Innovation

In 2009, Dr. Heather Fretz and her business partner Dr. Sharon Saxon-Buri purchased Port Colborne Animal Hospital and changed the face of the business. The main focus on change was how the business was operated and primarily focusing on the employees. Over years of experience in the veterinary industry, background knowledge, and research they came up with team focused way of managing the hospital.

Throughout this innovation they were able to help reach four SDG's and may potentially help alleviate some of the others in the future. The innovation focuses on the mental health of the employees, people in the community and the owners of the corporation, as well as generating a profit and continuing to grow in the market share. The main focus of the hospital is animal healthcare and well being, but over the many years of experience Port Colborne Animal Hospital has learned that the key to having a healthy pet is a healthy and happy owner, which in turn comes back to having a happy and interdependent staff. Ensuring that all aspects of the community whether it is internal or external is of most importance.

Port Colborne Hospital Staff decorating the hospital for Christmas

Inspiration

Originally Dr. Fretz took inspiration for this ideology from exchanging philosophical perspectives with her business partner. Through trial and error they were able to create a system that has been perfected for their business today. Management and leadership is shared between the whole team instead of a "top down" leadership style. This creates an environment which fosters inclusiveness and promotes transparency.

Dr. Fretz states that the goal to her approach would be to “Offer an opportunity for fulfillment in the veterinarian industry.” She wanted to see people flourish in the profession. Over the last number of years the amount of suicides in the veterinary industry has increased dramatically. Dr. Fretz wanted to take initiatives within her clinic to help alleviate this issue. "It can be quite disappointing to see people take on jobs which are unfulfilling, especially after putting so much time, resources, and effort into it," Dr. Fretz states. With Port Colborne Animal Hospital’s approach, the well-being of the team is improved which results in highly engaged employees ready to serve their customers better and by extension the community. Continuing to do so is of main focus of the corporation as well as perfecting the system to teach to others has been discussed as well.

Overall impact

Over the years of implementing the innovation into their business model there have been many short term and long term affects that Port Colborne Animal Hospital have encountered. Learning from these affects have allowed them to continue to develop their innovation which benefits everyone involved.

Firstly, the short term affects. Over the past few months by allowing staff of the hospital to make suggestions and management decisions the corporation has dramatically seen a decline in the amount of sick days and missed days from work. This increases productivity and provides good service. If the staff is short someone from the schedule, it can make a very evident difference in the service provided to the customer.

Secondly, the long term affects. Many people would agree that a company that provides good service is very attractive to continue to do business with. When dealing with pets it is very important to trust your veterinarian and the business they run. Pets are family and they need the best care that you can get them. As mentioned before the quality of the service has increased in many ways which brings back repeat customers. Finally many of the staff have initiated therapy for dogs and cats before surgery which no other clinic has implemented in the area as far as they know. These minor details are important to pet owners and also helps benefit the health of the pet.

Business benefit

Over the last few years Port Colborne Animal Hospital has offered people an opportunity to be fulfilled in the veterinarian industry. Dr. Fretz wants to see the hospital’s employees flourish in this industry and “when they feel good, they do good”. Employee well-being has increased emotionally and financially. Dr. Fretz states, "We pay our employees at the top end of the scale for their specific positions." In addition to being more involved in management, the employees at Port Colborne Animal Hospital never work on Saturday’s. This gives the team time to have outside interests and spend time with family promoting healthy lifestyles.

Over the last few years revenue growth has continued to grow as well as the client base. This is one way to measure the success of the business. Many factors have allowed for this to occur but it is easy to acknowledge that the innovation of team based management is responsible for a lot of the success. The technicians, desk staff, and veterinarians “build bonds with people in the community” Dr. Fretz declares. It is the staff that retain clients.

The Hospital is also thinking about the future by mentoring and supporting students from as low as high-school level. They can learn for a day or two or even as much as the full summer through co-ops. Teaching students at a young age how to incorporate this management style into their daily lives will ensure success and potential opportunity for them to use it someday. It is very likely that these students will become future owners in the vet industry or managers.

Social and environmental benefit

Dr. Fretz declares the mission is to “provide a high standard of care in veterinarian medicine and to do that that serves the community and allows people to get the most benefit out of their relationship with their pet.” In the service industry the social aspect of the job is the most evident but sometimes the most difficult. There will always be difficult customers, personal value testing situations and other social encounters that may affect society. Port Colborne Animal Hospital does a marvelous job of attending to all of the social issues at hand at a given time and does so in a timely and respectful manor.

“Community is right in our mission statement” Dr. Fretz states. They have clients who come in and feel like family and having this support really provides a caring environment. The organization is showing that trustworthy respectful practices catered to satisfying employees is directly related to consumer satisfaction in society.

Port Colborne Animal Hospital with their open-management style are always open to feed-back. Having these close relationships between employees, feedback is taken more seriously and veterinarians are environmental at heart. If an employee sees an opportunity to be more environmentally friendly Dr. Fretz promotes that they “can come talk to her about it” to find a solution. In-house laboratory machines were put into the clinic in 2018 to cut down on the wait time for results. This also cuts down on the travel of consumers and any transport pollution and cost they would have normally endured in the commute. This was an idea put forward by team-workers in this work environment at the hospital. With this innovation, more solutions to helping the environmental can be achieved. Another example of the clinic being environmentally friendly is how they use their recycling. All of the shredded paper is used for bedding inside the cages for the animals when they are waiting for surgery or recovering after surgery. This is just a little example but over time it adds up.

Interview

Heather Fretz, Partner/President