Mobile Vet Clinic?

[bee83]

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I was leafing through a Veterinary Economics magazine the other day and came across some advertisements for mobile veterinary clinics, and became intrigued. I have never seen one in my area and didn't know they existed. Does anyone know anything about them/know someone who has one/work in one? What are the pros and cons? I'm curious.

 

[goldielocks137]

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[goldielocks137]

I have had experience with two mobile clinics. One was simply a low cost vaccine clinic. Nothing fancy, they drove around and clients met them at parking lots to get their pets vaccinated. The other was a full time emergency and mobile clinic. I think most of her cases were at home euthanasias and she got jaded by the whole thing. I know another vet who was trying to develop an a mobile clinic (she currently does make house calls but she wants a van to store everything in). She's a general practitioner and she's into holistic medicine so I think she'll do wellness exams, vaccines, acupuncture. To me it seems like a good part time/side job, but I think it would feel very limiting if that was all you did

To clarify: these were small animal mobile clinics

 

[Bigcatlover]

I was leafing through a Veterinary Economics magazine the other day and came across some advertisements for mobile veterinary clinics, and became intrigued. I have never seen one in my area and didn't know they existed. Does anyone know anything about them/know someone who has one/work in one? What are the pros and cons? I'm curious.

I shadowed a mobile Equine vet in my area. Before that I thought it might be kind of a pain to have to drive around, but after spending the day with him it has become something that I might consider. He just seemed so much happier with his job than most vets I've met. Everything was just very laid back, he had "appointment times" but pretty much just showed up when he could get there. And had a really good relationship with the owners, mostly just chatted about friendly things and politics the whole time. If you don't want to worry about having a bunch of employees, definitely the job for you. Definitely just seemed like what vets would have been like a long time ago, not so much fancy equipment, but willing to come out at all hours to save an animal. Probably much more common in rural areas. It seemed like he really put in a lot of hours and didn't have dinner with his wife or anything, but like I said he still absolutely loved his job even at his older age having raised kids (one of whom is in vet school). I'm sure other people may have a better perspective on this than me, but I was very impressed with my experience and it opened my eyes to a whole other area of veterinary medicine outside of the social/technical restraints of a clinic.

 

[goldielocks137]

I shadowed a mobile Equine vet in my area. Before that I thought it might be kind of a pain to have to drive around, but after spending the day with him it has become something that I might consider. He just seemed so much happier with his job than most vets I've met. Everything was just very laid back, he had "appointment times" but pretty much just showed up when he could get there. And had a really good relationship with the owners, mostly just chatted about friendly things and politics the whole time. If you don't want to worry about having a bunch of employees, definitely the job for you. Definitely just seemed like what vets would have been like a long time ago, not so much fancy equipment, but willing to come out at all hours to save an animal. Probably much more common in rural areas. It seemed like he really put in a lot of hours and didn't have dinner with his wife or anything, but like I said he still absolutely loved his job even at his older age having raised kids (one of whom is in vet school). I'm sure other people may have a better perspective on this than me, but I was very impressed with my experience and it opened my eyes to a whole other area of veterinary medicine outside of the social/technical restraints of a clinic.

Oh I had automatically thought of a small animal mobile clinic. I also worked with a large animal clinic that had an "office", but they also traveled. They would go to different ranches and I saw them care for horses, cattle, and goats. And my equine vet travels. They have tricked out trucks with all of their equipment, drugs, even a hose to wash off with. I thought that it was typical for food animal vets and equine general practitioners to be mobile. The small animal mobile clinic seemed a bit more unique. But with both types, there is a limit to the services offered if you're mobile (mainly by sterility issues)

 

[twelvetigers]

I really enjoyed my time shadowing a mobile vet. She was mostly LA (stockyards, Coggin's tests, things like that). There's something great about rolling down a dirt road going through a wheat field during the summer... I mean, it was fun. Now, the late night calls were probably a lot less fun, as was winter...

The pros are, IMO... a lot more client interaction. It's a lot more personal. And, it's just neat. Plus, you might get to see some cases that you wouldn't have coming in to the clinic for one reason or another.

Cons would be... being on-call (people are a lot more likely to call a vet to come out than to trailer up and go somewhere, if that's even possible). Also, colics are no fun. (stress!) Also, the vet I followed would bring her kids sometimes and leave the truck running with the kids inside (when it was hot) and that was a pain - it would have been easier to have them in a back room at the clinic for sure.

