Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Kenneth Pierce, DVM, MS, DACVO. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Kenneth, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?
The veterinary industry is one that has been very stable in times of turmoil and has shown exceptional growth in pet ownership and pet health care standards. With an increase in pet ownership, large retiring population of general practitioners, and influx of new veterinary graduates, the demand on day-to-day healthcare operations of the general practitioner has significantly increased stressing the ability to uphold quality veterinary care standards. Along with this, veterinary specialty practices and veterinary specialists are of limited numbers compared to the growing industry demands. Over the past 17 years of being a veterinary ophthalmologist traveling across all parts of the nation and providing advisory support to general practicing veterinarians, I have witnessed the impact empowering advisory support has on the knowledge, confidence, and healthcare practices of general practitioners and successful health outcomes of pets. VESEPECON, an acronym for Veterinary Specialty Consultants, is that solution to these industry bottlenecks. With our “SET” of core values (Supportive, Empowering & Educational, Trustworthy & Timely) VESPECON was established to be the premiere, veterinary specialists-to-veterinarian consulting firm and concierge referral service, streamlining access to specialty care and access to specialty hospitals throughout the nation. VESEPCON provides concierge, personal virtual consultations with one or more veterinary specialists for general veterinary practitioners and hospitals, yielding specialists level care at a local level. VESEPCON members, either in metropolitan or rural parts of the nation, are now able to practice and provide a higher level of care and improve patient outcomes and success by having a team of veterinary specialists of all specialty fields readily available to them for support.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
My career in veterinary medicine began with wanting to become a doctor but not wanting to work on people. LOL! Veterinary medicine was presented to me by family as a career opportunity. From there I worked with a general practitioner in New Orleans, LA and attended Tuskegee University for my undergraduate education. As a resident of Louisiana, I attended Louisiana State University’s School of Veterinary Medicine and then completed a small animal rotating internship at the University of Tennessee and an ophthalmology specialty internship in southern California. I was attracted to ophthalmology in veterinary school as it is the coolest organ of the body where you can directly visualize disease processes in situ, correct sight, work on any and all animals, and perform some very cool and intricate surgeries. I then completed my ophthalmology residency with Master’s degree at Michigan State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine. My ophthalmology career began as an Associate Professor at LSU SVM, and then transitioned to private practice in New Jersey for several years and then in Plano Texas. I then decided to begin my own clinical practice, Veterinary Vision Center, in Shreveport, LA, which services a region of the nation that has never had a permanent daily veterinary ophthalmologist to service the community. From all of the experiences gained throughout the years and the impact advisory support has provided general practitioners and patients, VESPECON was established to bring a comprehensive network of specialists to veterinarians across the nation. VESPECON solves the problem of limited timely access to veterinary specialists of all disciplines for small, large, and exotic animals, and streamlines patient appointments into specialty hospitals. No longer are there long wait times to get into a specialty hospital in your area. Our concierge service gets veterinarians connected with specialists, when they are available, for case advisement, and gets pets into specialty hospitals as soon as possible for specialty procedures, when needed. This specialists level of care at your local veterinary hospital is invaluable and significantly improves the success of your pet’s health. Our personal approach and ease of access empowers your veterinarian with the knowledge and confidence to manage your pet’s health and broadens their scope of veterinary practice. This level of support is at no additional cost to the general public, which removes the barrier to specialty care for clients on a budget. We make it easy to improve the practice of specialty veterinary medicine nationwide.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
I have been a veterinary ophthalmologist, in both academic and private practice settings, for 17+ years. Throughout my years and travels, as a specialists, I have advised general practitioners on the management of ophthalmology (eye) cases. As a profession, specialists do this locally on a daily basis. After starting Veterinary Vision Center in Shreveport, LA, I was one of two specialists in the region servicing northern Louisiana, east Texas, and southern Arkansas. Since opening the VVC doors four years ago, I am now the only specialist in the region and on a daily basis clients and local veterinarians tell me “Thank you for being here”. Across the nation veterinarians are doing their level best to care for pets. The growing daily case numbers and demands on general practitioners, caused by an increase in veterinarian retirement, increase in pet ownership, and lack of yearly increasing numbers of veterinary specialist, has resulted in elevated stressors on quality veterinary care nationwide. Seeing these bottlenecks and the value access to veterinary specialists of all fields has on the local veterinarians and case outcomes, I decided to start a company that will resolve these problems. VESPECON, which is an acronym for VEterinary SPEcialty CONsultants, was establish to provide veterinary hospitals and doctors with a comprehensive network of specialists of all fields for advisory support on a national and international level. Now, I still provide clinical coverage to the Ark-La-Tex community via Veterinary Vision Center, but now have a much broader reach nationwide with VESPECON. I have also brought in trusted advisors who I have known throughout the years who are like-minded, wanting to support, empower and educate our veterinary community with timely and trustworthy information. These are VESPECON’s “SET” of core values.
What’s been the best source of new clients for you?
The best source of new clients for VESPECON has come from various avenues. Our target clients are general veterinary practitioners and veterinary hospital owners/decision makers who are looking to enhance their veterinarian support system, new graduate mentorship, and level of veterinary practice within their facility. By making this investment patients have more successful outcomes, the general public client is more satisfied with getting specialists level care locally, and the hospital sees more efficient revenue generation. The veterinarian gets case-based continuing education that not only helps that case, but future patients suffering with the same or similar conditions. Our clients have come from veterinarians we met at local or national meetings, advertisements we have placed in veterinary magazines or online resources, consolidator groups looking to support their doctors, and organic word of mouth from the general public talking with their veterinarian about VESPECON being a resource to help their pet. VESPECON is great for veterinarians in rural and metropolitan regions. We are also valuable for veterinary specialty hospitals across the nation, as we help funnel cases into them in a timely manner where the client is educated on what is needed, money is not wasted on the front end, and the patient’s health doesn’t deteriorate during the time it takes to get into a specialty hospital.
Contact Info:
- Website: vespecon.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vespeconvsc/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Vespecon
- Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/vespecon
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/vespecon
- Other: Email: [email protected]