I was asked by an associate veterinarian recently if it was common practice to exclude the revenue from dental cleanings (prophy’s) from the formula for calculating compensation in a production based salary. My reply was “absolutely not!” The reason this associate was asking was because the practice owner where he worked had decided, based on an article published in Veterinary Economics, to do just that. The practice owner stated that because the tech performed the prophy, the doctor should not receive credit for it.
I was curious as I did not recall ever reading such an article. So I went back to the magazine archives and…well, there it was. An article written in 2008 stating that “doctors should receive production pay for services and products they directly provide, supervise or sell…. except prophylaxis, which the technician handles.”
I cannot disagree with this more.. let me list just a few of the reasons why:
First, it is not an easy task to convince a client that they should spend many hundreds of dollars to clean their pet’s teeth. In fact it can be such a daunting task that many veterinarians don’t even try for fear they get accused of “just being in it for the money”. It is not the tech who advises the client about treatment recommendations, it is the doctor.
Secondly, and most importantly, a veterinary tech does not have the training to act as an independent provider of care, ever. They always function under the license of the supervising veterinarian.
A vet tech is not a physician’s assistant or a nurse practitioner or a dental hygenist or a registered nurse. I fear that may be the analogy the author of the article in Veterinary Economics was making and that is flat out wrong.
Thirdly, the supervising veterinarian must be immediately available to intervene during a prophy should there be a medical emergency. That means the supervising veterinarian is prohibited from generating other revenue while the prophy patient is on the table and under anesthesia.
Following the recommendation in that Veterinary Economics article means that the associate is not receiving compensation for a procedure they recommended and they are not able to pursue other avenues of compensation during the time the procedure is taking place.
Withholding associate compensation for prophy’s is simply wrong and a misplaced attempt to generate practice income. If your fees are set properly, your expenses managed properly and you respect the associates who work for you, you will never need to even consider an idea like this.
