Dr Jocelyn Birch Baker: The Technology That Eliminates Emergency Panic | High Street Vet Surgery - ep 1002

Julie South [00:00:05]:
What would it feel like to actually develop relationships with your clients instead of rushing through appointments? 

Hi, I'm Julie south and you're listening to Veterinary Voices, the podcast that showcases veterinary clinics. 

In part one of this series, you heard. In the High Street Vet series, you heard Dr. Jocelyn Birch Baker introduce High Street Vet Surgery, their cutting edge technology welcoming Rockhampton community and 40 plus years of veterinary expertise. 

Today we're exploring their 30 minute consult approach and why it's creating better outcomes for pets clients and the veterinary team. Remember, they're actively looking for their next companion animal veterinarian. So if that's you, go visit vetclinicjobs.com High Street Vet Surgery street as in St. I'll put all links in the show notes or wherever you're listening to this to make it easy for you.

Julie South [00:01:13]:
This is part two of our High Street Vet Surgery series brought to you by Vet Clinic Jobs, the job board, direct hiring, reimagined, no agency. And also if you are heading to Melbourne to attend the vet Expo on the 3rd and 4th of September, both Dr. Jocelyn and I will be speaking there. So please come find us to find out more about this great opportunity. Now, let's carry with part two with Dr. Jocelyn. You and I first met, I think it was around sort of, we were just coming out of COVID lockdowns or something like that. We were still in them in New Zealand.

Julie South [00:02:00]:
But you, if I remember, you said that you had I think 15 or 20 minute consults pre Covid and then because of all of the, the safety requirements that Covid brought with it, you needed to increase them. And then when you, you increase them to I think 30 minutes. And then when you came out of COVID your, you wanted to revert, but your team asked you to stay. And huge kudos for you because as I said just now, it's unheard of. So one, two things. One, your team asked you and you heard them, which comes back to the value of listening. And two, you were open to what they were saying and asking. So now with a few years of hindsight, how's that been for you with 30 minute consults as a clinic owner?

Jocelyn Birch Baker [00:03:14]:
Oh, I find it's brilliant. It's brilliant for our ethos, our community ethos, our working with our clients, our values, with that relationship developing, we have the ability now to work our cases up really to quite a high level because we have this discussion with the owner, we develop the trust, they go, okay, yes, I understand that you want to do X rays, you want to run the Bloods and oh, yes, you'd like to do an ultrasound as well so that we can get the bottom of this and find a great treatment plan. There's been a shift of financials, actually, from that quicker turnover at the front of the clinic to coming to the back of the clinic where we are doing a much deeper, better workup for our clients. Of course, then that also comes with developing our skills, so which is a bonus for us because we've developed, you know, we've got better X rays, we're better at X rays, the ultrasound. Virginia is just a whizkey with the ultrasound. She's amazing and I'm getting better and yeah, now Virginia has, she's got a special interest in eyes, so she has done a whole heap of postgrad research and learning in eyes. So she's always kid with the eyes and she clients coming from all over Central Queensland that vets are referring to her. So again, she needs that 30 minute and sometimes more because she's a second opinion on that eye or eyes for that patient.

Jocelyn Birch Baker [00:04:45]:
So she needs that extra time and to develop that understanding of what's gone on with the other vet, what the owners are looking for, what outcomes they're looking for. So it's just blended into, I think, a better clinic, a more knowledgeable clinic. And. And then of course, the nurses are going, oh, what's going on with these eyes? So they're learning a bit more, so we don't need to rush around doing things. And. And why would you rush your animals? Because they're frightened already when they come into the clinic. So we really work on not rushing things. And you can call it the fear free if you like.

