Commerce Village Vet – Team Portal

If there ever is a time where an ESTABLISHED client can not pay a bill, please follow these steps:

If Dr. Putt or I are here then get one of us and explain the situation and we will decide what needs to be done.  If neither of us are here then call Dr. Putt and/or me!

1. Explain to the client that we require FULL payment at the time of service/treatment.
2. Recommend Care Credit, use a credit card, ask a family member…
3. Ask what can they come up with today (We REQUIRE (would like) at least half!)
4. Once there is approval of payment arrangements then put together a treatment plan of EVERYTHING that needs to be done and have owner print their name and sign their name on the treatment plan and include payment arrangements and your initials.

This is such a grey area that it’s very hard to explain exactly the steps that need to be made.  Bottom line is you need to get approval from either Dr. Putt or myself and a very detailed treatment plan needs to be put together with client’s printed name and client’s signature and specific payment arrangements and your initials.

Questions? Let me know……. Erika

Hi all,

Thank you very much for being so flexible with the November schedule.  I really appreciate it!  It’s a first come, first serve basis so I am sorry if you did not get a day you wanted off and/or I am sorry if you took a day off that you did not want!  It’s never going to be perfect unfortunately but I try my best to be as fair as possible!

Please look closely at the November schedule!!  Obviously there are a lot of changes!!  You will work 9-7 instead of 8-6 on days when we have one doctor!!!  You will work 8-5 on 11/22 instead of 9-7!!

Also, we had a cat that boarded over the weekend that did not get taken care of on Sunday!!!  Poor thing! FOR THE FUTURE-WHOEVER CHECKS A PATIENT IN FOR BOARDING AND IS STAYING ON A SUNDAY IS RESPONSIBLE TO LET ME AND/OR DR. PUTT KNOW THAT A PATIENT NEEDS TO BE TAKEN CARE OF ON A SUNDAY!!!!!  WE WILL THEN MARK ON SATURDAYS CAGE CARD THE NAME OF THE PERSON WHO IS TAKING CARE OF THE PATIENT ON SUNDAY SO EVERYONE KNOWS THAT THE PATIENT IS OR IS NOT SET FOR SUNDAY!!!!  Make sense?  Please let me know if that is not clear!

Hey everyone,

I have gone through the November schedule and we do need quite a few volunteers to take days off.  Please see below and volunteer.  If I don’t have enough volunteers then I will be as fair as I can and have people take days off.  This is not set in stone!  Things may change so thank you in advance for you flexibility!  The dates are listed and the number of people I need to take the day off next to it.

11/7: 2

11/8: 2

11/9: 3

11/11: 1

11/14: 3

11/15: 1

11/22: Everyone working will work 8-5. 2 people need to take off

11/25: 1

11/27: 3

11/28: 3

11/29: 1

11/30: Memorial Service

Thanks again everyone!  We really appreciate your flexibility!

Important Dates:

11/30 Memorial Service 6-8.  Please stay to help if you can (You are paid)

10/15 Tech Week (We need your facts and pic)

10/22 Halloween pics 11-1 Please help out if you can (You are paid)

10/27 New Venue! Picasso’s Grapevine Night Out 6:30-9:30.  You must register online and pick your pallet to be able to attend!  www.picassosgrapevine.com Click on register now, private party, commerce village vet, pick your pallet, put “vet” in coupon code and checkout.  Let me know if you have any questions.

12/3 Santa Pics Please help out if you can (You are paid)

We are closing at 4 on Halloween.

We are closing at 5 on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving.

Fear Free:

We are promoting that we are a Fear Free practice!  If you are interested in learning more then please go to www.fearfreepets.com and log in under me.  office@commercevillagevet.com is log in, cvvh605 is password.

Schedule:

Thank you for helping out with getting your shifts covered!  I really appreciate it!

Make sure to give me your time off requests as soon as you know your dates.  Please check the schedule to make sure someone has not requested that time off yet.  If you don’t hear from me then your request for time off is approved.

Please be fair with time off (especially around holidays, breaks, etc)

We will be short staffed with doctors November and December.  We will need volunteers to take time off during those times.  I will post those dates soon.  Most Saturdays and Fridays will be used for mainly emergencies and same day appointments.

We will be sending people home if we are over staffed and not busy.  Please be productive during slow times.  Deep clean, take care of controls on lab equipment, stock, clean autoclave.  There are lists in drawer under autoclave on things that need to be done if you need some guidance.

Promoting Professional Wellness:

We want to optimize our practice culture!  We already have a great culture and positive environment but we want to be sure we have it stay that way!  We have a consistent pattern from November thru February/March of having sort of a “dark cloud” hanging over the clinic and we want to make sure that does not happen this year!

