VET TRUCK CONFIDENTIAL: Can We Make Veterinary Medicine More Efficient?

Can we improve efficiency in veterinary medicine? We'd like to think so! In this episode, we explore personal journeys and the innovative strategies that Kelly, Misty & Stacey have adopted to manage their careers while nurturing their personal lives.

Here's what AI wrote :)
Discover the power of delegation and the mantra "done is better than perfect," especially in medical record-keeping. Our guests also share practical tips, such as creating weekly dinner menus and grocery lists to reduce mental load and make room for what truly matters. This episode is packed with actionable advice and inspiring stories that will help you find harmony between your professional and personal life.
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About the series!
Join us on Vet Truck Confidential, a candid and engaging podcast series where we explore the real-life experiences, challenges, and triumphs of equine veterinarians on the road. Each episode dives into the heart of veterinary practice with insightful conversations and stories from the field. Whether you're a seasoned vet or just starting out, get ready for an inside look at the world of equine practice like never before.
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Join us for the Sustainability in Equine Practice Seminar in September!
There is still time to get in on all the fun - check out www.sepseminars.com for more info.

Chapters

• 0:08 Achieving Work-Life Balance as a Veterinarian
• 10:35 Efficiency in Personal and Professional Life

Transcript

Stacey Cordivano: 0:08

Are you looking for positive change within veterinary medicine? If you want a community that's focused on progress rather than perfection, you're in the right place. Hey there, I'm Dr Stacey Cordovano and I want veterinarians to learn to be happier, healthier, wealthier and more grateful for the lives that we've created. Welcome to the Whole Veterinarian Podcast. Hey there, welcome to another episode of Vet Truck Confidential with my friends Kelly Zetounian and Misty Gold. We hope you are enjoying and finding this helpful as we chat about life and work and all the Misty Gold. We hope you are enjoying and finding this helpful as we chat about life and work and all the things in between. I hope you enjoy this episode. Hi again, ladies. How are you Doing good? Misty's so good. She's dancing, Okay. So glad to have you guys here to chat again today.

Stacey Cordivano: 1:05

I thought maybe we could talk. Considering how busy all of us are and how many people in equine practice don't have some giant team behind them, Maybe we could talk a little bit about how to be more efficient in your day or just get the most out of your day. What do you think I'm in? I love it, Okay. So here's an intro. Uh, what does your ideal work week look like? This is certainly something we talk about at the SEP seminar, but let's talk about our personally.

Kelly Zeytoonian: 1:38

My ideal work week I'm very close to having it right now which is, yeah, is two days of what we call my office time, so it's really like time for me to get any sort of management things done for the practice. It also gives me time to run my own personal errands and do consulting work, so it's sort of a catch-all. On those days, the days that we get to meet or I get to meet with you all, that's really nice. And then I do two days of field work and then I spend my fifth weekday teaching at the local tech school. So kind of a nice mix of personal, individual time, field time and doing something a little bit different with my degree.

Stacey Cordivano: 2:26

What about family time? Where do you fit that in?

Kelly Zeytoonian: 2:29

I thought we were just talking about our work time. So family time, what I like about the days that I'm kind of doing my office days, I get to work from home and so I build in a little bit of play and just seeing Maddie with her caretaker during that time, so that's kind of fun. It's like I'm here but not totally here, and then I've worked it out so that I don't leave before nine and I am home by five.

Stacey Cordivano: 3:00

Nice Mist. How about you? Let's see.

Misty Gold: 3:04

In this stage of life. One of my children in particular has I call them special needs. So my work time has shifted, my work week has shifted. So any listeners it might sound like very little equine vet work, but my ideal work and what I have to do out of necessity now is when I'm parenting. I have to just be parenting Like the kids do require that level of kind of on purpose focus.

