Charging for nurse clinics

Re: Charging for nurse clinics

KizzieB — Fri, 17 May 2013 21:58:19 GMT

Thanks to everyone who took the time to post!! You've really given me some food for thought!!

Re: Charging for nurse clinics

Helen Tottey — Tue, 07 May 2013 21:43:19 GMT

I started nurse consulting 1998/99. I was taken off the nurse rota so another nurse recruited to cover me and was told i had to cover my salary.My boss understood that this would not just be direct sales but indirect sales over time that benefitted the business eg increase in food sales, worming and flea products, counter sales etc.

This was mainly done by bonding clients to the practice during puppy/kitten 1st/2nd vaccines. Clients were more comfortable coming back to us for advice and neutering etc.

We charged for nail clips, anal glands, redress, microchipping but puppy/kitten dental, weight and general advice consults were free.

More specialist consults were charged more for but as previous comments already made here, it depended on additional qualifications. Personally this was behaviour consults as i did the BVNA cert in Small Animal behaviour. Another nurse used to do dermatology clinics as she had additional dermatology qualification and someone else for physiotherapy.

I thinkg nurse clinics/consults are a fantasitc way for us to demonstrate our worth to clients and to bosses who will see increase turnover. Another benefit is it free's up the vets appointments for more clinical issues.

Re: Charging for nurse clinics

Shoned Hawksworth — Sun, 05 May 2013 03:25:41 GMT

I agree with Sal, we are being paid for our time and expertise so there should be a small charge, however i appreciate that many clients do not want to pay to see a nurse. We had this discussion during a nurse clinic CPD and there is mixed reviews on charging, many practices i've worked at have charged for every kind of clinic and others just for nail clip and AG's which is what most people seem to do.

I think it completely depends on what kind of clinics you are running and with how much time and knowledge are needed in order to make them successful. Free to begin with is good to get clients in, but then when you start charged clients will be annoyed, i think a small fee should be charged as it is our expertise, training and time that they are paying for.

Hope the clinics are a success for you

Re: Charging for nurse clinics

Sal the 1st — Sat, 04 May 2013 20:06:19 GMT

nurses clinics are never 'free' because the nurse is being paid for their time if not by the client then by their employer. If the employer chooses to offer 'free' nurse clinics then thats up to them but from experience people value the service more if they are paying something even if its a token amount.

I must admit I used to end up with the majority of EAGs coming into my clinic at a previous practice and they were purposely priced that way because the vet hated doing them - vet charge was £16 and nurse charge was £12 so take a wild guess who they booked in with?

I think in some places (ie corporate) which are figures and target driven the nurses have to work bloody hard to hit targets sometimes - ie I could do 10 or more 2nd vacs during the course of a day but revenue wise they contributed nothing to my figures because the revenue from them was attributed to the vet that had done the 1st vaccination. I feel that there is tons of potential in nurses clinics for both the practices and the nurses running them and they can be hugely rewarding (not just talking money here)

Re: Charging for nurse clinics

Ariana Gooderham — Sat, 04 May 2013 11:09:37 GMT

we do nurse clinics free of charge excluding nail clipping, and AGs. So puppy/kitten clinics, weigh ins, flea/worm applications and microchipping (providing already purchsed from us) are FOC. So, in general if products are already brought from us we dont charge anything, otherwise dependant on time for the job; no more than about £10, more for dematts etc depending on the scale.

really we are told to use our discresion so if we clip only one or two dew claws we dont charge. its difficult as vets would charge for the consult time so balancing raising awareness and reasonable prices can be problematic.
starting off free is a good idea as clients get used to idea of seeing someone other than the vet.

Good Luck!!

Re: Charging for nurse clinics

KizzieB — Fri, 03 May 2013 21:25:47 GMT

Thats sorta what i was thinkin!!! Thanks

Re: Charging for nurse clinics

Aimee Barber — Fri, 03 May 2013 16:42:38 GMT

in my old practice the puppy and kitten growth clinics were free and the dental checks. the weight clinics were free but you usually sold them the weight food. Nail clips, microchips, anal glands, behaviour consults, physio and dematt appointments were charged for. none of these exceeded £20 except for physio and behaviour ( i think behaviour was £65 for an hour and physio was charged more for 1st consults then cheaper for further app).

Re: Charging for nurse clinics

KizzieB — Thu, 02 May 2013 18:59:37 GMT

Thanks for posting back !!

Will charge for nail clip & definately anal glands (YUK!!) It was for the longer consults I was thinking about, the behaviour consults that take ages and things like pysio. Its not clear cut so I was kinda wondering what was best!!

I can also see why they would b free all the time tho!!

Re: Charging for nurse clinics

GremlinNurse — Thu, 02 May 2013 18:14:05 GMT

We don't charge for nurse clinics per se but we do charge for 'extras' like nail clips and anal glands or behaviour consults.

We see the nurse clinics as adding extra value for clients, keeping them coming back and getting their preventative treatments and food from us..hopefully!

I know why you'd want to charge though, and we have an old price on the system of £12 I think but that's from donkeys ago and like I say we don't charge for actually clinic.

HTH x