 

[LetItSnow]

I was leafing through a Veterinary Economics magazine the other day and came across some advertisements for mobile veterinary clinics, and became intrigued. I have never seen one in my area and didn't know they existed. Does anyone know anything about them/know someone who has one/work in one? What are the pros and cons? I'm curious.

A fourth-year student doing rotations at UMN came through maybe a year ago in the area I volunteer in... he was planning to go back home (somewhere out west - Idaho maybe) and take over his dad's mobile clinic.

Some of the advantages he mentioned:

o Limited business footprint means lower cost: you aren't paying on building space. He officed his practice out of his house, into which he also built a lab, some kenneling, and records. (By having some kennels he minimized some of the disadvantages of a mobile clinic, I 'spose.)
o Easy clean-up: at the end of the day they hose down the interior of the mobile unit and let it drain.
o Attractive service to customers: it's hard for some people to transport their animal, and we all know how stressed animals can get in the clinic.

Their unit was well-stocked with a small pharmacy, portable x-ray, and separate surgical suite.

Disadvantages that he talked about:

o You're pretty much forced to charge more because of the fewer clients you can get through per unit of time.
o State laws can get thorny - I don't recall the exact details, but their business was running into some head-butting with the state over the dad working alone without a tech (maybe it had to do with surgery/recovery/monitoring?).

I imagine both lists could go on for pages, but those are the things I specifically remember him talking about.

 

[Jamr0ckin]

This is the local mobile vet in the Knoxville, TN area. Her business is very good! I know her personally and she worked in several clinics and couldn't find her niche. After starting this, she has really blossomed and enjoys her work.


http://www.housepawsvet.com/

 

[Bigcatlover]

Oh I had automatically thought of a small animal mobile clinic. I also worked with a large animal clinic that had an "office", but they also traveled. They would go to different ranches and I saw them care for horses, cattle, and goats. And my equine vet travels. They have tricked out trucks with all of their equipment, drugs, even a hose to wash off with. I thought that it was typical for food animal vets and equine general practitioners to be mobile. The small animal mobile clinic seemed a bit more unique. But with both types, there is a limit to the services offered if you're mobile (mainly by sterility issues)

Yeah, I guess I just automatically thought of the equine vet I had experience with, all he had was a truck, don't think he did anything out of his house. But I wouldn't imagine small animal would be much different. I'd think especially in very rural areas vets would be forced to do a variety. My aunt and uncle live in a very rural area, in fact they have no electricity or plumbing. They spoke very highly of a vet that came out to their place and neutered one of their dogs. Said she was very professional, did the surgery in the back of her truck. My uncle did emphasize that she wasn't all "cutesie" with the animals, very down to business. I would think this might be something very different when working with owners who don't see their pets so much as members of the family and like babies, which may be more common of owners in less rural areas.

 

[Psorophoraferox]

My experience with mobile vets has been limited to trying to decipher mobile cat & dog vaccination clinics' scribbled-on, carbon-copy records when handed them by a new client, or trying (in vain) to get in touch with them when the client didn't bring records but insists Fluffy had "all of her vaccinations" at "that mobile vet that goes around and parks in parking lots and gives vaccinations for way cheaper than you guys". 🙄

Lack of continuity of care seems to be fairly unavoidable in that scenario. I worry that problems are missed because of how sporadically they see patients, and because so few seem to recommend wellness bloodwork and UAs and such. Heck, I'm almost ecstatic when I see they recommended a heartworm test or a fecal.

So, I have a less-than-favorable impression, at least of the mobile "just the vaccs, ma'am" style set ups. However, I've never 1) worked/shadowed in one or 2) been in a situation that warranted me using their services myself. Maybe if I had either perspective I'd feel differently, but currently they're more a thorn in my side than anything.

Edited to add: The mobile vets I've encountered have been vastly different from those mentioned by others above! There's a lot of variation -- more than I'd realized.

