Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Oh My God, I think this Social Media stuff is actually working!!!!

In case you didn't think that Social Media worked,  have I got a story for you...  My client Dr. Howard Gittelman posted a short article on his blog about a new endoscopic procedure he perfected at his practice.  TV star Betty White found it and referred it to her friends who work at the Gorilla Foundation, the folks that take care of Koko.  Koko, you may remember, is the ape that can communicate with sign language.  Koko had a piece of plastic stuck in her stomach and Dr. Gittelman was flown to Palo Alto to assist a rather large medical team in the endoscopic procedure that successfully removed it.  This has been the THIRD attempt that the medical team had made, but interestingly enough, this was the first team that had solicited the help of veterinarians.  The first two attempts only had human doctors on board.  But evidently vets on board and three's-the- charm worked, cause Koko is recovering great!

I was with Dr. Gittleman yesterday and the stories of Koko's 'compound', her abilities, her trainer/teacher/handler Dr. Penny and the efforts of the Gorilla Foundation were fascinating.

ANY-WAY the moral of the story is that you never know what blog post, what Facebook page, might be the bottle thrown into the sea that actually washes up on shore.

To that end, I certainly hope that everyone in the Tri-state area (that's NY, PA and NJ) is planning on attending the Social Media Workshop that we are hosting along with each state's respective veterinary manager's group.  Vetstreet and Merial have generously agreed to shoulder some of the cost so we're able to bring our industry's top Social Media and Marketing experts to you to provide HANDS ON help with understanding Social Media in general, the various applications that are out there and how to begin a Social Media Marketing campaign at your practice.

And who are these Internet experts?  What???  You didn't get the Tweet?   What's a-matter, your Facebook page is down?  Oh, I know, your Google Plus Circle isn't working....I see.  Then just click here.

Saturday, January 7, 2012

AAHA Accreditation

The past couple of weeks have been very busy, but great.  In particular, my work has taken me to three practices that share a common distinction:  they are all AAHA accredited.

I'm speaking specifically about Cobble Hill Veterinary Clinic, Sayrebrook Veterinary Hospital (NJ) and Bloomsburg Veterinary Hospital (Pa).  Each of these practices is employed with talented, fun, driven and compassionate team members, but because they have undertaken the AAHA challenge to review their systems and make sure they are in line with the guidelines set forth by the experienced AAHA accreditation team; they have...what's the word?...framed?...underscored?...outlined? if you will their superiority.

Cobble Hill is the newest hospital to join the other distinguished practices in the US that enjoy the honor of accreditation.  In fact, I worked with them closely on refining their protocols to make sure they were in line with the standards set by AAHA.  The process was a tremendous learning experience for the entire team and one of the strongest rallying calls I know of to pull teams together and to highlight everyone's common interest in animal welfare and client well being.

Initially I dismissed the necessity of AAHA accreditation, but  Cobble Hill is the fourth practice I've traveled with on the accreditation journey and I leave the experience more convinced than ever of the process's benefits.  These standards stop mistakes, ensure premium client and patient care, protect team members and practice cultures and encourage personal and business growth.

Now that my eye is trained, I can immediately tell an AAHA accredited practice when I tour a hospital.  Their environment is simply better organized, better managed, cleaner, safer and more pleasant to be in.  No need to hang the fancy bronze AAHA plaque you can get when your practice finally achieves the AAHA distinction; your clients, vendors and future employees will see evidence of accreditation everywhere they look.  Really.

Why don't more hospitals take the AAHA challenge and benefit from this organization's tremendous experience and resources?  What do they have to fear?  To all my readers who have yet to lift the well-organized (and maybe daunting?) book of AAHA requirements and recommendations, can I please make a plea to try it?  I am telling you earnestly from my experience: I can think of nothing else that proves to be such a perfect tool to rally your entire team's interest and energy.  Even if you choose never to invite AAHA's experienced Practice Consultants to your practice (and what a disservice you would be doing yourself and your practice team if you didnt'...these people are here to HELP, not to pick you apart), I can assure you that the AAHA accreditations standards and recommendations are the perfect countdown checklist to your practice's blast-off to higher goals.