Misty Gold: 3:40

So my kids day, whether or not it's school or camp starts at eight, so I like to be able to do mom stuff until eight when I drop them off and then I like to do outdoor physical vet work in the morning. I try to be done by 1 pm so that I can come home and have two hours to do any sort of like paperwork office work, whether that's for the practice or for decade one or for seps or like any of other of the kind of vet hats that I wear right now. That's not necessarily physical practice. I pick my kids up at three and then the boys are at an age where they're a lot of fun and they're active and I don't want to miss out on that. So after I picked them up from school I do not do that work anymore.

Misty Gold: 4:35

I do baseball practice and taekwondo and house stuff. I play pickleball on Monday nights. That's just for me Amazing. Yep, I make dinner. Those are the things that I have discovered. When I, when I have that stuff in order, it takes a huge level of internal stress off of me and that's when I feel most at peace. And all the things that I'm doing and my partner has a job that supports a large portion of like our home and life, and so that's what works best for us as a partnership and for our family, so nice that's awesome.

Kelly Zeytoonian: 5:16

I don't think that you're saying it tentatively like you feel bad about that, but I don't think that you should. I.

Stacey Cordivano: 5:24

I think you do actually um I think you do feel bad about that.

Misty Gold: 5:28

I struggle with feeling guilt, as if I'm like not a real vet, I mean that's but I don't struggle with understanding like an accepting that this. So I'm not sure I think I struggle with other people's perception of how much work that is Like. Maybe that's not enough work, but I don't struggle with understanding and accepting that in this space this is the healthiest as a person that I have felt in a long time and we've had a rough couple of years from just like a sandwich generation, caretaker of older family members and parents and you know just a lot of stuff. But as we discuss at SEPs, we are more than just a veterinarian. We're whole people and this whole people phase of my life requires a lot more out of me than just that work. So a lot more out of me than just that work. So and I do have to remind myself, this is my revelation this week I was in intense group practice for 14 years. That is not no time.

Stacey Cordivano: 6:32

You did enough work in that time to really make that for the next few years.

Misty Gold: 6:37

I and like that's a new revelation just recently, like I do try to tell myself like self, you don't have to, like you didn't jump ship, you put time in, you worked hard, so, like you know, I'm not.

Kelly Zeytoonian: 6:48

And I think that's that's what it's all about. Right Is not having to fit within a mold or an expectation of what's been done previously. Right, like you sort of started off saying most people wouldn't think this, but we know that most people now actually want to be working and seeing appointments less than they currently are. So you are just doing it where other people want to start doing it. So I think it's great and I think it's really important for people to see and hear that, like we are not working five days a week, six to six, as equine veterinarians out in the field, and that's okay. Casey, what about you.

Stacey Cordivano: 7:35

Yeah, as much as I am like a proponent of this exercise exercise, I'm a little overdue. No, I say it every time I talk about the exercise. It will change as your life stages change, so I am overdue on an evaluation of my current life stage in this. Yeah, this is the year of no for me. I'm cutting back on as much as humanly possible, hence the podcast not being out in a while and hence the podcast, you know, changing.

Stacey Cordivano: 8:12

But yeah, my ideal is getting my kids to school or camp, working on all the different projects throughout the day, and I am responsible for getting them in the afternoon. So that means my day wraps at, you know, 2.15, 2.30. And that's a short day. And my ideal is that I would get an hour, an hour and a half additional in the afternoon to kind of wrap up my day. Because what I've found is, since we've lost a nanny, just because of both kids going into full-time school, I used to have a nanny till about 4.30. And so even when I went to pick up my older son, I dropped him to her and I still got about an hour to wrap up my day. And that is what I'm finding I am missing now. So I get kind of the same amount of stuff done but I don't get that closure at the end of the day. And you know I've been noodling on how to find it or and and currently I'm just trying to cut things out and I'm not sure that I love everything that I have to cut out. I wish there were just a little bit of extra time in the day.

