November 21, 2008
Schaumburg, IL. The National Commission on Veterinary Economic Issues (NCVEI) has released the Economy Tracker, its newest financial resource for veterinary practices.
The Economy Tracker is designed to measure the impact of the economy on veterinary medicine by comparing gross practice revenue, transactions and average transaction charge (ATC) between 2008 and 2007. Approximately 250 practices have already entered their data and revenue growth in companion animal practices has averaged about 5% in each quarter of 2008 compared to the same period in 2007. This is less than half of the growth seen in practices in the last several years. In order to access more detailed comparisons, practices need only enter their monthly revenue and transaction information for 2007 and 2008.
In addition to revenue changes, the Economy Tracker will also help practice understand why their revenue is changing by analyzing transaction and ATC growth. Ultimately information will be available by practice type (companion animal, equine, etc) and for various demographics (region, state, etc.) A detailed “Recommended Treatment” section discusses strategies for successfully weathering the economic downturn.
Not only does the Economy Tracker provide individual practices with information to withstand the current economic environment, this data will also help the profession gain a better understanding of how the economic times are impacting veterinary medicine overall. The NCVEI Economy Tracker and all other NCVEI resources are available free of charge to all AVMA and AAHA members at www.NCVEI.org.
The National Commission on Veterinary Economic Issues was founded in January 2000 with a mission of raising the economic base of veterinary medicine. A wide-ranging group of benchmarking, pricing and communications tools are available, free of charge, at www.NCVEI.org. The Commission is a not-for-profit organization governed by a Board of Directors representing the three founding organizations: American Veterinary Medical Association, American Animal Hospital Association and the Association of American Veterinary Medical Colleges. Funding is provided by members of the NCVEI’s Sponsor Council that includes Merial, Hill’s Pet Nutrition, Veterinary Pet Insurance, Fort Dodge Animal Health, Bayer Animal Health, CareCredit, Simmons Educational Fund and the Western Veterinary Conference.