 

[pennyonthefloor]

A ton of my shadowing came from a mobile vet. Absolutely love what they do (low cost spay/neuter and have regular veterinary clinics along with regular 9-5 office hours-- all managed with four veterinarians on staff and a handful of techs/assistants). They've got a building in which they do more routine appointments and also travel a few days a week to provide their services to lower income areas throughout the state. Someone had mentioned that these services are often 'one stop shopping' and don't have returning clients-- not always true. They actually do have a well established business with loyal clients. Along with that, they have a great system for medical records and have a lot of in house lab equipment/x-ray equipment. RASCAL has two trucks-- both equipped to do surgeries as well as patient visits. It's quite an experience to see the organization that goes into these vehicles... every bit of space is utilized... quite impressive... if you ever have the chance to check one out, I highly recommend it!

There are lots of long hours (typically a 10 hour day of surgeries/appointments with anywhere from a 1 to 3 hour drive tacked on before and after that... and time to clean the truck whenever they arrive) but there's never a dull moment. The non-routine surgery days are always exciting but there's also a lot of repetition (anywhere from 10-66 spays/neuters a day-- mind you, the 66 was between 4 vets on Spay Day 2011)

(For those of you at OSU or going to OSU-- Dr. G partners with OSU and takes some students during rotations-- great surgical experience, lots fo interesting cases, and their staff is extremely personable... )

 

[Whyevernot55]

The SA clinic I work for started out as a strictly mobile practice - one of the big vans with cages, SX suite, etc. Then we bought the stationary clinic, and had that AND the van for a while. Now there's no more van, but we still do house calls from the main clinic. It was 100% a standard SA practice, with regular hours and which traveled to designated areas and people's homes. We actually still have a lot of the clients that started seeing my boss then.

I also worked for a LA/equine vet who operated primarily out of his truck - had his office in his kitchen. He's spent the past few years building a clinic and is trying to transition away from doing farm calls more and more. He wants me to come back and do farm calls when I graduate so he doesn't have to any more! 🙄

There's also a local low cost spay/neuter clinic that is strictly mobile in our area. They do a really good job for the most part, and provide a needed service.

 

[Bearby]

The only mobile clinic I have seen in my area is this one http://petcaravan.com/ . I don't have any first hand experience with them, but it looks like they just do vaccines and heartworm tests. The issue that I have is that pets we have seen afterwards have never had any records, and I don't know if that is the clinic's fault or the owner's. Also, in my neck of the woods we already have a low-cost clinic that pays their employees really well but shoots everyone up with steroids and has euthanized the wrong pet on more occasions than should EVER happen. Business is already down for the local veterinarians who have worked hard to build their practices and these mobile clinics park across the street in the Walgreens parking lot and take business away.

The questions then become:
do they vaccinate dogs that are obviously sick?
do they check to see if a dog they're vaccinating is under rabies quarantine?
does the doctor even see these animals (spending only an hour in each location makes me think no)?
what happens if the hwt is positive?
do they let owners know about the possibility of a reaction and where to go if one happens?
are they vaccinating puppies? if so, are they letting them know that some of the vaccines need to be boostered for optimal immunity?

When we go through years of school and all fight so hard to be considered real doctors, all that these units do is devalue our expertise. At least that's my opinion

 

[Farber]

Does anyone know anything about them/know someone who has one/work in one?

We build mobile veterinary units here at Farber Specialty Vehicles in Columbus, Ohio. From a manufacturers standpoint, we'd be happy to help with any specific questions on the mechanics of such a vehicle.

Link to our veterinary page: http://www.fsvcc.com/veterinary/

 

[JosephKnechtDVM]

When we go through years of school and all fight so hard to be considered real doctors, all that these units do is devalue our expertise. At least that's my opinion

Bearby's opinion is backed up by the recent Brakke/Bayer Animal Health study on declining veterinary visits as the low cost/no cost spay neuter and vaccination clinics were two reasons cited for the decline. Another sign of the oversupply of veterinarians following classical economics that increased supply leads to more and increasingly fragmented competition resulting in more marginal levels of service (ie mobile clinics) and lower prices. Classical example of perfect competition model where low prices drive the market dynamics. Interstingly enough, a similar dynamic also occurred in food animal practice when non veterinary driven sources for animal health supplies and sometimes services (ie feed stores and vaccine/drug companies) were able to directly sell to consumers.