Stacey Cordivano: 9:21

And so, whether that's exploring something like you know, additional help just for the afternoon from from a college student or something like that, but yeah I'm, I'm in an exploration kind of phase right now because it's not currently my ideal, but my ideal would be to separate kind of all that work into the middle of the day. And then that includes, you know, practice management, the Cairo and other lameness work I do, and then of course the other projects, seps and the whole veterinary and things like that mentor vet. So I also pretty strict boundaries around the end of the day, like obviously I'm on call but and that doesn't bother me, it doesn't hurt my feelings to have to leave something. My kids know it's important for me to have to leave certain things when I'm on call. That doesn't phase me at all. I know I'm like a little weird in that way, um, but when I'm not on call, I'm not doing. I'm not doing work anymore, and in the evening, after they go to bed, or anything like that. That's, it was just too much for my brain.

Kelly Zeytoonian: 10:28

How are either of you making that happen? What are your? What are the efficiencies that you've built into?

Stacey Cordivano: 10:35

I think, personally I'm trying to lean on technology and you know that it takes some time to learn it.

Stacey Cordivano: 10:42

I realized there's an uphill battle for that for some people who just feel like they're so busy they can't even take the time to learn it.

Stacey Cordivano: 10:48

But for me, covet I've started using for records. I'm notoriously slow on records and now that I have someone you know, another veterinarian that needs to see them like they need to get done, needs to see them like they need to get done, and so Covet is sort of an AI supported record generator that I can just copy and paste into records and that is very helpful. And then I have found an app called Taskade. That's a to-do list sort of project organizer, but it also has AI support running in the background so it can help me create templates for things and even like employee reviews or like key performance indicator outlines. It'll help me generate one for, like a veterinary practice. It's very smart and not that expensive for the year, so those two have been really helpful for me. And then it's shared as a team, so we have like collaborative lists between the support staff and my associate and myself. I also asked my husband for more help than he was providing previously and I will say that that has been very beneficial for our entire family.

Kelly Zeytoonian: 11:57

Asking for help. That's the summer theme for my practice for my practice.

Misty Gold: 12:09

Nice, I tried technology and I have actually I spent money. I have, like, the iPad pro with the pencil and I have this like other digital notebook, all in an effort to make record keeping, in particular, faster and easier. And I am back to a notebook, a single notebook. It goes everywhere with me. It encompasses everything. So I, for example, when we're talking about efficiencies, I also rely pretty heavily on routine. So and this is for life, not just practice because again at this stage in life I feel like I'm flowing back and forth between that all day, every day, and I sit down and make a menu, a dinner menu. That is one of those things that just the mental load of having to think about what people eat all the time is a real drag. So on Monday I make a menu. Monday through Friday, only dinner. Lunch is easy for me for packing and whatever and breakfast, but dinner weighs on me. So in my notebook I've got that. I make a grocery list based off of that and on, my job on Monday is to go to the grocery and just shop off the list, which has saved so much time, money and mental load, stress, and then for the rest of the week I don't have to think about what's for dinner, I just look at the menu and make it and like that is something stupid and simple. That has really revolutionized my existence.

Misty Gold: 13:45

Also, in that notebook is where I keep. I make a list each day of what has to be accomplished. And I challenged myself. We had a speaker at one of the seminars talk about list making and about how we have a tendency to write projects on the list and not tasks. So I really tried and that kind of resonated you know I'll just put like clean the basement, that's overwhelming to make the list each morning of everything that needs to get done as a task, an individual task that helps me kind of see the day better and that I can check off and kind of stay on top of.

Misty Gold: 14:24

And then I also have like the week. Not that I don't have a calendar in the phone and a calendar digital calendar here or there but I write like for the week the quick things that I feel like my brain is always like gosh, what do we have on Monday night? What's Tuesday night? You know, it's like taekwondo at this time, and this time also in the notebook. So no matter what I'm doing, I can flip back and forth and see what I need. And then what I've had to let go of for the medical record is that I really want this like beautiful medical record that I can share with the client. That looks really aesthetically appealing and I have let that go. I'm continuing to tell myself that done is better than perfect and, as long as it has all the pertinent information to be a medically sound record, that that's what we're going to have to do right now, and so with a written record, I write that as I go I don't have to remember. That's much easier for me to transcribe into a quick something to send over?

Stacey Cordivano: 15:22

How about you, Kelly? What are you using to get more, stay more efficient?

