Veterinary Surgical Laser ROI

VetScalpel Laser Surgery – CO₂ Laser Cost & Return on Investment

VetScalpel laser surgery provides patients with a higher quality of care and comfort while increasing productivity and profit for the practice. How does this work? The VetScalpel veterinary laser:

• allows practitioners to broaden the repertoire of soft-tissue procedures, with better results and quicker healing times. It allows the veterinarian to perform soft-tissue procedures and treatments that are not easily accomplished with a scalpel, and thus referred out (e.g., nodular sebaceous gland hyperplasia is quite easily treated with a laser; however, these benign gland tumors are often left untreated due to the large scale of surgery that is required to remove them through conventional scalpel method. Other examples of the CO₂ laser’s advantage over cold steel are lesions in highly vascular and/or hard-to-reach areas, such as larynx, oral and nasal cavity, ear canal, such as apocrine cysts, pinnal tumors, follicular tumors, meibomian gland tumors, actinic keratosis, and so on). The larger number and variety of soft-tissue CO₂ laser surgical procedures maximize profit for the veterinary practice.
• facilitates challenging procedures, such as those where an aesthetic result is important. The veterinary CO₂ laser systems can cut with high precision, minimal thermal damage, no wound contraction or scarring, etc. It also enhances surgery in patients with hemorrhagic disorders, such as von Willebrand’s disease, Hemophilia, or Hageman trait (due to the laser’s ability to quickly achieve hemostasis).
• reduces surgery time and maximizes the number of procedures completed in the practice per week/month. It saves the veterinarian time per visit and reduces the number of appointments. The CO₂ laser enables the veterinarian to perform certain procedures faster and cleaner due to quick hemostasis, and lack of anesthetic and/or sutures needed, and so on. Thus, for example, laser stenotic nares repair does is much faster than the conventional scalpel procedure; excellent visibility is preserved throughout the procedure and it does not require sutures.
• is an excellent, “high-tech” marketing device capable of drawing new clients to a practice thereby increasing the laser ROI. Pet owners are interested in less painful, shorter surgical procedures for their pets with reduced risk of swelling and infection, minimized bleeding and post-operative pain. Laser surgery that provides such positive outcomes is the logical choice for them. And they are willing to pay more to provide these benefits to their pets.

As Donald Edwards, DVM pointed out, there were no complaints about laser fees after they started offering laser surgery in their veterinary hospital:

“Depending on the complexity of the procedure, the laser surgery fee would vary from $45 to $150+. I make sure to itemize out the revenue from laser surgery to make sure that I do make a profit with my machine. Not one complaint about laser fees. In fact, our clients want laser surgery! We even offer it on spays and neuters – an extra $45 – we get about 90% compliance on that.”

Jay Thrush, DVM from Brandon Hills Veterinary Clinic (Brandon, Maniotba, Canada) states that when the VetScalpel/Aesculight laser technology was introduced to their clinic, the learning process was so rewarding and the profits were so impressive, that they only offer laser surgery now:

“…We used the laser on everything we could for the first month (January) to get used to using the laser… we have been so pleased with the results … The use of the laser is not an “option” for our clients – it is now our standard of care. For the month of February, our additional revenue from the laser was just under $3300… Our only regret is that we didn’t bring a laser into the practice sooner!”

Kevin Erickson, DVM, from Kulshan Veterinary Hospital in Lynden, Washington, succinctly said the following about their VetScalpel/Aesculight laser system:

“We paid off our laser in a little more than a year, which is better than any other piece of equipment we ever bought.”

All of the above brings on to the logical conclusion, that the VetScalpel CO₂ laser can have a significant financial impact on your veterinary practice.