Jocelyn Birch Baker [00:05:20]:
We don't do fear free, hopefully, probably, but we're very conscious that animals are quite frightened when they come in. And again, that 30 minute, you're touching the animal, you're developing its confidence, you're connecting with it and understanding that, you know, it starts understanding that it's quite safe with you. So, yeah, loving the 30 minute and listening to your team, man, why wouldn't you listen to your team? They're the ones doing it for you. They're just great. And they have so many good ideas. Julie, like what? I mean, I have ideas and some of them, yeah, they're not great, but I try. But if you listen to your team, you've got 10 different people who have ideas and their ideas come from their experiences, which are different to mine because, you know, Megan's out the front of the house, she hears what people are Saying at the front of the house when they're away from the vet, which is really important because they might felt too shy to say that to me but they might say it to Megan and that's really important. She'll come back and say oh Justin, those people are a bit uncomfortable about something.

Jocelyn Birch Baker [00:06:27]:
So I know. And that's communication, it's sharing, it's listening, it's really important.

Julie South [00:06:33]:
I just want to just interrupt here and say that for any clinic owners listening right now who are on 15 or 20 minute consults and you're listening to Jocelyn talk about 30 minute consults and you're thinking eek. That means I have to halve my consult value and I'm using air quotes with value. Please get hold of Jocelyn at Smooth Operatingvets. I will put the links to that in the show notes so that you can talk to her direct. Cause she's got a framework on how to do this and make this work for you for other clinics. So I'll put that link there. That's correct, isn't it Justin, you are smooth operating there. Yeah.

Jocelyn Birch Baker [00:07:22]:
Thanks Julie.

Julie South [00:07:22]:
Yep. The other thing I want to say is if you are looking for your next, looking to make your next professional move then check out vickclinicjobs.com where the information about how to work for Jocelyn is there because right now she is looking for a small animal companion. Vet.

Jocelyn Birch Baker [00:07:49]:
Yeah. We are looking for someone else to join us. It'll be terrific.

Julie South [00:07:52]:
You've talked about tech so technology is important to you. Yes, absolutely, yes. It sounds like you've got a lot of. I was told by a vet nurse lecturer never to call them toys. It sounds like you've got. She said it's very demeaning. Okay, I won't do that. It sounds like you've got a lot of kit, a lot of high end equipment that, that makes working at your clinic easier.

Jocelyn Birch Baker [00:08:27]:
Well, yeah, we try to have everything that you need up here because it is, it is a nine hour journey to a specialist centre or to an emergency. Oh we do have a little emergency centre up here now but to a specialist centre to the next level it's a nine hour journ. So it's a two to three day trip down to Brisbane to have your animal looked after there. So we have, we have an endoscope so we can pop down and have a look what's going on in the stomach. We have the Dr. X ray, we have two dental machines because we did a lot of dentals. I think we've cleaned up a Lot of them now. So we mostly doing scale and polish, but we always have two.

Jocelyn Birch Baker [00:09:07]:
So we got a backup for those dental days and we had the dental X ray as well. So we know exactly what's going on in there. Virginia has everything she needs to. She has a diamond bur for her eyes, looking after those with the corneas mostly, and any really fine delicate surgery equipment and suture material because she does the corneal grafts as well. We use Easy Vet to a really high level. Everything's in there. So what I loved about when I sort of came back after sort of being out for a year or so, you come back and you got a suspect, snake bite, dog come in and you go, oh, okay, where do I start with this? You can just put Snake, snake in the template and out pops all this. Do this test, do that test, do that test.

Jocelyn Birch Baker [00:09:55]:
Start with this, Give it this much antiserum. Watch for this, watch for that. It's just brilliant, I think. Oh, thank goodness. And so we did have a new grad start with us this year and I think she really appreciated that too because, you know, your panic just sets in. You need, you need a pathway. You need just even a starting pathway because everyone wants answers from you straight away. And you don't have answers straight away, but you've got a pathway right there.

Jocelyn Birch Baker [00:10:25]:
So that's really good. So most of our hit by car emergency presentation, we've got a little template you go through, so that helps a lot. And that's technology. Easy Vet does all our reminders, it's all automatically set up. You just get a vaccine and clickety click, and next thing you know, they're getting a reminder next month or next year appointments, they get a little text before the appointment. They need to. Well, it's really nice if they let us know they're definitely coming. If they're not, if there's not a green flag, someone can call them, say, hey, are you still coming? And they go, oh, yes, I just forgot to click.

