I work in healthcare. When I went to new employee orientation for my current company, we watched a training video about a guy and his dog, who both got injured while on their morning jog. The video paralleled his trip through the medical system to get X-Rays and labs, etc, with his wife’s experience taking the dog to the vet for the same type of check up.

The point was to point out that most human healthcare organizations are spread out, needing stops at your regular doctor, the hospital for X-rays, a lab for blood draws, and finally a trip to the pharmacy for any meds. At the vet’s office though, it’s all one stop shopping. However, what I really remember most about the video was that it also highlighted different levels of customer service. And yes, it showed that being much better at the vet’s office too.

 

Now, I’ve had good and bad customer service experiences at both human and animal medical visits. However, our experience today really reminded me of that video.

 

You see, I was all prepared to write a post about the expense of veterinary specialists. Just like with people, the specialists cost more. And that’s fine. In this case, we were recommended to the specialist because both our regular vet, and the vet we use for Howie (our regular vet isn’t one the rescue group we foster through has an account with) didn’t have the expertise to deal with whatever is going on with June. Both the regular vet and the 2^nd opinion vet said- go see a specialist.

We made the appointment with the specialist. We were told that the initial consult fee would be $150. I appreciate knowing in advance. But it is pretty high. When we took June in for the second opinion visit the total charge, including aspiration of the swollen area and lab analysis, cost less than $150. $150 just to talk to the vet.

That didn’t stop us from making the appointment and going in, though, because the Junebug is worth it. (If I didn’t think my dogs were worth it, I wouldn’t have dogs.)

 

We had run of the mill good customer service from the receptionist and the vet tech. They were both nice, not exceptional, but competent and got us through the things we needed.

Then the vet came in. He did a cursory examination of June’s swollen glands, but mostly he talked to us. He then read through the records, listening to what we were saying to look for specific indicators. He explained what he thought the problem was- that one of June’s impacted saliva glands has ruptured- and why, even though that was what the 2^nd opinion vet thought too, the lab results would make her think internal medicine, not surgery.

But he felt the results were consistent with the ruptured saliva gland, and that we didn’t really need to talk to him at all. We needed to talk to a surgeon. He said he’d tell the receptionist to make us an appointment with the surgeon, and we’d just forget the IM appointment ever happened.

We thought he meant for paperwork purposes, but as we were making the appointment for the surgeon, the receptionist told us he wasn’t charging us for today’s visit.

 

Stop and back up here. We made the appointment. We showed up and took up the time of the tech and the space of the room. The doctor talked to us for at least 20 minutes, analyzed the problem, made a diagnosis and gave us a referral.

If he were a human specialist, you can bet we (or at least our insurance company) would have been charged. But because he felt he couldn’t offer us a solution, no charge- from the guy who normally charges $150 for just an initial consult.

 

That is customer service. In the healthcare world, we talk about patient focused care. And sadly, even though I sat through that training video almost 8 years ago, I still see more patient focused care, and better customer service (as a whole) from veterinary clinics than I do at human focused clinics.

 

Of course, the other thing he did, though he doesn’t know it, is probably make his practice a lot of money off of us. Our original theory for Junebug’s theory was to take her to the veterinary school and hospital at the university on the other side of our state. And if the 2^nd opinion vet had come back with ruptured saliva gland, that’s exactly what we would have done.

If we’d paid this guy $150 for him to say “she needs surgery”, we still probably would have gone to the school. But since he didn’t charge us, we’ll meet with their surgeon. We’ll find out how comfortable she is with this kind of surgery, and likely, Junebug will have her surgery less than 10 miles from home, instead of hundreds of miles away on the other side of the state.