By Jenny Callison
Enquirer contributor

Dr. Daniel Meakin examines a dog with vet tech Karen Pilis at All Creatures on Wednesday. (Ernest Coleman photo) | ZOOM |

AMELIA - All Creatures Animal Hospital tries to live up to its name. In addition to caring for traditional pets it treats birds, reptiles and large animals such as llamas, goats and pigs.

Although the veterinary center is on the east side of Amelia, animal lovers from as far away as Northern Kentucky and Cincinnati's west side bring their exotic pets for diagnosis and treatment. In its 13 years, All Creatures has grown tremendously and is getting ready to expand again.

When a company's specialty is breadth of focus, it must manage innovatively to avoid becoming overextended, threatening both its profitability and the quality of its services. Good management, according to All Creatures owner and head veterinarian Dan Meakin, begins with a clearly defined mission and market.

"We're pretty much focused on companion animals," he said. "We don't see goats that are part of a herd, or flocks of chickens, for example. But the other day a person came in with a pet turkey, and we had a couple of pot-bellied pigs recently."

The practice strives to provide convenient, high-quality health services while operating efficiently. It offers extended hours and vets are available after hours and on weekends for emergency care. How does Meakin keep productivity high and prevent professional burnout?

Meakin

"I like to surround myself with a lot of qualified, capable people," Meakin said. "I delegate a lot, and I follow up with what I delegate. Whole marketing plans are delegated: I say, 'This is what we need to do; you guys make it happen.'"

A statement of mission and goals that's given to All Creatures' 51 employees urges them to help the practice achieve its goals. It includes the following:

"Your obligation is to determine the areas our clinic needs to address for improvement. Understanding new technologies, better utilization of the computer, improving clinical skills and developing better client communication skills are just a few of the areas you might address.

"We work with a service called Veterinary Practice Consulting, which comes in once a year and trains my staff so they can run the practice. We also train our new vets to work more efficiently," Meakin said.

All Creatures' four veterinarians are expected to diagnose problems and prescribe treatment, and then allow technical support staff to provide that treatment.

"We learn from the best practices of human practices, especially dental practices," Meakin said. "Using this approach, one dentist can spread himself very thin with hygienists providing much of the patient care.

"We are also organized into an outpatient team and an inpatient team. When a pet has a problem that requires more time, the pet stays here and is monitored by the inpatient team."

All Creatures' staff also make the most of their time by using e-mail for much client communication.

"Clients can e-mail us with questions; I get four or five, maybe even 10 e-mails a day," Meakin said. "Staff help with e-mails. We also get tons of phone calls, and every pet owner gets a follow-up call after bringing in a pet. One staff member is responsible for phone calls each day. If more information is needed, calls and questions are referred to one of the doctors. The vets emphasize complete communication among the staff and between staff and clients.

On a recent afternoon Dr. Brenda Specht was at a farm, treating a large animal. Dr. Santiago Yerovi examined several dogs while exotic-pet specialist Dr. Ann Manharth treated a slider turtle before checking on the progress of a parakeet with allergies. After a technician anaesthetized a Savannah monitor lizard, Meakin performed surgery to remove an internal blockage.

"Not very many vets are experienced with reptiles and birds," technical supervisor Cathy Mastromauro said. "The problem with reptiles is that each species is very different internally. This monitor is completely unlike an iguana, for instance."

Meakin comes in very early, especially when he has several operations lined up.

"We do 20 to 25 surgeries a day," Mastromauro said. "X-ray, ultrasound, and blood-panel diagnostics are available on the premises. We now do laser surgery, making procedures less painful and decreasing bleeding. More and more orthopedic surgery is performed here, which decreases the need for referrals to specialists."

In fact, All Creatures is working hard to become all-things-pet. It has a boarding kennel and offers grooming, day care, obedience training, dentistry and behavior consultation. There's a cat and dog adoption service. A shop on site, Noah's Treasures, sells pet food and accessories in addition to animal-themed gifts.

"We have multiple profit centers, but everything is related to animal care," Meakin said. "Preserving the human-animal bond drives our financial aspect."

E-mail jcallison@zoomtown.com