How to Make
Money Using Metron-Pro in your Equine Veterinary Practice
EponaTech
Answer: Announce
a “Preventative Hoof-Care Program” to your clients and
make Metron the centerpiece of that program.
What is the Concept?
Hoof and leg problems are the 2nd
leading cause of “loss of use” for the horse, and owners
are worried about their horse’s feet, and often willing to
do more to take care of them. You sell them an “add-on” service
to your usual radiography service: for an additional fee, you
will generate a computerized, measured report on the state of
their horse’s hooves (using Metron) and will keep the information
on file at your practice. In a preventative hoof-care program,
we suggest horses are radiographed once yearly just to assess
the state of their hooves & lower legs. This will bring you more income from radiography
(help pay for that new DR system) and also help you make more
money from your existing client base.
How do you Sell it to your
Clients?
You sell it to clients with sound horses. You tell them that
it is a good idea to make a record of the feet – their conformation,
and the conformation of the bones within – so that in 6 months,
a year, or 2 years, when/if something goes wrong, you can refer
back to a time of soundness and see what has changed.
This helps protect the owner from inevitable farrier changes,
seasonal changes, horse-aging changes, and gives a baseline from which to assess things. Of course, you also sell it to clients with
lame horses, as a means of helping to diagnose and document what
is going on, as well as a great communication tool to explain
it to the owner and/or give suggestions to the farrier.
What can you Charge for This?
Like everything, this is highly dependent
on your local economic environment.
We know in California of clinics that charge $100 for 4
lateral radiographs, and charge an additional $150 for the measured
Metron report. One clinic does about one such “Metron
Evaluation” per week on an on-going basis for the past several
years. This clinic reports that they attract new clients
because owners hear that “Dr. So-and-So has a computerized
hoof-tracking system” and so owners in their area seek them
out.
How much Additional Work is
it for Me?
You spend some time transferring the
radiographs into Metron. We
also highly suggest that you take digital photos of the feet as
well – this is done at the same time the horse is “on
the blocks” to have the radiographs taken.
So, there is extra time to take photos and to get the photos
and rads into the computer. If you use film radiographs, we suggest the
Radiograph Digital Converter (RDC) to digitize
the films and move them smoothly into Metron.
Then, you will spend some time at Metron, picking key points
and generating a report. This might require a half hour per horse –
more or less depending how good you get at driving Metron.
If you have a Vet-Tech, they
can do it!
If you have a vet-tech, or someone
else helping with your practice, they can do almost the entire
procedure!! Metron has been designed so that the process
of “picking key points” is guided (with little icon
images) so you don’t have to be a vet to drive it.
We know that at some clinics the vet techs do the entire
procedure, and the vet just looks at the end and adds his comments
to the report. It is a great way to leverage your techs and have their time well
paid for!
How Much does it Cost to Get
Started?
We suggest our “full product”
called Metron-Pro for veterinarians ( $799 ). We further suggest
the use of the “EponaTech Block” to allow you to take
the most accurate radiographs and photographs of the
hoof. We sell a “Hardware
Kit” that contains 2 blocks, and other items needed for calibration
of photos ( $210
) . You need a digital camera (only $200 these days) and
a PC (everyone has one, don’t they?).
If you use film radiographs, we suggest
the Radiograph Digital Converter ( $2995
) as an excellent way to easily digitize your films and get them
into Metron. Metron-Pro includes a direct interface to this unit.
Order
here.
