Page 184 - Veterinary Laser Therapy in Small Animal Practice

170 Veterinary Laser Therapy in Small Animal Practice

used together, and others are incompatible. Choose • A reduced price package for (almost) all post-ops.
and customize for your particular situation from the Not only will your rate of postsurgical complica-
following list of ideas. tions decrease (even more), but even the uncom-
plicated wounds will heal faster and better, and the
• Patients with chronic pain conditions. For hair will regrow faster as well. Sad as it is, many pet
instance, about 20% of our patients over 1 year of owners will judge the surgical procedure by the clip-
age suffer from osteoarthritis (OA) – this is not the ping (very sad) and how pretty the incision looks
only condition needing chronic pain management (not that sad: usually the prettiest incisions feel
but probably the most common one. Chronic pain more comfortable and heal better). So improving all
requires a multimodal approach and now you will of these can go a long way with everyone. Adding
be offering an option that will likely reduce the need a small amount (it will take little time to treat an
for drugs, which are not free of side effects. incision) to the price of your surgeries will be unno-
NOTE: There are a couple of ways to look at ticeable for your clients, but at a certain volume of
combination treatments, especially when it comes surgeries it really adds up. The exception, as you
to pharmaceuticals, since pet owners (and you, for know, would be the oncological procedures, at least
that matter) are so used to a given result. If you as a general rule.
keep the patient on the drugs and add laser, you • Everything that walks through the door at low
will likely see an increased response. At that point cost. While you need to be aware of the few con-
you (and the owner) can decide if that heightened traindications, your infrared laser is absolutely safe,
activity is desired (especially for show or compe- and many patients respond favorably after a single
tition animals). But you may decide to wean the treatment. For this reason, many practices now
patient off the drugs (once an improvement has include LT as a part of their standard visit. This
been noted with LT) to see where they end up. way, every owner gets not just information about
Most likely by the time you get them off the drugs the service, but also an initial experience. If you just
completely, you’ll find that their activity (and pain slightly increase the price of the visit, revenue can
and quality of life) measurements level off pretty become very significant. If you don’t want to do this
close to where they were while on the drugs. This for every standard visit, consider doing it for certain
would NOT be a tie. This would be a BIG WIN, types: geriatric check-ups, dental visits, otitis, reha-
to be able to have pharmaceutical-level response bilitation visits, and so on.
without the drugs and their long list of potential • Making use of the waiting room: you can take
side effects. advantage of the short time pet owners spend there
• Conditions with the greatest clinical response. to inform them about laser therapy in the most direct
The more confident you become about the clini- way, by having your receptionist or a nurse trained
cal results you achieve with LT, the better you in LT and using a small, dedicated exam/treatment
will convey that to your clients and the more they room. While the patient and owner are waiting, the
will accept laser treatments. If you are the kind of receptionist offers this “complimentary” service in
person who gets discouraged unless you see strong the treatment room after asking a few preliminary
and fast results – someone who says, “how am I questions (i.e. “is there a known malignancy?” etc.).
going to charge for a treatment if I do not have a And while they treat, the pet owner is watching
high likelihood of success?” – then wounds (espe- a short iPad video on laser, or the receptionist or
cially chronic and complicated ones) are probably nurse is just talking them through what the laser is
your best chance of growing in confidence. Otitis, and what it may help with. This way, the pet owner
acute trauma, and chronic back pain are also on is already aware of the service and is likely to ask the
the top ten list of successfully treated conditions, vet if laser is right for their pet. If the answer is “yes,”
although not all of them will need the same time then the vet has already given one treatment free
to respond or achieve a similar degree of improve- and so can create a bundled “package” price with
ment. And from there, you and your staff will start an already-perceived discount. If not, no problem,
to broaden the recommendations as you feel more it didn’t cost any real money, just 5 minutes of the
confident. receptionist/nurse’s time.

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