You must be responsible for your own self-care and have accountability for your own attitude, behavior and actions.

We want to help with burn out and compassion fatigue.  I will post websites and phone numbers that you can access if needed.  Please also come to me either via email or face to face if you feel you are struggling with burn out or compassion fatigue.

Strive for harmony in your life, not balance.

Find refuge at work: you should feel safe, valued and respected here.

Focus more on positive thoughts such as gratitude, happiness, confidence, and pride.

Ask yourself:

What do I want from my team members and how can I be that to them?

What can others do to make the environment more positive and how can I make the environment more positive?

What can we do as a team to improve our culture together?

We need to invest in ourselves and our team!

Through AAHA, they are recommending that the employee reviews be restructured to put more focus on behavior and attitude that promotes a positive culture not just on skills and productivity.

That’s it!  Please let me know if you have any thoughts or questions!

Please initial in comments once you have read this!

Hi everyone,

We would really like to have a team meeting with you all!  We have a meeting set for September 28th.  Please don’t over book that day so we can actually all sit down and everyone can be present at the meeting.  We would like to cover a few topics such as the schedule, fear free and team well being.  Please bring any other topics you’d like to talk about.  Thanks!

Hi everyone,

We are going to have only one doctor from July 24 through August 6th.

I need some volunteers to take some time off.  Please view the schedule carefully because I have already made a few changes.

July 24th- We need two people to take off

July 25th- three people need to take off

July 31-1 person needs to take off

August 1-1 person needs to take off.

Thank you!

Hello,

Thank you everyone for all of your hard work.  We really appreciate it!  I worked on the doctor schedule today and I am once again asking for some flexibility from all of you please.  All three doctors are taking some time off in June therefore I need some volunteers to take a day off.

June 15: One person off

June 26: One person off

June 27: Two people off

June 28: Two people off

We will be closed July 3rd and July 4th to be able to celebrate the holiday.

Thank you!!

Hey ladies,

We had our Merial Lunch and Learn today.  We now can sign up for free nexgard or frontline and heartgard for 2 pets.  Please sign up this week so I can get that sent in.  Sign up sheet is in the lab.

We are now a Fear Free clinic! We will be implementing a few things shortly once we fine tune and customize what we think will work for our clinic.  We already do a lot and do a good job but there are just a few more things that we could be doing.  We will have a meeting on that hopefully in May.

Eye meds are hard to come by right now.  We have what is available and affordable on the shelf.  This week I can not get Polymyxin but I was able to get neo poly dex. Go figure?!

We are going to showcase one employee each month.  This employee is randomly picked.  We have 14 employees so obviously this will take some time……  We will post the employee the beginning of each month, on the form we will have team members write what that employee does that is outstanding.  Through the month, we will write on the form things that we caught that employee doing that is outstanding.  There will also be a prize for that employee!  This form will hang in the lab on the board.  We will all make a group effort to make that employee feel special that month!

It’s that time for another quarterly check in!  This quarter we will be doing the pawsonality test.  This is an individual and team approach to finding out what breed you lean towards with your personality and what that means in the work environment.  It’s a fun way to learn about one another and to better work, understand and appreciate everyone.  Some questions might be hard to answer so ask a fellow team member what their perception is.  We will follow up with a team meeting in May and talk about everyone’s results, the breeds, personalities, and how each personality handles things differently in the workplace.  It’s a lot of fun!

Hopefully our new website will be launching soon.  I will keep you posted.

We may also be getting new heska blood machines shortly.  I will keep you posted on that as well.

As always, please let me know if you have any ideas, concerns, suggestions!  Thank you!

Open Enrollment for AccessPoint’s Guardian ancillary plans is set for July 1, 2017. Attached you will find the plan offerings that are available.

We are happy to announce the monthly premiums for the Guardian dental and vision plans are remaining the same and there is no change to the plan coverage. Slight adjustments have been made to some of the other Guardian offerings effective 7/1/2017:

• Guardian Voluntary Life Insurance for Children: If the employee purchases at least a $20,000 voluntary policy for themselves it allows them to purchase either a $5,000 policy for their child(ren) for $1.00/month or a $10,000 for their child(ren) for $2.00/month.
• Guardian Voluntary and Employer Sponsored Long Term Disability:  The calculation has increased from $0.18 per $100 of benefit up to $0.30 per $100 of benefit.
• Employer Sponsored Dental Preventive Maximum Waived: Starting July 1^st preventive service claims will no longer go toward the dental annual max for groups offering Employer Sponsored Dental.  This potentially could save each member $600 per participant on their plan.

• All other added-on benefits provided by Guardian remain the same!

