrive with it.
Here are some pretty cool practices doing a pretty good job.
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Apollo Veterinary is all about modern, accessible aesthetics. Some of the other practices on this list are what you might call “bougie,” but Apollo comes to a modern experience with a down-to-earth feel.
Apollo welcomes guests with an immediate sense of calm and comfort with simple choices like complimentary drinks and refreshments, curated treats, and comfy seating waiting for customers in the waiting room.
Dr. Mike Walker doesn’t believe in micromanaging and strongly encourages his team members to speak up and communicate new ideas/innovations/technologies. To achieve this, his team offers mentorship and training that exceeds industry standards with the ability to further his staff’s career through continuing education and licensure/certification opportunities.
Bond’s mission is to strengthen the human-animal bond through pet health. When you walk into their clinics, you feel an immediate sense of calm. Whether it’s the comfy and chic waiting rooms, modern and easy check-in process, or the helpful staff — it’s always a top-notch experience.
But, that experience isn’t just reserved for clients. Their practices boast benefits like a dedicated “doctor’s lounge” where staff can have a quiet and relaxing workplace, spacious exams rooms, and the most up-to-date tech.
And don’t worry — if you don’t live in NYC, they’re expanding to two new markets later this year!
How have you created a modern veterinary experience for your people?
We’ve always focused on elevating our practitioner experience. This guides a lot of our decisions because when we’re trying to push for a world where veterinarians are supported, have less work to get through on any given day and can just focus on providing high quality care and continuing to learn new skills and procedures, we push for a modern veterinary experience. Gone are the days where veterinarians act as service providers - it’s one of my least favorite statements, that we are a customer service based industry. I think this has only been the case because we haven’t moved as quickly as the human healthcare space in pushing to promote what it means to be a veterinarian.
At Bond we have created a modern veterinary clinic for our people by incorporating technology and striving to make things more efficient and allow our vets and veterinary nurses to see more patients and provide A higher level of care throughout our days. We encourage growth among our team members which is not always something you’ll find in a veterinary clinic. We have developed an elevation program for our nurses to assist them in growing within our company, we guide them in training in furthering their knowledge in the veterinary field.
In my eyes, part of being a modern workplace in veterinary medicine also means creating a positive workplace culture and ensuring that our team members have an adequate work life balance. Poor mental health is a long overlooked issue that is especially present in veterinary professionals. It is important to us at Bond to support our team members in every way possible to maintain good mental health.
How have you created a modern veterinary experience for your clients and patients?
We’ve thought about the design of our space, our technology offering, our services, the way an animal moves through our space and the touchpoints that pet parents often need before, during and after the visit. Veterinary medicine has been very successful at building trust, and offering phenomenal care to pet parents for decades - it’s part of the esteem that follows the profession. What we aim to do is push things a little farther, and offer ways that feel slightly different to access care.
A pet parents can easily schedule their first visit with us, and all subsequent visits, straight through our website or app. If they prefer to call, they can reach our communication center where a veterinary nurse sets up an appointment and answers any questions they may have. If their pet is feeling under the weather we have telemedicine veterinarians available by appointment to help as well.
At Bond, we know that pets are a part of our families, and they too deserve a positive experience at the vet. We want them to feel comfortable and relaxed during their visit. Features like pastel walls, warm lighting and an abundance of natural light and frequently cleansed/ circulated air help with this. All cat parents know that our feline friends love to relax in high places. You may also notice that our lobby features two levels of seating, similar to an amphitheater, and this was designed with cats in mind.
What excites you most about building a more modern veterinary experience?
It is exciting to me to be on the forefront of change in the veterinary industry. By that, I mean for both veterinary professionals and pets and pet parents. For pet parents that could be more comfortable, less stressful veterinary visits with their pet. Whereas for veterinary professionals, it means the ability to focus on providing top level care to their patients and pushing doctors to practice at the top of their license. We started Bond Vet with the mission to strengthen the human-animal bond through improved pet care and to hear the impact that vision is having on people is incredible meaningful.
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Brandywine Valley is a beloved community practice. After serving the people of Chester County, PA for many years, the practice was recently taken over by Dr. Marc Daniel. It may look like just another community clinic from the outside, but Brandywine is much more than that.
How have you created a modern veterinary experience for your people?
