SA - House call Vets as career. Ready to be UBER(ed)?

[myred]

Not sure how popular or if its even available nationwide allover america but in NYC lately its getting lot of buzz and there are few companies who are marketing vet service house calls to dogs, cats and exotics.

What does the Forum thinks ? Good , bad or just a niche market. Please do not hold back on your opinions let it flow .

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[DVMDream]

There are many vets that choose to do house calls for their work. I think more of them work alone though creating their own business rather than through a company. It may not be a wise business model in some areas just depending upon population, type of people, etc, but it isn't unheard of for people to do veterinary medicine via house calls instead. Keep in mind, that you will still need to be willing to refer to a full service clinic for things such as surgical procedures, radiographs and of course any more in-depth diagnostics that you just can't perform in a home.

 

[MOOSEygoosey]

Not sure how popular or if its even available nationwide allover america but in NYC lately its getting lot of buzz and there are few companies who are marketing vet service house calls to dogs, cats and exotics.

What does the Forum thinks ? Good , bad or just a niche market. Please do not hold back on your opinions let it flow .

Hi myred! My mother is actually a house call veterinarian on Long Island while still working part time at a SA GP. Most of her clients she's had a relationship with for years and the others are referrals from other animal hospitals, her clients telling their friends, or her GP giving her the calls. Her house call practice is hers alone, it is her business. She does a lot of at-home euthanasias, vaccines, and she also does your general PEs for her clients who are geriatric (or the patients are geriatric) or don't have transportation to bring their pets to a hospital. Overall, she has done very well for herself with this practice but she started it approximately 15 years after graduating from veterinary school. I've heart great things about house call veterinary work it's just about how you get your name to be the one everyone goes to! Hope that helps!

 

[CalliopeDVM]

My best friend is a house call vet; I wouldn't do it for any amount of money in the world, but it suits her. However, she does not work for a company - she has her own license as a house call practitioner, finds her own clients (and gets referrals from other clients or clinics), keeps her own supplies and records, etc. She is also associated with (but not employed by) several different brick-and-mortar clinics to whom she refers patients for work that she cannot do in a home, like taking rads or doing surgery, etc; without that she couldn't legitimately (or legally) practice. It's a niche market that involves A LOT of traveling time, and often what I think are uncomfortable working conditions (doing exams on the kitchen table, or in a room with poor lighting, etc), but it allows her to do a lot of palliative and end-of-life care, which is an area she likes because it can build very special veterinary-client-patient relationships.

If you're talking about companies like InstaVet, Vetted, or Kwik Vet, I think they are a pox on the industry, turning medical professionals into overworked freelancers in the gig economy. I would be concerned about my safety, going in to strangers' homes alone (or working with an unknown technician) just because someone registered on an app. And a bigger concern is that many of those companies are started by and run by non-veterinarians, which I think is a big mistake whether it's a brick-and-mortar practice or a house call practice.

 

[JaynaAli]

I am from a very rural area and a couple people do mobile work. They are all private practitioners operating on their own. Two of them have cargo trailers that they have retrofitted as an exam room and surgical suite. That plus digital radiographs on a portable unit like the equine vets use mean that they are a self-contained mini-clinic on wheels. The town my parents live in is too small to support a full time vet, but one of the girls comes to their town once a week and sets up a little mobile full-service clinic at the fairgrounds. If it's made it to rural america, I feel like mobile practice is pretty darn widespread.

 

[CalliopeDVM]

I feel like mobile practice is pretty darn widespread.

I think there's a real difference between a mobile practice and a house call vet. Mobile practices have almost a practice on wheels, and can do most things (except perhaps surgery, but sometimes even that) from their mobile facility. House call vets are limited to outpatient procedures and work within the owner's home (not in the mobile clinic that they drive to the owner's home), and have much more limited equipment and supplies.

 

[RedLauren]

I worked for a mobile vet who’s entire business was house calls. If set up properly you’d be surprised how much they can do. We had our main van which was equipped for pretty much everything except surgery (even rads). And we also had a separate surgery trailer that was basically a fully functional surgery suite on wheels complete with the ability to do dental rads and everything. The vet’s dad was an engineer and made everything custom.

We did have a teeny tiny small home office “pharmacy” where clients could pick up meds during business hours, which was the only tie to brick and mortar. She used to do this part out of her house but as the business grew decided it was time to have a separate office. Her business was organized exceptionally well and I wouldn’t say we had to refer any more than a regular clinic.

One thing to note was that I do agree with what the other other posters are saying and that it does very much matter what area you live in. Her clients didn’t mind paying a little extra for us to come out as opposed to going to a regular vet clinic because they had money. The community was pretty well to do financially, and we were far enough away from the city where traffic wasn’t a huge issue - otherwise rush hour could put you behind an hour or more and ruin your schedule for the entire day.