Please let me know if you wish to make any changes to your Guardian plan offerings (i.e. dental, vision, life, disability) or contribution structure for the upcoming benefit year no later than April 10, 2017.   

Current participants with Guardian will not need to complete any forms unless they are making any changes, newly enrolling, or canceling the plan.  All employee changes must be reflected in our system no later than May 15 for the July 1 effective date.

If you have any questions regarding the above information, please contact me via phone at (248) 504-6567 or via email kneff@apteam.com.

Please let me know if you would like further information on these benefits, would like to add, change or delete.  Everything needs to be submitted by April 10th.  This is available for employees who work 30+ hours per week.

Please initial once you have read and acknowledged this info.

Thank you,

Erika

Hi everyone,

I enjoyed our meetings this week and thought they were very productive!  Please return your stay interview sheets to me by Tuesday and I will follow up with you sometime later in the week to sometime the following week.

We will be starting our Monday, Tuesday morning meetings this Monday.  Please arrive 10 minutes before your shift so we can cover a few things.  Please be sure to add any topics to the meeting if you have something you’d like to cover.

Please strive every day to continue to provide our clients and our team a positive environment that feels calm, welcoming, caring and homey.  The pets can sense their environment too!

The top 2 reasons clients stay at a veterinary clinic is trust and likeability!  Please take the time to fully take ownership and engage yourself in every client/patient interaction.

Receptionists:  Please be “greeters”!!  Make sure to greet each client as they walk in the door.  Replace “how can I help you” to “Hello, how are you?  Good to see you again” or “Hello, it’s a pleasure to meet you, welcome to our hospital, how are you today?”   Help any client to their car and help any client who is struggling in to the hospital.

We need more accuracy with the drawer in reception.  Please slow down and double check yourself as you’re closing the transaction.  Did you put the correct payment type in, did you collect the cash, check, credit card receipt?  Make sure you balance at the end of the night!!  Take the time o figure it out. If you don’t figure out why you didn’t balance, put the deposit in the safe and leave me a note so I can look into it asap.

Triple check yourselves as you are entering charges.  Please make sure the receptionist gets the chart every time they need to close a transaction!!!!  We are missing a lot of charges!!

Thoroughly explain to owners when you hand them a stool container that there is a $34 lab fee and they can either pay today or when they drop off.

Lab work, services, medications need to be paid at the time of service!!!  If you do not collect payment or if you missed a charge, please take ownership of it and contact the client and follow through with it.  If you have any issues or need help or need to explain something please let me know and fill me in on the details.

Technicians/assistants: When you start an appointment, focus on the pet “Hi Fluffy, how are you my friend?” Get down and pet her and offer her treats while starting a 30-60 second conversation with the owner about anything other than the appointment.  “I like your hair, where do you go?”  “I know spring break is coming, do you have any travel plans?”  “I like your shoes, where did you get them?”  Then say “Well, I guess we ought to get down to business, how is Fluffy doing at home?  Any concerns with anything?”  I’ll let Dr. Rutsey know you and Fluffy are waiting to see her.  She will be with you both shortly.”

We will get temps either during the exam or before we draw blood, vaccinate, etc.  If the temp is higher than 102.5, take a rectal and let the doctor know before you proceed with anything.

Don’t say “We practice good medicine”  instead say “We provide top notch veterinary care by attending CE, being AAHA accredited, we have LVT’s, and we are simply just bad ass….”JK

When going over treatment plans at the end of the appointment make sure the owner can focus by either taking and calming their pet, offering treats, etc. and start with “We care about safety which is why we follow our anesthetic safety protocol such as placing an IV< surgical fluids, warm water blanket, monitors, LVT, thoroughly explain the protocol of the whole day: being her for 10 minutes in the morning to go over paper work, pet stays the day, discharges usually between 4-7, plan on being here about 10 minutes at pick up so we can go over home care instructions. Quickly explain the procedure…..the doctor will use laser surgery to declaw and will suture each toe., etc.

We have to approach each client with a treatment plan that they are going to schedule that dental cleaning, surgery, lab test, today.  Say “Dr. Putt told me that Fluffy really needs a dental cleaning.  We need to set that appointment up today for Fluffy.  I’m sure she wants to get feeling better sooner than later”

Receptionists: Start each closing transaction with “I see Fluffy needs a dental cleaning.  I have Tuesday the 23rd or Thursday the 25th.  Which is better for you?” Then close the transaction and take payment.

Did I explain this all well? lol  Seriously, if you have any questions, concerns, let me know!

I need people to volunteer to take time off March 27-April 3.

3/27 2 volunteers to take off

3/28 3 volunteers to take off

3/29 1 volunteer to take off

3/30 3 volunteers to take off

4/3 1 volunteer to take off

Thanks!