Thomas E. Catanzaro
DVM, MHA, FACHE
Diplomate, American College of Healthcare Executives

Tom Cat, as he is known by most of his colleagues, has been a prolific author, writer, speaker and cutting edge leader in the veterinary profession for over two decades. He has authored over 300 periodical and proceeding articles, and speaks 10 to 15 times a year at national and international veterinary meetings. He has consulted with over 2000 practices, and has 14 contemporary management/leadership texts, from four respected technical publishers, to his credit; three of which are in hospital design. He was the first veterinarian to gain board certification by the American College of Healthcare Administrators (1991). Then in 1996, he qualified for Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives (less than 10 percent of the 30,000-plus members of ACHE achieve this recognition). In 1991, he founded Catanzaro & Associates, Inc., and federally trademarked Veterinary Practice Consultants®, and grew to be the largest, diplomate-led, veterinary-exclusive, team-based, consulting firm in veterinary medicine today. In 2000, Baylor awarded him the distinguished alumnus recognition, again the first veterinarian ever to be so recognized.
In 2007, it was decided that the paper-heavy, phone-heavy, format of Catanzaro & Associates, Inc. (d.b.a. Veterinary Practice Consultants®) was no longer serving the profession in a “new millennium” way. To better serve the International veterinary profession, Dr. Tom Cat committed to reorganizing his consulting services into an electronic-based, worldwide, veterinary consulting service. Blackwell Publications and Veterinary Information Network (VIN) have been major factors in allowing this world-wide transition to occur. Veterinary Consulting International® was established to better meet the new emerging professional demands around the globe, and the Internet was chosen as the communication playing field. Paper must give way to electronic messaging and formats, in practice, as well as in consulting. Demands are expected to be met almost instantaneously, by our clients and by your clients. Instead of building a stable of savvy associates, Veterinary Consulting International® (VCI®) will affiliate with and refer to respected consulting and industry leaders in veterinary medicine, while providing veterinary practices with on-site, leadership training, team building, and management assistance, with instruments tailored to the diversity of veterinary medicine.

In 2010, Tom Cat assumes the role of Hospital Director, at the Veterinary Teaching Hospital, University of Adelaide (Roseworthy Campus), South Australia.  As such, on-site consulting by Tom Cat will be curtailed and only e-mail consulting can be done.  Tom Cat is still designing hospitals by desk audit, reviewing financials of clients, and accepting speaking engagements around the world.  He will also be staffing the National Boy Scout Jamboree in late July and early August at Fort A.P. Hill (look for him at the Merit Badge Midway). Tom Cat has already started to direct potential clients to skilled affiliates, so NEVER hesitate to bump him personally, DrTomCat@aol.com, and ask for a reference to an outstanding colleague who Tom trusts. 

Dr. Clayton McKay, Hill’s Canada and AAHA Past President, has said, “Tom Cat will be dead 20 years before we really understand what he has contributed to this profession.” The practices that have engaged him for a Partners in Progress consultation have experienced a 16 to 68 percent immediate increase in practice growth, so they don’t have to wait that long to realize the impact of “team-based veterinary healthcare delivery”, which is the topic of book #14, soon to be published by VIN.

[Veterinary Consulting International®, 67 Chartwell Street, Aspley, QLD 4034, Australia. Phone: 61+4-1628-5975; FAX: 61+7-3865-2368; e-mail: drtomcat@aol.com]
 

Karen L. Koks
B.V.Sc.
(University of Queensland, Australia)

Dr. Karen Koks started her career with evening emergency work and then went into a companion animal start-up partnership. By 1990, she sold her share in the thriving practice and moved to intermittent relief work (locum) to focus on children and gained broad spectrum experience by working in many practices. Karen started part time at Zillmere Veterinary Surgery while still a locum (relief doctor) and was was one of the first Aussies to discover VIN. She advocates distance learning and used the VIN resources to enhance her professional, cutting-edge knowledge. In 2000, now a mom of three girls, Karen purchased Zillmere Veterinary Surgery, since it was close to the girls’ school, and near her mom’s home. The practice had been established as a part-time, low cost, preventive medicine and spay/neuter clinic to Zillmere (an economically depressed community with many welfare clients). Within 3 years, Karen developed a 50% growth, but then the over-population of veterinarians and the recessionary climate caused most practices in north Brisbane to top out, including Zillmere Veterinary Surgery.

