Congress on Demand 2021: Practice management, strategy and leadership

The Covid-19 pandemic has brought infection control into sharp focus. Many of the measures taken to halt the spread of Covid-19 (particularly hand hygiene and personal protective equipment/PPE) will have also been effective against hospital acquired pathogens. However, the risk from hospital acquired infections (HAIs) will still be with us once the pandemic recedes. Practices should therefore take the time to establish effective infection control measures that will protect their patients, owners and staff. It is important to understand the most likely organisms in each practice and how these can spread in the environmental and be transmitted between animals and humans. Essential tasks include establishing an infection control team, using effective hand hygiene, cleaning and disinfection, have high quality facilities and equipment, optimising procedures and care, using clinical audit, and practicing antimicrobial stewardship.

Ernie Ward and Alan Robinson discuss the owner and the team perspective, what does it look and feel like – it’s not just about perks. Team perspective: I’ll bet no-one had ‘Global Pandemic’ on your 3-year plan at the beginning of the year. So far over this Covid lockdown we have had major disruption to all the critical business areas – profitability and financial strategies, team harmony and resilience, clinical care and vet performance and client experience and resilience – managed through the leadership lens of your unique COVID experience. Some of the consequences have been surprising and some down-right paradoxical. There are a lot of lessons to be learned from our experience so far and, I suspect, a lot more to come. That still leaves us, and our teams, in the liminal space of uncertainty and ambiguity. Time for planning, priority and perspective. For some of them it is just a job. But it is their safety and security and most of them (and you maybe) are on the edge of meltdown. From a team perspective we discuss the three fundamental Flow and Trust pillars that you can provide at work: (1) safety – physiological and psychological – and how they are linked – how does our veterinary neuroticism and need for meaning affect our sense of safety?; (2) connection and belonging – how does our innate Social Protection System deal with our particularly strong vet need to belong, to be liked, to be accepted as well as the need for intimacy, mutuality, and relatedness; (3) self esteem – how we balance confidence (self-worth) with competence (mastery). Are we just trying to be useful – or do we actually feel valued?Productivity is more than a number – rewarding and recognising team excellence: To recruit and retain the best staff, you must reward them well. You must also measure their contributions in order to determine if they’re positively contributing to your practice. For most practice owners and managers, this means tracking revenue and financial productivity. Revenue is important, but not the only metric to recognise and reward excellence. This session shares several other key performance indicators you should be tracking for your team.