Covetrus Connected Care

Episode 5 - How Can You Connect Pet Parents to Reliable Information?

Pet parents are seeking reliable health information about their pets — but are they finding it? When surveyed, 56% of pet parents said their top sources of information were pet retailers and the internet, rather than their vet. Given this reality, how can busy veterinary professionals take a more active role in connecting pet parents to reliable content?
In this episode of Covetrus® Connected Care, we talk with Wendy Toth, publisher of Great Pet Care, an educational site for pet parents that’s part of Covetrus, and Dr. Hanie Elfenbein, an emergency services veterinarian and frequent contributor to Great Pet Care.*
Because pet parents are going online to look up symptoms or research an illness — either before, after or even during their vet clinic visit — Dr. Elfenbein says the information they find there should be reliable and understandable to the average animal lover.
“I think it's important to be able to really meet those pet parents where they're at for both the health of the animal and for the compliance of recommendations,” Dr. Elfenbein says. “With content like Great Pet Care, I can be confident that well-researched informative information is available as a reliable resource for pet parents.”
Visit Great Pet Care
Are you a veterinarian interested in writing for Great Pet Care? Click here to apply.
Additional information:
Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association. More pet owners are shopping online. July 28, 2021.
Hanie Elfenbein, DVM
Wendy Toth, VP of Content/Publisher of Great Pet Care
*Wendy Toth is a Covetrus employee and Dr. Elfenbein is a paid contributor to Great Pet Care.

Episode 4 - Veterinary Pharmacy: Expanding Pharmacy Education to Enrich Animal Healthcare

Back in 2014, an American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) survey discovered that one-third of veterinarians surveyed knew of occasions when pharmacies dispensed drugs to clients that were different from what the doctor had prescribed or were a different dosage. And 10% reported having patients harmed when outside pharmacies substituted one drug for another.
Since then, the AVMA, professional organizations, colleges and companies like Covetrus® have worked to support hands-on veterinary pharmacy education in pharmacy schools.
Our guest this episode is Dr. Jennifer O’Grady, Covetrus Vice President of Quality and Regulatory Affairs and Pharmacist-in-Charge, who created the Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experience (APPE) curriculum. The goal of the curriculum is to help pharmacists to better understand animal health. Today, Covetrus offers preceptor sites for five veterinary APPE programs at the following educational institutions:
University of New England
Creighton University
University of Nebraska Medical Center
Texas Southern University
Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences
Learn More
Covetrus Announces $120K in Scholarships to Support Diversity in Veterinary Sector
UNE College of Pharmacy partners with Covetrus to offer students hands-on learning experience

Episode 3 - The Veterinary Workforce Crisis: What’s Behind It and How Do We Move Beyond It?

A trained economist, Matt Salois is a pro at parsing the latest veterinary industry data on employment, productivity and employee well-being. Salois is President of Veterinary Study Groups, where he's charged with enhancing the economic and cultural success of more than 1,800 veterinary member practices.
In this episode of Covetrus® Connected Care, Salois draws on his extensive industry knowledge to walk us through the latest data on pet-care demand, supply, and veterinary employment and productivity.
Salois makes sense of the real-life reality behind the numbers — normalizing visits, high turnover and burnout. For practices looking to tackle today’s challenges, Salois cautions against investing soley in a bigger pipeline of veterinary talent. With a deeply knowledgeable and optimistic outlook, he offers concrete steps to begin to remedy systemic issues, such as turnover, low productivity and poor mental health among veterinary practitioners.
The ultimate goal? To help practices achieve a more sustainable business model, connect more deeply as a workforce and with clients, and improve animal health.
Resources:
Veterinary Study Groups - https://www.veterinarystudygroups.com/ 
Matt Salois - https://www.linkedin.com/in/msalois/ 

Episode 2 - Personalized Care With Pet-Friendly Medicine

Research tells us that when veterinary visits are less stressful, there’s a stronger likelihood for early intervention and successful treatment.1
In this episode, Dena Barlow, a former veterinary technician and current Senior Technical Marketing Specialist at Covetrus, describes a new exclusive partnership between Covetrus® Compounding (Roadrunner Pharmacy and Atlas Pharmaceuticals) and Fear Free®. The partnership aims to reduce visit-related fear, anxiety and stress for pets — and everyone involved in their care — while also increasing compliance and improving pet health.  
The goal of the partnership is to empower veterinary practices with:
Tailored medications to enhance the health and well-being of pets
Easy-to-use tools to automate ordering of dose forms and flavors
Fewer steps in the ordering process to save time
Rather than being one-size-fits-all, compounded medications can be customized to help the veterinarian and pet parent administer the medicine in the dose forms and flavoring options the pet likes.
As Dena explains, "At Roadrunner and Atlas, we believe the world will be a better place when we treat each animal with individual empathy and remove the unnecessary anxiety from animal healthcare. We want to evolve to bring personalized care and animal-friendly medicine — for veterinarians and pet parents alike.”
Learn more:
Covetrus Compounding
Fear Free
Becker, M., Radosta, L., Sung, W., Becker, M. (2018). From Fearful to Fear Free: A positive Program to Free Your Dog from Anxiety, Fears, and Phobias. Deerfield Beach, FL: Health Communications, Inc.