In July 2004, she attended a Brisbane Vet seminar and expected the worst from another ‘crazy annoying yank.’ Turned out Tom Cat was the speaker and he went on and on about wellness surveillance, client-centered patient advocacy, and appropriate diagnostic intensity; she spoke up in session and even made him justify the programs he was promoting. After this, by using VIN and other sources, she decided to expand her scope of services to wellness and patient advocacy, and also zoned her practice operations for better team-based accountability. Her written Standards of Care have trained locums, empowered the staff, and were updated 4 times within a year. Zillmere VS grew by 45% that first year and in 2004, she was recognized as a “successful practice” in a major distributor’s newsletter and was also recognized as a ‘visionary’ by her local newspaper for her community improvement efforts. During her second year of the expanded wellness awareness, her practice actually doubled her "pre-TomCat" performance. Karen can be reached at kkoks@bigpond.net.au or Zillmere Vet Surgery, 422 Zillmere Road, Zillmere, QLD 4034 Australia.

Dr. Sam Morris
Practice Resources

Whether patient or practice there are symptoms when systems are running poorly. In consulting, your practice is my patient. Just as with our animal patients, each practice needs to be examined as an individual and needs an advocate who understands the needs well enough to speak up and make a difference. As a practice consultant, I look for ways to improve your practice’s quality of life - efficiency, profitability and fun.

The majority of practices using computers are stuck in the rut of a poorly hybridized record system using both paper files and computer invoicing. Many fear electronic medical records yet have no backup for paper files that often could not stand up to a medical review board. Charges are missed and written records are often barely readable or incomplete. Costly hours are wasted weekly in hunting for records. Inventory is often so inaccurate that there is no way to know the level of shrinkage or losses from outdates. Doctors and practice managers are frustrated, yet there never seems to be time to make the leap into electronic medical records.

Stop being frustrated and vulnerable! I can help you move to the next level, step by step. Let me be the best friend your practice has ever had!

30 + years in veterinary medicine and still enjoying it!
18+ years working with the AviMark Computer System
8 years in a paperless high tech, high touch AAHA practice
9 years practice management and Avimark consulting
CVMA Merit Award as distinguished veterinarian 2008

Speaker both nationally and internationally on practice management including subjects that range from baby steps to paperless practice with AviMark, Medical Records for Fun and Profit to Team-based healthcare and Zoning Your Hospital.
Co-Author of text: Team-based Healthcare, published 2008
Member, AAHA Leadership Council
Member, AVPMCA, AAHA, AVMA, ISVMA, CVMA

Practice Resources 1751 E. Exchange St. Crete, IL 60417-8012 drsamhere@aol.com
708-768-1471, 708-672-9999, 708-672-9906 fax

Philip J. Seibert, Jr.
CVT

Phil is a Certified Veterinary Technician with over 20 years of experience in the profession and now concentrates his efforts as a full-time author and consultant.

Because of his clinical experience and management skills, he became the first veterinary technician to evaluate and accredit veterinary hospitals for the American Animal Hospital Association (AAHA).  The experience of "inspecting" over 1200 veterinary hospitals has given him a unique perspective of our profession.

Phil’s many articles dealing with veterinary hospital operations have appeared in national publications such as Journal of the AVMA, AAHA Trends, Veterinary Forum, DVM Newsmagazine, the Veterinary Technician, Veterinary Practice STAFF and Veterinary Practice News. His books on hospital safety and regulatory compliance are considered the most practical and authoritative in the profession.  Phil is also the founder and Managing Editor of the profession's only safety-specific newsletter, The Veterinary Safety & Health Digest.  Recently, Phil teamed up with long-time friend and fellow consultant Dr. Tom Catanzaro, to write the best-selling book Veterinary Practice Management Secrets which was released by Hanley Belfus publishers in 2000.

Because he has taken the lead in "deciphering" the regulatory agency rules affecting the veterinary profession and has been able to provide practical, veterinary-specific advice, Phil has earned the reputation of the veterinary profession's OSHA expert and has even written "the authoritative" reference on the subject, The Complete Veterinary Practice Regulatory Compliance Manual (5th Edition).

Recognizing the power of interactive learning, Phil is the founder and Director of The OSHA Center on the Veterinary Information Network (VIN) and Veterinary Support Personnel Network (VSPN). He regularly teaches interactive OSHA and staff training courses on VIN and VSPN.