Women Veterinary Owners
For several years, my business partner and I were members of a veterinary management study group. This was a great experience and we learned an amazing amount from the group leaders and even more from the other specialty practice owners.
Ownership of veterinary specialty practices has been overwhelmingly male but we were lucky to have good gender balance in our group. I have really enjoyed getting to know Lucy Shields Henney, DVM DACVS, the owner of Oakland Veterinary Referral Services in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan . Today I want to share her inspiring story.
Dr. Henney’s Story
Lucy grew up in Michigan and attended Michigan State University undergrad and veterinary school. She worked in general practice for 2 years while her husband was doing a federal law clerkship. They then moved east while Lucy did her residency at the joint Tufts/Angell program. She stayed on as clinical faculty for an additional year while she took her surgery boards.
Lucy and her husband really wanted to return home to Michigan. At that time (1989), there were no multispecialty private practices in Michigan. Lucy’s goal was to work in a practice that provided complete care for pets so she started talking to after hour emergency clinics in order to find a place she could work during the day with after hours care for her patients.
She was able to find an emergency clinic that was closed during the day to set up her practice. Despite being the only board certified surgeon outside of the college, all the banks refused to loan her $50,000 for surgical equipment. Without an income or business, she was only able to secure the loan after her father-in-law co-signed.
In 1989, Lucy started her surgical practice in Michigan. She worked 5 days a week, joined her local VMAs and worked hard to make good connections and friendships in the area. Because it wasn’t possible for her to both cut every ER surgery and also perform all the day surgeries, she worked to help the overnight doctors become comfortable with the common ER surgeries. This was important to allow a balanced schedule to start a family.
Practice Growth
Her practice grew. Other specialists also moved to town and formed independent agreements with the ER. Within a short time, the practice ran out of room. Lucy started contacting bankers again and with a lot of leg work was able to find financing for a small leasehold in a strip mall for her own 24-hour practice. SBA financing has some specific programs to support women owned businesses which Lucy was able to use. Some doctors came with Lucy while others split into a different group.
With further addition of specialists and growth, Lucy was able to build her dream hospital in 2004. Oakland Veterinary Referral Services now has 33 veterinary specialists and emergency doctors and a resident. It is one of the largest multi-specialty hospitals in Southeast Michigan.
During all of this, Lucy had 3 children. She hired a second surgeon and cut down to 4 days a week when her second child was born and cut further to 3 days a week when her 3rd child was born. She actually went into labor with her second child while performing a sub-total colectomy on a cat!
Advice for Women considering practice ownership
I asked Lucy to share how she managed all this and her advice to women considering practice ownership. She had the following five pieces of advice for women veterinary owners.
1) Follow your passion.
If you dream big and keep in mind your vision, you can accomplish great things. For Lucy, her goal was always to provide the absolute best patient care and not take short cuts. She quickly realized that she would be most able to direct what medical care should look like if she controlled her practice and her hospital.
2) Dream big but act realistically.
While it is critical to have your vision of providing the best care in mind, you also have to be smart about costs and business realities. Lucy’s practice weathered the recession in Michigan by being really clear about what equipment they had to have and which was really extra and would not add value.
3) When you are off, you need to be off.
It was really important for Lucy to be able to spend quality time with her family when she was not in the hospital. She thus worked hard to create a hospital culture where people finish their day on time, where on call rotates fairly, and where doctors can cover each other’s cases. This culture not only allows Lucy time with her family but creates more off time for everyone.
4) You can be a mom and have a satisfying career by prioritizing.
Lucy was able to be a room mom at her kid’s school by prioritizing her day off. She realized that PTA meetings were not worth while and concentrated on those school activities that maximized her time directly with her kids. At work, she helped cover so other parents could make important activities and they, in turn, helped her.
5) You need help.
Lucy realized that one of her staff had amazing management and leadership potential. Jim Thompson has been with her for 18 years and his management skills have been instrumental in the practice growth. By having a great manager, Lucy has been able to continue to do surgery, which she loves. In addition, Lucy’s husband has been very supportive of her hospital and career.
Lucy’s kids are now all out of the house. Her youngest came home from college recently with a group of friends to enjoy a weekend at the family’s house on the lake. One of the daughter’s friends asked, “What does your dad do that you can have this house?” Lucy’s daughter proudly said, “It’s not my dad, it’s because of my Mom.”
Isn’t that the type of role model we want to be for our daughters?
For another story of a great female owned veterinary practice, see my earlier blog about a Cornell classmate who owns two practices in Maryland.
Do you have an inspiring story for women considering practice ownership? Contact me at bdavidow@vetidealist.com.
