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EmploymentCrossing A new umbrella organization for veterinary specialty practices may take shape by next year, after plans made at a meeting held in Boulder, more...Colorado last month. The veterinary specialty practice consolidation initiative comprises a group of 60 veterinary specialty practice owners and executives representing 38 businesses. They met for three days to discuss the current challenges and opportunities facing the industry. Challenges include expensive equipment costs, a limited pool of qualified job candidates, and practices making the transition to a larger scale of operation. Dr. Dwight Gaudet, managing partner for Veterinary Surgical Associates and Veterinary Medical Specialists in Concord, California, says consolidation allows greater leverage in negotiating purchases of supplies and contracts with insurance companies or other benefit providers, as well as assistance in developing a training and recruitment process. "The very high expense of specialty facilities and equipment, such as CT scanners or MRIs or linear accelerators, those are big factors for large specialty hospitals. Hopefully this effort will address those issues from a financial position," Dr. Gaudet said. It is not uncommon to now see specialty practice hospitals with staff numbers more than 200, or those that have gross revenues from $10 million to $20 million a year in gross revenues; a select few are starting to reach the $30 million mark, Gaudet said. The new organization will launch sometime in 2009, with initial membership to include up to a dozen practices having cumulative gross revenues in excess of $170 million. Plans are to expand the group by about four new practices each year thereafter. Existing similar organizations for veterinary specialty practices include the VCA Animal Hospitals network, the Veterinary Specialty Practice Alliance, and the Veterinary Specialists in Private Practice group. less
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Oct 22, 08
By: veterinarycros
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