Staff Burnout: Improving Veterinary Practice Retention and Productivity with Empathy

Mickey O’Connor has been part of the Stokes and Epicur story from the beginning. With his background as a pharmacist, Mickey brings a unique perspective and advantage to his role as Director of Business Development—both to customers and the company. Read our interview with Mickey to learn more about his role and his insights into all that’s happening at Epicur and in the veterinary field! Mickey, thanks for sharing more about your role on the team. Can you start by telling readers about how you got started with Stokes Healthcare and your current role? I’ve been with the company since the early 2000s. I worked with Emmett and Michael in retail pharmacy in the 90s before they purchased Stokes Pharmacy. My first job here with Stokes was as a sales rep selling human compounded medication. I worked as a pharmacist and as a sales rep for several years, and then, as we grew, I took on several different roles and grew into the role of business development. I’ve done everything from being a sales rep and a pharmacist to working in business development with individual veterinarians, practice managers, and purchasers for veterinary hospitals. Currently, I work with corporate groups to help them better manage their inventory and understand why it’s a benefit to utilize Epicur and Stokes Pharmacy. Can you tell us more about those specific benefits and the work you’re doing with corporate groups? A lot of times, the people who are involved from the corporate groups, whether it’s purchasing or management, are unfamiliar with the medication part. In years past, individual purchasers for the hospitals did a lot of the work as far as ordering medication. But, as the veterinary industry has grown, medication has become more important in the sense that there’s a lot more of it and a lot more options. The purchasing groups started to realize that they needed to look at how their individual locations were getting medication for their hospitals, and how to coordinate it so that there’s consistency throughout each hospital to ensure better medication management and purchasing. So, that’s a lot of the conversations I have with them. There’s still a lack of understanding of the difference between a 503A traditional compounding pharmacy versus a 503B outsourcing facility. When I bring up that topic, most of the time they either know very little about those two or nothing at all about 503B. When I explain it, they start to get a better understanding of the differences and can see how Epicur products can help their overall process of managing medication for the hospitals. A Partner for Better Quality At Stokes Healthcare, our mission is to advance the quality of care in veterinary medicine. We support all clinics, whether independent or part of a corporation, with the highest quality medications that your patients deserve. No matter your practice type, we will make sure your practice needs are our priority! The differences in 503A and 503B can be confusing and there’s still a learning curve to it. Why do you think that is? I think it’s because there’s been a lot of change in the veterinary space over the last 20 years, but more recently, over the last five years. Some veterinarians still want to do things the old way, it’s comfortable and what they are used to. Previously we heard vets and their staff say they used to be able to get whatever they wanted when they wanted it, and there was no problem. There was longer dating on compounded products, and individual pharmacists could kind of do things without certain checks and balances, meaning they were able to put a beyond-use date of six months when the product really wasn’t good for six months. So, really, the industry needed some more regulation. Even though that’s frustrating, we did need that and it’s taking time to educate everyone in the field. Jumping back to your previous experience, it is interesting that you started as a pharmacist. What kind of advantage does your background as a pharmacist give you in Business Development? When we talk about medication, it does give me some more credibility as a pharmacist when I explain why our products are more advantageous. For example, the buprenorphine 0.5 mg/ml injection specifically. I talk about the concentration being different, but it’s an easy calculation for a veterinarian or vet tech to make. And if you’re able to get everyone on board using the buprenorphine injection that Epicur makes, then you have more consistency across all of your facilities. You can put out memos on how to use it, train, and teach. Using that medication is going to help your clinic or corporation as a whole. Plus, there’s the fact that the buprenorphine that Epicur makes has never been out of stock. So, when I share this message, coming from a pharmacist, it does carry more weight. They know I understand the medication, how it works, different concentrations, and they feel like, ‘okay, this is a professional who knows both the business side and the medicine side.’ What was it like switching from human to veterinary medications? It was challenging. Going into compounding was challenging because compounding is different than traditional retail. But the veterinary side was even more challenging because you’re dealing with different strengths and concentrations. A medication that may be good for a human may not be good for a cat or a dog. The hardest part about the compounding side was working as a sales rep. Back when I started with Stokes, around 2002, when you talked to a human medicine doctor about compounding, they didn’t really know what compounding was. So, before I could sell them on who we were and why they should use us, I had to explain to them what compounding was and why compounding, in general, could benefit them and their practice. Mickey and his dog, Cooper! Keep reading to learn more about Cooper. Sounds like the educational curve you mentioned for