At Brandywine Valley Veterinary Hospital, we create a modern veterinary experience for our team by always putting their fiscal security first in everything we do. This includes paying high wages for the industry and covering their health care costs 100%. We want our team to thrive at work, so we need to do our part to take care of them!
How have you created a modern veterinary experience for your clients and patients?
Having a happy and healthy veterinary team translates into excellent patient care and customer service. The clients enter an environment where they feel cared for and are not just a number. We offer thirty-minute appointments to have enough time with every patient and give every doctor a dedicated nurse to ensure high-quality patient care. It makes all the difference!
What excites you most about building a more modern veterinary experience?
It is no secret that our industry is suffering greatly right now. We are most excited to be part of the change veterinary medicine so desperately needs. It is time for veterinary professionals to lead by example and start caring for their people first. This is, in turn, correlates to team retention, client happiness, and excellent patient care.
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Common Companion loves Atlanta. It’s in their DNA. Their name comes from the idea that so much of their experiences in the city are shared with their pets — and it’s their goal to bring a piece of that shared city experience into the veterinary clinic.
Their colorful mural and trendy waiting room welcome clients with open arms. Their accessible website includes small details like parking instructions and appointment scheduling to ensure it’s never a confusing experience.
That level of service continues even when it comes to payment. They provide unique wellness plans allowing clients to provide the best preventative care for their pets without a hefty bill at the end of a visit.
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GoodVets’ ultimate goal is to provide better healthcare for their patients, allowing them to live better, longer, and happier lives. They’re doing this by creating a modern experience by bringing more modern people practices vs. old school ways of thinking.
Each veterinarian-owned hospital is smartly designed, with modern aesthetics, comfortable seating, and state-of-the-art tech. With easy scheduling, telehealth, and wellness plan options, they center the experience on their clients and patients.
Empowering its people to achieve both their personal and professional aspirations is also a big focus of GoodVets. By leveraging technology and promoting education as their core ethos, they create a tailored growth plan to enable career advancement without sacrificing personal ambitions.
How have you created a modern veterinary experience for your people?
GoodVets has always been a people-first business, with its first key outside leadership hire being a Chief People Officer. GoodVets believes its people are the greatest asset we have.
We start by finding veterinarian co-owners and empowering them to lead the hospital day-to-day. At the end of the day, our MDs are our partners and own their hospitals alongside us. They don’t work for us in a traditional sense – in fact, GoodVets works for them. These individuals have the biggest impact on the culture, so we have designed our structure to provide support and community while enabling autonomy at the hospital level. This ensures that all associate veterinarians and support staff work for their local leader, not just GoodVets.
Similarly, we are focused on building a culture of feedback and communication. This means that beyond the local leader, individuals have direct access to our Chief Medical and Mentorship Officer and our Advisory Board. Feedback and new ideas are encouraged. We want people that are not afraid of the unknown and not afraid to admit mistakes. We need people willing to try things, learn, and grow.
How have you created a modern veterinary experience for your clients and patients?
Since its inception, GoodVets has been focused on introducing technology and frictionless client and patient experiences to build the most modern animal hospitals.
We leverage technology in unique and obvious ways, including online and mobile appointment booking, virtual telehealth, after-hours remote triage, kiosk check-in, and digital forms and records. Each hospital incorporates the latest, cutting-edge medical technology for patients, including x-ray, ultrasound, in-house diagnostics, laser therapy, and much more.
Beyond technology, our hospitals are modern in their look and feel – they are visually beautiful, warm, and stress-free. In addition, we utilize ergonomic fixtures, separate cat and dog experiences to achieve true fear-free practicing, and each hospital is devoid of the smells and sounds that typically induce stress or anxiety.
What excites you most about building a more modern veterinary experience?
We have so much further to go as an organization and industry to be truly modern and a leader in healthcare. We believe the common misperception of the client veterinary experience—as stressful, expensive, lacking transparency – can be a relic of the past if we continue to push forward with technology and through rethinking the veterinary experience top-to-bottom.
What excites us the most is the reaction from our clients and team members when they first start receiving care for their pets at GoodVets or start their first day of employment at our hospital. The continued aspirational “Wow-factor” and our ongoing goal of impressing those aforementioned constituents drive us daily and guide our strategizing and long-term thinking.
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Modern Animal’s mission is to better the lives of animals by building a place that’s better for all of the people who love them. It might seem counterintuitive, but to do that, they believe you have to focus on people. For their team, that means trying to make the profession more sustainable via great benefits and compensation, beautiful aesthetics, and modern tech.