Jocelyn Birch Baker [00:11:03]:
It's fine, it's lovely. What other tech we got? Oh, we have Vet Radar and that's checking on our hospital. So every time any medication's given, it goes into Vet Radar. All our hospital checks are in Vet Radar. Lots of iPads everywhere. The monitoring of the anaesthetics, it goes straight back into EasyVet. As I said, the Cubex monitoring our inventory very closely is just brilliant.

Julie South [00:11:28]:
You touched briefly on schooling, so let's hypothetic because, you know, I just mentioned you're looking for a vet. Let's presume that your new next hire is going to come from outside of Rockhampton or maybe even outside of Queensland or maybe even outside of Australia. What's the schooling like for kids?

Jocelyn Birch Baker [00:11:57]:
It's really, really good. We've got mums in our clinic. Obviously they all choose different schoolings, different types of daycare according to what they. We've got a mum there with a little one, one of our nurse, she's a vet tech nurse, Mikala, she's just delightful. So she's got this little one, it's about 15 months. He pops into daycare at Yepoon because she lives at Yeppoon and she drives all the way in. So that's how she's worked it out with the daycare. Yeah, you can generally find some daycare.

Jocelyn Birch Baker [00:12:28]:
It can be a bit tricky, but most of our mums find a daycare. Okay, then up into the primary schools. There's primary schools everywhere. Really, really good at the primary school state. And if they choose to go private, there's really good private ones as well. There's the girls grammar and there's also grammar, TCC and Emmaus. So there's. Oh, there's a number of private ones.

Jocelyn Birch Baker [00:12:50]:
Yeah, they're really good. My two girls went to just a state school for a while and then over to girls grammar and then over to the co ed grammar, the rocky grammar. You know, they get a really, really good education here.

Julie South [00:13:05]:
What are your clients like?

Jocelyn Birch Baker [00:13:07]:
Lovely. Just lovely. They're just lovely. And I think it's partly that relationship that we develop with them. They know you and because you got time with them, they discuss with you. I. Yeah. Again, my children have been through school with some of their children, you know their animal and you've watched that animal go from puppy to old age.

Jocelyn Birch Baker [00:13:27]:
You have that discussion and they trust you to be there for them and look after the animal as best you can within your capacity. My capacity and their capacity. And that's not just financial, that's their capacity. Can they. Can they give tablets? Are they there twice a day to do this? Is the dog wild and crazy and hard to catch on afternoon? I don't know. You know, you've got all these things to think about. It's. I get very.

Jocelyn Birch Baker [00:13:57]:
Oh, just confused about when people say it's all about the money. It's not all about the money. It's about helping people look after their animals the best way they can. So if they've got stairs in their house, we have to figure out when this dog gets to 15 years old, how are we going to manage those stairs? So it's just not about the money at all. It's about how we're going to look after this little one into their old age. So, yeah, our clients are lovely because, and I think part of it is because they have the time to discuss with us how they're feeling about their animal, how they want to look after their animal. It's not a, oh, I'll give it some pain relief and off you go. It's how are we going to manage this little one into their old age?

Julie South [00:14:39]:
That's part two of our High Street Vet Surgery series. You've heard about the clinical excellence that 30 minute consults makes happen, enables, supports, brings about. Next time, discover the team culture and the values that make it all possible. And learn exactly what Dr. Jocelyn is looking for in her next team member that could be you. You can find out more@vetclinicjobs.com High StreetVetSurgery street as in St. I'll put all links in the show notes or wherever you're listening to this to make it easy for you. And another big thank you to Vet Clinic Jobs.

Julie South [00:15:24]:
The job board direct hiring reimagined no agency. When you have time to build your real relationships with clients like the team does at High Street Vets. Better patient outcomes naturally flow and of course you know that. But this is an everyday thing at High Street Vets. Until next time, this is Julie south inviting you to go out there and be your most fantabulous self because you work with a team like Dr. Jocelyn's at high Street Vets.

Jocelyn Birch Baker [00:16:07]:
Sam.