Episode 1 - Finding Value in ”Small t” Technology

Technology can be a unifying force for good, connecting practices to pet parents and pet patients to improve animal health. If you’re curious about technology, how do you choose one that will support your clinic’s goals for the long term?
In the first episode of Covetrus® Connected Care, Ying Chen, Chief Customer Officer, Product at Covetrus, outlines practical, easy-to-follow steps to find value in technology. For example, she suggests starting with certain technologies, which she calls “small t” technologies, rather than others.

Episode 12 - Philanthropy in Practice: Care Plans for Service Animals

There are a half-million service animals in the United States, according to ShareAmerica, and 16,766 assistance dogs certified by Assistance Dogs International.
These animals aid in so many ways, yet the cost of veterinary care may prove unaffordable for the families that adopt assistance canines after their years of service are over. Now, a new initiative aims to close the care gap with service animal care plans.
Our guest, Nick Braukhoff, is a volunteer firefighter and software manager at Covetrus. He’ll talk about the types of service animals that might benefit from these plans and how the plans enable local clinics to do good in their community, while fostering stronger bonds with pet parents.
Find out more about the pilot program by emailing serviceanimals@vcp.vet.
Please like, subscribe and review the show wherever you listen — it helps new listeners find us!
Have feedback? Email nicole.knight@covetrus.com.

Episode 11 - A New Plan to Improve Dental Health

Periodontal disease remains the most common clinical condition in cats and dogs, according to a recent AVMA report. How can practices proactively address this enduring problem — beyond raising awareness of the issue during Pet Dental Health Month. What role can technology and veterinary innovation play each and every day to help solve this health problem?
In this episode, we chat with Michelle St. Mary, Director of Utilization and Coaching at VCP, about dental care plans and dental options as a means to improve oral health care. As it turns out, 65% of VCP-supported plans include dental, making the plans a significant driver of dental compliance.
Learn more at vcp.vet.

Episode 10 - Searching for a Complete Veterinary Solution?

Veterinary workloads are rising as practices care for more pet patients amid ongoing challenges. Could technology provide a path forward? In this episode, Georgia Wraight, EVP and president of Global Technology Solutions at Covetrus, tells us about a new, complete solution called Covetrus Pulse.
The recently announced technology brings all of your software applications into a single, seamless veterinary operating system, letting practice teams focus on what matters most — caring for pet patients and building client relationships.
Find out more about Covetrus Pulse at cvet.co/pulse.

Episode 9 - Pet Insurance and Wellness Plans Work Hand in Hand

During the pandemic, pet insurance rates rose 23%, per the latest report from the North American Pet Health Insurance Association. In this episode, Dr. Doug Kenney, author and host of the Pet Insurance Guide Podcast, outlines the value of pet insurance and pitfalls to avoid. We also explore the intersection of wellness plans and pet insurance and how the two services can work hand in hand in your practice.
Wellness Plans: https://vcp.vet/preventive-plans/
Chronic Illness Plans: https://vcp.vet/what-are-chronic-illness-plans/
Pet Insurance Guide Podcast: https://www.petinsuranceguidepodcast.com/
Wellness, Dental, Chronic Disease Plans Make Pet Healthcare Affordable - Veterinary Care Plans (VCP) - Episode 67: https://www.petinsuranceguidepodcast.com/2021/04/wellness-dental-chronic-disease-payment-plans-make-pet-healthcare-affordable-veterinary-care-plans-v.html

Episode 8 — The Technological Future of Practice Management Software

More than 20,000 veterinary practices here in the U.S. rely on Covetrus practice management software. Coming innovations to this technological backbone will give vets and their staff new tools to work more efficiently and achieve better clinical and business outcomes. In this episode, Sara Swenson of Covetrus provides us with a sneak peek into the future of practice management software at Covetrus. She also describes the differences between wellness modules and VCP's platform and reveals when VCP will be integrated with AVImark, eVetPractice, and ImproMed.