PVMA Keystone Veterinarian Summer 2020 - 4

A Message from the President

Dr. Kate Harnish
President,
Pennsylvania Veterinary
Medical Association

One of the biggest hurdles in the veterinary
practice is building the "Perfect Team."
The foundation of this team starts with
understanding your practice culture. Practice
culture can be well defined and built upon
with effective practice management. When
all team members understand the practice
culture, relationships are strengthened, team
members feel appreciated and respected,
and job satisfaction reaches an all-time high.
In November 2019, I earned my certification
in veterinary practice management (CVPM).
I would like to share with you what I learned
through this process when it comes to building
your dream team.
Challenges in practice management can involve
finances, communication, staff turn-over,
training, patient care, ethical issues and many
more. Regardless of the challenge, the solution
directly influences the practice's future.
Managing finances, medical record audits,
patient care, inventory, and building
maintenance all seemed very straight forward
to me. Once or twice a year a meeting with
the business accountant keeps me on track
with financial goals and potential set-backs
and guides our future benchmarks. Medical
record management is painless with regular
record auditing and outstanding staff training.
Furthermore, as a veterinarian and an American
Animal Hospital Association (AAHA) accredited
veterinary hospital, excellent patient care is
always a top priority and seems like common
sense for the success of the practice. With
inventory there is a fine line between what is in
stock and what sells. Avoiding overstock is key
to keeping positive cash flow for the practice.
Finally, with regular maintenance on equipment
and the practice grounds, everything stays in
working order.

4 | Keystone Veterinarian

The biggest challenge as a practice manager is
building and motivating my team. My greatest
piece of advice: the best way to manage
people is to understand people. Realizing that
all people respond to praise and correction
differently allowed me to individualize the
approach to team training and interaction.
Understanding different leadership styles
helped tremendously in the management of my
team. It is extremely important as a manager
that you empower your employees
to be great leaders too!
My practice leadership mission started with a
vision. The team spent several team meetings
coming up with core values and common goals
to define our desired culture. As a visionary
leader, the team is moved toward a shared
vision, stimulated with new ideas and always
aware of future practice goals.
As a coach, it is important to recognize
strengths and take the focus off weakness.
Coaching vastly changed my way of managing
people. Showcasing team member strengths
made other team members aware of each
other's best practices.
Trusting your manager and team is very
important for productivity and motivation. As
an affiliate leader, you realize the importance
of investing in each and every team member
professionally and personally to build their
trust. Team building activities that encourage
difficult conversations are excellent ways to
lead as an affiliate.
Making decisions as a group and not solely as
an owner allows me to lead democratically.
Collective decisions are always much more well
thought out than decisions on my own.
PVMA Keystone Veterinarian Summer 2020

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