Kelly Zeytoonian: 15:28

My technician how many?

Stacey Cordivano: 15:31

do you have again?

Kelly Zeytoonian: 15:33

I usually have two that come with me during the daytime and we have the ratio is basically two to one for the doctors, for support team to doctor team, and not just utilizing them but kind of going on this concept. And again, I heard this from one of the speakers at very first SEP meeting and she said only do what only you can do, and that is my mantra. So you know, when it comes to the types of appointments that I see it's only do the appointments that I can do and the remainder go on that assistant or technician schedule so that they can go and do follow-up, adequant shots or laser therapies or those things that you know bring value and obviously need to be done for our patients. But that is not where I need to be spending 30 minutes of my time lasering a horse's back. You know like I can get the whole end of the month of billing done in that period of time or I can have that you know review with one of my employees that we talked about in another one of our discussions. So that's really been my big kind of efficiency is not taking on every task just because maybe I can do it a little bit faster or it will be done exactly how I want it done. But kind of embracing and being okay with letting other people take over has really helped me in my day.

Kelly Zeytoonian: 17:05

I do like lists. I have my like handwritten desk journal, misty, so I still this works better for me. There's too many electronic calendars and shared calendars that I have between working at Foothill and the practice and my consulting and my family calendar and the EasyVet appointment schedule. So at the end of the week or beginning of the next week I go through and I kind of block off the time so that I just mentally, you know, kind of know where I need to be and what I need to be doing and when. And that has certainly helped, helped. But I really do think like if it were not for the awesome team that I have, my, there's no way that I could set the schedule and not start appointments until 10 and be done by 4 to get up and home on time, and there's no way that I would be able to only be working and seeing appointments and producing that revenue two days a week without an amazing group who's been given, you know, the reins to really do what they need to do.

Stacey Cordivano: 18:07

Yeah, that's definitely inspiring. I don't think I delegate enough, for sure, I think. One thing it sounds like we all do, though, is take a chunk of time to plan the week. I've found that to be so helpful. It sounds like it works for both of you too. So I feel like in my highest period of burnout, I was kind of just letting my life run me, and that's one way one kind of low bar way to start taking control of your life is just sit down for 20 minutes and think about how the week is going to look. I mean, it's gonna get messed up, but at least you have a plan to start with.

Misty Gold: 18:41

I'll also throw out and this is something different but maybe somebody listening it will resonate with them is that with a son that has special needs or high needs, finding the right therapist for him. And our situation has allowed me to work with the therapist really regularly on what we need as a family to be able to be done and then what skills does that translate that we need to build up with him. And there were so many ways that I was getting burnt out and our family was burnt out that just over time we had kind of evolved in a way because that's we didn't know better and that's what kind of like worked to help us survive. But we weren't thriving, like simple things that like bedtime that under a typical child won't have trouble with. But now, nine years in, we were still struggling with and like really the amount of freedom going to see appointments that are farther away than I know that my son would be comfortable with me being Things like that that we can just kind of address up front and the therapist gets to talk to me and understand why it's important for us and what impact it's having and then help him to cope with that and we kind of work as a team with him has really given all of us him probably more than anyone this like amount of comfort and confidence and he's getting to like do all these different things and feel good about it, and it's really given us a lot of freedom as well and like that's therapy is one of those things that I think when you are busy and burnt out, you just don't know where it would fit in or how to do it.

Misty Gold: 20:22

But I can tell you it has really changed our lives.

Stacey Cordivano: 20:27

Yeah, I always like to think that when I feel the busiest is probably when I need need support the most. So I'm trying to try to make time for it. Awesome. Well, thanks for sharing everybody. We will put some resources in the show notes, for sure. And, um, if anybody has any suggestions, um, maybe when I post this on social media, you can share your suggestions there too. Awesome, Talk to you soon.

Misty Gold: 20:50

Bye.

Stacey Cordivano: 20:53

Thank you so much for spending some of your precious time with us. We so very much appreciate it and truly hope that it helps you just a little bit. We hope you are doing well and we will talk to you again soon.