And their clients reap the benefits with a unique membership model, 24/7 telehealth, and refreshments waiting for them the second they step through the door.
How have you created a modern veterinary experience for your people?
To begin with, our clinics are beautiful. The layouts are intuitively designed, they’re easy on the eyes, we have all the best equipment, and, as a cherry on top, there are no ringing phones.
On the technology side, we’ve developed a proprietary electronic medical record system to reduce complexity and allow our team to focus on medicine. We have a team of engineers constantly iterating and improving the technical side of our business for both our team and our customers.
Finally, we’re establishing clear development paths and internal opportunities. We want you to grow with us. We don’t have all the answers yet, but we’ve started to chip away at the thornier problems. For the many issues that continue to plague the industry, we welcome feedback. We want to be the best place to work in veterinary medicine.
How have you created a modern veterinary experience for your clients and patients?
We built beautiful, well-designed clinics with good light and cold brew at the door. We introduced technology to allow for seamless record management and straightforward appointment booking.
Perhaps most importantly, we built a world-class virtual care team, available 24/7 via video and chat to help clients navigate the challenges of pet parenting from the comfort of their couch.
Lastly, we eliminated exam fees by developing a membership-based model, which allows clients to visit our clinic as much as they want for $129 per pet per year.
What excites you most about building a more modern veterinary experience?
In short, there are problems to be solved here for both the client and the profession. Constantly improving the technology for both clients and veterinary professionals. Restoring a meaningful level of trust between clients and the profession. And, of course, making the profession more sustainable.
We have our work cut out for us, but as a team, we are energized by solving these and many more problems. We ground our work in our core values of building for humans, staying curious, embracing challenges, striving for simplicity, and setting our own bar.
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OneVet started with one goal in mind: to make pet parenting easy and joyful. Their founders have decades of experience in clinical practice, building meaningful technology and creating businesses that change the way people think about doing things. With their diverse background, their building a brand new experience for pet care in Charlotte.
Like Modern Animal, One Vet also offers a membership model to keep costs down for their clients. Combine that with comprehensive care 24/7 and beautiful online client portals — you can start to see the future of veterinary in their practice.
And their employees get that same modern experience, too. With better technology and digital access to information, One Vet equips its people with the modern tech tools they need to thrive and direct channels for them to be heard, seen, connected — and disconnected — from work.
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Peace and wellness are at the core of this collection of quirky practices. Started as a mobile veterinary service, PAZ has evolved into 4 fun, welcoming, and personal clinics.
Offering solutions from Chinese herbals and acupuncture to laser therapy and advanced surgical procedures, they're adaptive and tailor care to meet the vast needs of their clients and their pets. PAZ prides itself on deep research and will implement whatever it takes to make clients’ pet’s happy and healthy.
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Small Door is membership-based veterinary care designed with human standards that are better for pets, pet parents, and veterinarians. In early 2020, co-founders Josh Guttman and Florent Peyre opened Small Door’s first location in Manhattan’s West Village with a mission to provide exceptional care, 24/7 telemedicine, and transparent pricing — delivered with hospitality in spaces designed by animal experts to be stress-free.
Today, they have 4 locations throughout Manhattan and Brooklyn. They’re also a Public Benefit Corp. & Certified B Corp., meaning they are also held to a rigorous standard of social and environmental performance, public transparency, and accountability.
For clients and their team, they work hard to provide the best experience in modern aesthetics and easy interactions.
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Chances are, you’ve seen this team all over social media. With almost 30 locations from the Upper East Side to southern California, VEG has exploded over the last few years. And, with good reason!
Emergency is all VEG does. With each practice open 24/7, including holidays, they provide emergency services around the clock for their clients. And sometimes, those clients are coming in on a day that may be the worst day of their life. To help shoulder that burden, VEG has invested heavily in its culture and people. Why? Because when their people are happy, healthy, and supported, they are more present and empathetic towards their clients.
Working in emergency can be extremely hard on staff, too. People get into vet med because they love animals. Seeing them in peril every day can be draining and emotionally taxing. If culture isn’t at the forefront of an emergency practice, it can quickly become toxic for both the clients and the team.
With robust continuing education, externship, and training opportunities, VEG is the standard when it comes to emergency medicine.
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