Estimated reading time: 7 minutes
Dr David Tabrett’s 24/7 veterinary emergency centre has instituted a share ownership program for its staff who treat 10,000 animals each year. By Frank Leggett
Dr David Tabrett, owner and founder of the Animal Referral and Emergency Centre (AREC) in the NSW city of Newcastle, is dedicated to employing the right people and providing value for his staff. AREC offers 24/7 care and a range of services from surgery to rehabilitation to dermatology and ophthalmology.
“Emergency work can be challenging,” he says. “It’s shift work, it’s fast paced and you can be on your feet for 12 hours. Employing the right staff is paramount in making a business like ours work efficiently.”
A program that has been very successful at AREC is the share ownership plan that has been in operation for the past three years. Fourteen staff are now employee/owners of the business, alongside Dr Tabrett, the 15th owner.
“It’s given a real boost to those involved and as time goes on, more of our team will become eligible for the program,” he says. “It provides staff with a stake in the business and I’m excited to see growth of the employee ownership model.”
Working days
While Dr Tabrett can have difficulties in finding appropriate staff to fill specific roles, he provides a culture and environment within the business that focuses on people development.
“It doesn’t matter whether we’re employing an animal attendant, vet nurse, vet or someone in an admin or management role,” he says. “I want the time they spend with us to contribute value for the client and the pet owner. Just as importantly, they need to be adding value to themselves. When they leave here, their knowledge and skills must be improved by having spent time with our business.”
The work in an emergency centre is varied and every day offers new opportunities and unusual cases. At certain times of the year, AREC is flooded with cases of tick poisoning and snake bites. A common condition is vomiting dogs.
“The fascination about these cases is that there are so many different things that can make a dog vomit,” says Dr Tabrett. “It can have a simple cause like mouldy food but sometimes, it’s quite a complex medical problem that requires surgery. It’s an interesting part of the work.”
Growing business
Dr Tabrett graduated from the University of Queensland in 1989 but has worked in the Hunter Valley and Newcastle for most of his career. While working in a mixed practice in 2003, it became clear to him that there was no access to an after-hours veterinary business. It was also obvious that the area was big enough to sustain an emergency hospital.
“I set up the clinic from scratch in 2004 with the aid of four other investors,” says Dr Tabrett. “I didn’t really know what I was letting myself in for—it was only myself and one other person working in the business. Fortunately, we were able to employ some exceptional staff who believed in what I wanted to achieve.”
We have a contract with our clients: our part is to provide veterinary services for their animals, their part is to pay the fee. There’s no point in surprising clients about cost. If clients think we’re expensive, we’re more than happy to go through costs.
Dr David Tabrett, founder, AREC
Dr Tabrett visited other GP vets in the area and informed them about his after-hours service. Many were happy and relieved to use this new option while others blatantly rejected the idea. “Eventually, most of them came around to use our services,” he says. “I had a business strategy but all strategies come with risk.”
With the entry of corporate ownership into the local veterinary market, Dr Tabrett noticed an increase in workload as GP vet staff prioritised their work-life balance, and valued the opportunity to refer patients for after hours and complex care. The business expanded relatively quickly and has grown into a successful enterprise.
Over time, Dr Tabrett has bought out all his original investors. AREC recently took over an entire building and are in the process of building a new 1000 square metre hospital. With over 100 staff members, Dr Tabrett has moved away from clinical work to take on an administrative role.
“The larger the business grows, the more complexity increases,” he says. “We now offer referral services in dermatology, rehab and ophthalmology, partnering with different people in those roles. We have an HR department of four and a CEO who’s not me. We’ve added a board of directors with three non-executive directors, two of whom do not have veterinary experience.”
Dr Tabrett has welcomed the chance to step back and has taken the opportunity to earn a master’s degree in psychology and another in business law and company directorship. He is AREC’s CFO and is president of the Australian and New Zealand College of Veterinary Scientists while also on the Australian Veterinary Association NSW Division executive committee. He has also become a certified CPR instructor.
Price is right
The AREC website is comprehensive and lists fees clearly for clients to peruse. With much client abuse stemming from altercations over price, this makes perfect sense.
“Transparency and honesty allows people to make informed decisions,” says Dr Tabrett. “We have a contract with our clients: our part is to provide veterinary services for their animals, their part is to pay the fee. There’s no point in surprising clients about cost. If clients think we’re expensive, we’re more than happy to go through costs and explain how we formulate our fees. Pricing needs to be fair to clients, staff and owners so we make a reasonable profit that allows us to be open tomorrow.”
Of course, running a large 24/7 emergency clinic has its challenges. Finding staff, creating fair rosters, dealing with HR issues, working out holiday leave are all ongoing issues to be resolved.
“The biggest challenge is that there’s no opportunity for downtime,” says Dr Tabrett. “This means maintenance occurs while we are operating as a clinic. Organising training and staff meetings and get-togethers with people is very problematic. We need to ensure everyone’s included. We run our quarterly staff meetings twice on different days so everyone can stay across developments. Training is also doubled to cover everyone. It makes everything more expensive but there’s no other way to do it.”
Looking forward
AREC is a member of Vets for Climate Action and it donates a part of each appointment to the cause. It also runs as a sustainable practice working hard to reduce emissions as much as possible.
“This is part of our culture and a longstanding part of the business,” says Dr Tabrett. “We have a program where team members recognise each other for their actions and behaviours. It could be they helped out a client or teammate in a difficult situation. The business contributes a dollar to climate action for every act of recognition. We also raised our consult fees by $1 and contribute that amount towards climate action. Before setting up these donations, we ran the proposal past the staff and they were enthusiastic about it.”
AREC’s new hospital will soon open in the nearby suburb of Broadmeadow, 400 metres away from the existing centre, more staff will become employee/owners, and another 10,000 animals will be treated each year. The business is also looking at adding more referral services in surgery and internal medicine.
“Even though I’m wearing a number of different hats, the clinical space still fascinates me,” says Dr Tabrett. “I have decades of veterinary knowledge, and I want to keep up with latest developments. I have my work cut out for me.”
