Balancing economics and medicine

[verbal_kint]

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I currently work in a small ER practice and run into many cases where economics butts heads with medicine. I see lots of patients who need medical attention leave the hospital with little or no treatment due to financial reasons. Sometimes we'll be able to give some fluids or other minor treatments, but it's far from ideal.

How often do you run into situations like these? I'm wondering if my location and demographics has a large role in this phenomenon or is it a field-wide phenomenon in veterinary medicine?

Finances are always a factor to consider in medicine, but seems far less detrimental to human medicine. My fear is going into veterinary medicine, and being very limited due to finances. I don't want to be cleaning abscesses all year long.

 

[southerncomfort]

I had the same experience working in a small ER clinic. I think location/demographics does factor in to a degree, but I remember people who didn't have two nickels to rub together practically beg, steal, and borrow to get their pet treated, while there were also those who were very much able to pay did not want to spend that money on "just an animal". Attitude plays a big role, too. That's one of my worries about a career in vet med. 🙁

 

[VeganSoprano]

I think SoCo hit the nail on the head. I live in constant fear of something horrible happening to one of my animals in the middle of the night, because emergency clinics require payment up front and I can't beg and borrow enough money in that kind of time.

I can't imagine a bigger frustration than knowing that there are diagnostics you should run or treatments that might help, but you can't administer them because the client is unable or unwilling to pay.

I expect that veterinary insurance will be the trend of the future. Pets are becoming more and more valuable to society, but the cost of veterinary medicine is also rising. Something has to change so that taking proper care of your animal in the event of an emergency or serious health crisis does not require the average person to make a choice between paying the rent for the next 6 months or saving their best friend's life.

 

[brooke104]

I agree that attitude plays a huge role. The vet that I volunteer for has a practice in an affluent area. Most of his clients do whatever he recommends for their animals. However, there are some clients who refuse treatments. He attempts to work with people who can’t afford vet care but desperately want to help their animals. He offers payment plans etc. He has a few clients that don't want to pay for quality vet care and don't seem to think their animals need or deserve it. However, most of them have left in search of a cheaper vet. There are a few left though. He has told me many times that he likes practicing in a nice area because he can practice higher quality medicine that he couldn’t when he worked in a poorer area. I think that working in an affluent area is helpful, but from what I have seen you still run into people who don’t care about their animals. There’s just a smaller percentage in richer areas.

I hope that veterinary insurance will be a trend of the future. That will make everything better for animals, owners and vets.