However, a good mobile limited practice that is associated with a brick and mortar clinic to provide surgical, radiology and hospitalization as needed is a good idea in certain markets. The difficulty of getting cats to the vet is a prime example, larger arthritic dogs, chronic disease/home hospice are just a few examples. But these depend on the upper level of clientele who are highly bonded to their pets and willing to pay for the additional level of service. It really depends on the number of well to do clients in your area of operation. Unfortunately, recession has changed a lot of the client's perceptions about the need for veterinary care, even in the upper income regions. I was working on a similar business plan to act as an extension of a clinic where I provide relief but the economy, especially the veterinary market will not likely support more "higher value added" services with the hypercompetition in the veterinary industry driving the price level down.

Joseph Knecht

 

[CurrySpice]

There's a mobile spay-neuter clinic that stops by our humane society a few times a year. It's very new, but I helped them discharge the animals last time they stopped by. The truck was custom-designed and it was very bare bones. Very efficient when it's nice out, but extremely crowded when everything has to take place inside the truck. Our humane society gave them temporary kennels where the critters could recover, so that certainly helped with the space issue. The vet was excited about starting the mobile unit. I think that she remained affiliated with a "base clinic" for some reason? I can't remember her rationale, but it had something to do with insurance.

http://www.mnsnap.org/

 

[TigerWillow]

I feel that it is my duty to defend the mobile vaccine clinics, as I work for one on weekends. We do NOT reccommend getting tons of vaccines at once and do tell all our clients and sell deworming, comfortis, resq chips,felv fiv bloodwork, recommending low cost spay neuter clinics, etc. Our company is in the process of building a new stationary clinic where we will do anesthesia free dental (kinda creeps me out), wound care, etc. All vaccine clinics are not created equal (boo to vetco and their scribbly writing!) that being said I love working with so many different vets! True you won't get to see any big stuff but you hve downtime to ask the vets ton of stuff (it's not like they have any surgery to do lol)

if you have any qs you can PM me anytime!

EDIT: also, we have our vets look over every animal to deem it healthy. We give each new puppy owner a schedule on which boosters they need and when. We even tell them not to have their animals on the ground!!! I'd say our vets are particularly conservative. Finally, I drill the clients and make sure they read all about vaccine rxns before getting their animals vaccinated and can treat some rxns and list emergency clinics in the area

 

[TigerWillow]

When we go through years of school and all fight so hard to be considered real doctors, all that these units do is devalue our expertise. At least that's my opinion

Bearby's opinion is backed up by the recent Brakke/Bayer Animal Health study on declining veterinary visits as the low cost/no cost spay neuter and vaccination clinics were two reasons cited for the decline. Another sign of the oversupply of veterinarians following classical economics that increased supply leads to more and increasingly fragmented competition resulting in more marginal levels of service (ie mobile clinics) and lower prices. Classical example of perfect competition model where low prices drive the market dynamics. Interstingly enough, a similar dynamic also occurred in food animal practice when non veterinary driven sources for animal health supplies and sometimes services (ie feed stores and vaccine/drug companies) were able to directly sell to consumers.

However, a good mobile limited practice that is associated with a brick and mortar clinic to provide surgical, radiology and hospitalization as needed is a good idea in certain markets. The difficulty of getting cats to the vet is a prime example, larger arthritic dogs, chronic disease/home hospice are just a few examples. But these depend on the upper level of clientele who are highly bonded to their pets and willing to pay for the additional level of service. It really depends on the number of well to do clients in your area of operation. Unfortunately, recession has changed a lot of the client's perceptions about the need for veterinary care, even in the upper income regions. I was working on a similar business plan to act as an extension of a clinic where I provide relief but the economy, especially the veterinary market will not likely support more "higher value added" services with the hypercompetition in the veterinary industry driving the price level down.

Joseph Knecht

However, I TOTALLY agree with this and am really afraid of what I'm doing now is going to bite me in the rear later.

 

[twelvetigers]

Haha. Not a great place to sell something like that... since this is all pre-vets and vet students.

 

[Lab Rat83]

The vet I currently work for runs his practice almost 100% mobile. He does embryo transfer in dairy cattle and has a lab set up in the back of the truck. We have two microscopes to search for embryos and all the equipment necessary for freezing them. The only thing he doesn't do from the lab in his truck is the paper work and billing, he does that from his computer at home.

I love traveling around but it definitely limits the amount of calls you'd be able to do in a day. This upcoming weekend we are going to Newfoundland and we often travel up to two hours away for our regular clients. I love being able to see new places and explore the back roads.