YES, You Can Afford to Buy Equipment!

Colleagues regularly say that they (or their boss) can’t afford a new anesthesia monitor, or capnograph, or warming device.

Rather than focusing on why you can’t afford it, let’s discuss how easily you can afford it.

Let’s say you paid $1,000 for a handheld anesthesia monitor (or a warming device, or another fluid pump).

Let’s also say you charge a mere $5 per use. Keep in mind that many practices charge $10, $20 or $30 per use. So at $5, it’s hardly a dealbreaker, for any procedure.

Lastly, let’s say you use this new piece of equipment to monitor or to keep warm only one sedated or anesthetized patient each day, 5 days/week, 52 weeks/year.

Examples include an ear flush, laceration repair or a bandage change under sedation.

Would you agree that this should be easy to accomplish once daily, over a year? If so, let’s do some simple math:

5 procedures/week x 52 weeks x $5/patient = $1,300/year.

And remember, our theoretical piece of equipment cost $1,000. And you only charged $5 per patient. If you charged $10 per session, only once each day, or if you did two sessions per day at only $5, you would obviously make $2,600.

Does that piece of equipment now sound like an expense or an investment?

If you provide a valuable service that actually improves medical care, it is only fair to charge for it. Yet you don’t have to charge a fortune if you’re worried that clients won’t be able to pay for better care.

Convinced? It’s not just good business, it’s good medicine.

Phil Zeltzman, DVM, DACVS
Meredith Jones, DVM
Co-Founders of Veterinary Financial Summit