I'm gonna let you all in on a secret. A lot of veterinarians are paid at least partially based on commission, for lack of a better term. Many places use a "pro sal" compensation scheme, where "pro" stands for "production" (i.e. the gross income you make for the practice) and "sal" stands for "salary" (i.e. a base amount of pay that the veterinarian gets no matter what).
That part doesn't bother me. Most base salaries are decent (not nearly as high as MDs or even RNs, but that's another issue), and my personal philosophy is that if you consistently try to do right by the pet and the client, the money will follow.
However ... not every veterinarian thinks that way. Unfortunately there are also places (like the corporation I work for) who go report-happy and publish and track production statistics on a VERY frequent basis. Couple that with regional managers who don't have a veterinary background, and let's just say you get what you reward.
On paper (money-wise), I look like a crappier veterinarian than Dr. Relief. Their average income per patient is around $130 and mine is more like $110. However, Dr. Relief does things like prescribe antibiotics in about 80% of the cases that they see - even if it's something minor like the animal sneezed twice or has a localized hotspot. Oh, and had the techs not caught a couple of MAJOR medication errors, Dr. Relief may have killed a couple of animals (not kidding). So the company keeps people like Dr. Relief on staff and nags doctors like me to increase their production*. Nice, eh?
*I should note that no one has bugged me about my production - yet. Apparently after you've been there a year then they start nagging you if you're not hitting their targets. I should also mention that I'm very close to hitting their targets without practicing scheisty medicine.
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