#1 Dutch Value: Pets First
Our most important company value is to put pets first. This means that our medical decisions, product development decisions, and marketing decisions have to put pets as our main guiding principle.
This may not sound controversial. In practice, we found that it has been.
For example, “Gold Standard” medicine does not support taking care of pets in need who cannot afford the high price of veterinary care.
This posts reviews the major issues in veterinary care and how putting pets first affects how these issues are perceived and addressed.
Connecting the dots…
Some of the major arguments happening in veterinary care are centered around telemedicine, veterinary shortage, retention, and veterinary burn out.
When it comes to these issues, it can feel like there are two conflicting narratives. Let’s take a look at these issues one by one.
Veterinary burnout
Take veterinarian happiness. There are those that published a survey to show that that “74% of veterinarians express overall satisfaction with their career”
Here’s the real data: According to the CDC, female veterinarians are 2.4 times more likely to commit suicide and male veterinarians are 1.6 times more likely to commit suicide. Even worse, when it comes to veterinary technicians, suicide rates are 5.0 times more likely for males and 2.3 times more likely for females.
This is incredibly incredibly sad.
By the way, a 2021 JAVMA article states that typical annual turnover is “15% - 17% in vet practices, which is twice that of a physician working in private practice.”
Verdict: The data shows that veterinarians are burnt out. They are taking their lives at a disturbingly high amount and leaving their jobs at a faster pace than comps. There’s a worrisome trend about veterinarians’ mental health. (I will have a whole follow up post on this topic).
Veterinary retention
That same survey shows a pretty chart and calls out that “fewer than 2.5% of practicing veterinarians under age 55 are very likely to leave veterinary medicine within two years” with the implication that vets are not likely to leave the profession (which, by the way, this could be a choice made out of need and necessity rather than desire).
Here’s the real data. According to AVMA there are 127,131 veterinarians (possibly more). According to BLS, which gets data from payrolls, there were 89,500 actively working vets. That means that in 2023, only 70% of vets were actually active.
Verdict: There’s a heavy attrition in veterinary medicine. Again, this is a whole topic, but to put out a headline that attrition is less than 2.5% is misleading.
Veterinary shortage
Another example of this is whether or not we have a vet shortage. The same folks that contend that vets are very happy and don’t leave the profession are the same folks who state that there’s actually no shortage at all.
Here’s a direct quote on the topic of the vet shortage from a recent WSJ article:
“‘By the end of this decade, we expect that some of that [vet supply] will be smoothed out,’ said Dr. Lori Teller, president of the American Veterinary Medical Association.”
The quote implies not to worry because all will be fixed in a decade.
Wait? What! In a decade!!! That’s just about how long the average dog lives. So, what is this entire generation of dogs supposed to do?!
The reality is that no new vet schools had been built in decades even though pet ownership increased by the tens of millions. Even then, it will take years for these vets to get trained and then remember, there’s a massive vet attrition rate!!!
Nevermind the Mars study that states that “Even with the new veterinary graduates expected over the next 10 years, a shortage of up to 24,000 companion-animal veterinarians will likely still exist by 2030.” What the same folks will tell you is that since Mars paid for this survey, we should just dismiss it.
However, here are the facts on the ground today beyond the massive Mars study:
Veterinary clinics are paying upwards of $50,000 sign on bonuses in a profession where the average salary is about $120,000 a year.
Shelters have either no vets or a ratio of 1 vet per hundreds if not thousands of pets.
Verdict: The facts on the ground certainly point to a veterinary shortage.
Telemedicine
Last, but not least has to do with telemedicine. There are those who believe in the “Gold Standard”, which is to say that we must order all the bloodwork, x-rays and skin graft tests in order to make a fully accurate diagnosis and anything short of that just can’t be done and would be a dishonor to the veterinary profession. Furthermore, we must only provide brand name medications because that’s what’s best.
The result of this has led to headlines that vet care is unaffordable. The reality is that that many pets get zero care whatsoever.
How do I know this? At Dutch, we have seen a consistent 50% of respondents say that they have not seen a veterinarian in 3 years or more and telemedicine allowed them to have access to care.
When we think of pets first rather than vets first, it means coming up with solutions that makes care accessible to all rather than to some.
The nation’s leading pet advocate organization, ASPCA, supports telemedicine. Why would they be supporting pet telemedicine other than to put pets first?! What do they have to gain?
In a recent VVCA survey of a whopping 500,000 telemedicine interactions, here’s what the data showed:
Telemedicine results in extremely high pet owner satisfaction:
98% of interactions had a satisfaction of 4 or 5 on a 5 point scale
Telemedicine does not steal business away from brick and mortar
40% of cases were referred to in-person care
Telemedicine is not a pill mill
63% of pets do not get a prescription
Final thoughts
What’s fascinating is that the same group of folks who are against telemedicine and think that anyone supporting telemedicine is a charlatan tend to be the same people who imply that: a) we don’t have a vet shortage, b) vets don’t face burn out, and c) vets are not leaving the industry.
Based on the data, the sentiments above are not accurate. Moreover, it’s not putting pets first.