Innovation is the engine of veterinary medicine. New technologies and new tools help veterinarians continuously improve patient care and client service. But developing innovations isn’t enough. If an innovation doesn’t translate directly into higher productivity —more patients treated, better workflows, or stronger teams — it is just a shiny object with no real value.
Productivity makes the difference. Highly productive practices squeeze the maximum benefit out of each new innovation. Closing the gap between having a technology and using it effectively is a critical step in moving the profession, and each independent practice, forward.
The engine of growth; Why productivity matters
Productivity is the driver of economic prosperity. When a practice generates more value per hour, three things can happen at once:
- Wages can rise, improving staff satisfaction and retention
- Prices can remain competitive, improving access to care
- Profits can increase, creating sustainable business growth.
This isn’t just theory. Across countries, higher productivity per hour is closely tied to greater national wealth and income, as measured by GDP per capita.1 Higher-productivity countries become wealthier, while lower-productivity countries remain poorer.1
The takeaway is simple: productivity brings prosperity for economies and for independent veterinary practices.
Understaffed or unproductive?
Veterinarians and industry experts have been talking a lot lately about a workforce shortage, but data suggests that the bigger issue may be efficiency. In low-efficiency practices, a veterinarian sees about 12 patients a day. 2 In high-efficiency practices, they see about 21 patients per day.2 That’s nearly twice as many patients with the same number of doctors. If 10,000 low-efficiency practices improved their efficiency, it would offset the need for over 3,600 veterinarians and 15,000 staff members.2 We don’t just need more people; we need to make better use of the talented teams we already have.
Today’s trend: Working harder for less
Unfortunately, the trend lines are moving in the wrong direction.
Veterinarian productivity, the number of patients seen per hour per veterinarian, dropped by nearly 25% during the height of the COVID pandemic in 2020.3 Each veterinarian saw fewer patients in the same amount of time. Even now, with the pandemic under control, that drop hasn’t fully recovered.4
Staff efficiency is also suffering. As compared to 2019, our support staff members are now spending over 20% more time on each patient visit. 5 They need more time to do the same amount of work, resulting in the same invoice.5
This is what decreased productivity looks like in practice: needing more people to deliver the same patient care. That’s why so many practices feel short-staffed, overworked, and stretched thin.
What’s hampering veterinary practice productivity?
Economists attribute the slowdown in productivity to three main reasons. These apply to veterinary medicine as much as they do to the broader economy.
- Innovations don’t spread quickly enough, creating a diffusion gap between ‘frontier’ practices that take advantage of new developments and ‘lagging’ practices that do not.
- Practices face challenges adopting new innovations, experiencing the productivity J-curve in which productivity often sinks before it rises. Teams give up on implementing new innovations before seeing the benefits.
- Newer innovations are creating diminishing returns. Historic breakthroughs like antibiotics or SNAP tests transformed veterinary medicine almost instantly. Today’s innovations are incremental. Using AI to transcribe visits will free up time but won’t fundamentally change what veterinarians do in the exam room. These diminishing returns require practices to work harder to capture the full value of the innovation.
Cultivating productivity in your practice: Your action plan
The bad news is that productivity in veterinary medicine is slowing down. The good news is that independent practice owners are agile enough to respond.
- Close the diffusion gap: Don’t wait for solutions to fall in your lap. Ask your VMG Peer Group members what’s working for them. Then try the best of those ideas in your practice.
- Invest in intangibles: The innovation itself isn’t the magic answer; using it effectively is. Retraining staff, rethinking long-established ways of working, and educating clients are the keys to climbing out of the J-curve. Be patient and persistent.
- Cultivate new ideas: Don’t just consume innovation, create it. Look for the roadblocks to your practice’s productivity and ask your team for ideas. Then try something new. Go big! Rather than aiming for a small increase in productivity from your existing model, try something that could transform how you deliver care. One example: VMG member Dr. Marty Greer’s Checkout Vet, modeled on the drive-in oil change services that revolutionized car care.
Turn innovation into impact
Innovation alone isn’t enough to keep independent veterinary practices thriving. How broadly it spreads, how deeply it’s integrated, and how wisely it’s cultivated are equally important.
As an independent practice owner, you have the ability and the responsibility to lead this charge. The power to turn innovation into impact is in your hands.
References
- Feenstra, Robert C., Robert Inklaar and Marcel P. Timmer (2015), “The Next Generation of the Penn World Table” American Economic Review, 105(10), 3150-3182, available for download at ggdc.net/pwt
- Ouedraogo, F. B., Weinstein, P., and Lefebvre, S.L. ‘Increased Efficiency Could Lessen the Need for More Staff in Companion Animal Practice.’ JAVMA (2023) 261;9:1357–1362. doi:10.2460/javma.23.03.0163.
- Ouedraogo, F.B. The US Market for Veterinary Services. Presented at: American Veterinary Medical Association Veterinary Business and Economic Forum. October 14-16, 2021, online.
- McCullock, K., Doherty, C., Ouedraogo, FB. 2025 AVMA Report on the Economic State of the Veterinary Profession. (2026) American Veterinary Medical Association. Schaumberg, IL.
- VMG Data on file
