How to Become a Veterinary Hospital Manager [2023 Guide]

What is a Veterinary Hospital Manager?

A veterinary hospital manager oversees the business operations of the hospital, including staff relations, client satisfaction, profitability and the hiring and firing of personnel. The manager is responsible for the over-all organization of the hospital, but not for the medical decisions, which are left to the veterinarians.

The manager sees to it that the hospital runs smoothly and efficiently and that the employee morale stays as high as possible. The manager must also ensure that the staff and hospital aren’t breaking any laws, including safety regulations and potential veterinary malpractice issues.

In most cases, the hospital manager only answers to the owner and/or Board of Directors. The manager must make regular accounts to these superiors, keeping them abreast of all aspects of the hospital, including the finances.

What are the Job Duties of a Veterinary Hospital Manager?

At smaller hospitals in particular, hospital managers might be asked to perform some veterinary technician abilities, possibly even helping with surgery at times. In larger hospitals, managers have little or nothing to do with vet tech duties, except while training vet techs.

Here are some common duties of hospital managers:

Scheduling employee work hours
Calling and over-seeing meetings
Hiring, firing, and training staff
Controlling and improvement staff morale
Developing employee manuals
Advertising and marketing the hospital
Maintaining patients’ records
Maintaining and regulating hospital safety protocols
Administering regular performance reviews
Mediating personnel problems
Managing hospital costs and budgets
Coordinating educational programs for staff and public
Preparing financial statements
Overseeing client follow-up procedures
Performing invoice audit reviews
Educating employees on benefit plans and medical protocols
Managing inventory and supplies
Monitoring vital signs of patients

What is the Work Environment for a Veterinary Hospital Manager?

Though the hospital manager doesn’t normally spend a lot of time around the sick and injured animals, the manager’s environment can be stressful.

The manager spends a lot of time in an office, dealing with angry clients, hassling with insurance companies on the phone, listening to staff complaints, resolving employee disputes and dealing with government bureaucracies.

What are the Requirements to Become a Veterinary Hospital Manager?

Education

Some jobs in veterinary hospital management only require an associate degree, though most employers strongly prefer a bachelor’s degree. Some candidates get an associate’s degree and then take an intensive course in hospital management, though some of these management programs require a bachelor’s degree as a prerequisite.

Presently, no schools offer bachelor’s degrees in veterinary hospital management, so many candidates get a bachelor’s degree in veterinary technology. A bachelor’s degree in business is also an acceptable degree.

Many employers require their managerial candidates to have up to five years of experience in a veterinary hospital. Because of this, some managerial candidates opt to initially only get an associate degree and then start working as a veterinary technician while taking classes online or at night. This way, the candidate receives a paycheck and gains experience in a veterinary hospital while also pursuing a bachelor’s degree.

The aim of veterinary technology programs is to prepare students to become an immediate contributor to a veterinarian team by giving them the necessary skills and veterinary knowledge. A bachelor’s degree program for veterinary technology may include courses like the following:

Critical and Emergency Care
Veterinary Dentistry
Neurology
Cardiology
Dermatology
Animal Sanitation and Disease Prevention
Specialty Careers of Veterinary Technicians
Comparative Pharmacology and Hematology
Veterinary Medical Terminology
Canine Physical Therapy
Veterinary Clinical Chemistry
Fundamentals of Emergency Animal Care
Clinical Veterinary Neurology
Principles of Toxicology
Ethics in Veterinary Business
Veterinary Cytology
Small Animal Physical Rehabilitation

There are a handful of master’s degree programs available for veterinary hospital managers. There are two types: one geared toward those who just want to be a hospital manager, and one geared toward veterinarians who want to manage their own business.

A typical master’s degree program for hospital management might include the following classes:

Hiring and Firing

Checking References
Advertising for Employee Positions
Conducting Interviews
Deciding which Applicant to Hire
Firing

Employee Relations

Disciplining Employees
Leadership in the Hospital
The Importance of Appearance
Communicating and Delegating
Training the Hospital Staff

Client Relations

Educating Clients
Measuring Client Satisfaction
Grief Protocol
Using Websites, Signs and Yellow Pages to Attract New Clients

Management

Inventory: Pricing Products
Inventory: Inventory Systems
Inventory: Re-ordering and Filing Invoices
Developing Leadership Abilities
Making Employee Manuals
Reviewing Employee Performance
Developing Employee Schedules
Law and Ethics in Management
Supervision in the Veterinary Hospital

Financial Planning

Human Resources
Money and Inventory
Strategic Financial Planning
Tactical Financial Planning
Understanding Balance Sheets
Understanding Income Statements
Understanding Expenses
Understanding Financials

Training

Hospital management jobs almost always require experience in working in a hospital office, and they usually also require some type of supervisory experience. Good computer skills are a necessity, particularly in Excel, Word and any type of management software.

Many job posts also require some type of previous customer service experience, and some require book-keeping experience. Experience as a vet tech is preferred by many employers.

Licensing Requirements

Certification by the Veterinary Hospital Managers Association (VHMA) is a voluntary but highly recommended process; most employers require or prefer it.

For certification, the VMHA requires 18 semester hours in at least two of the following areas:

Accounting
Marketing
Management
Economics/finance
Computer science
Labor relations/human resources

The VMHA requires at least three years of active employment as a hospital manager within the past seven years. The VMHA specifies thirty particular job functions for managers, and candidates must have performed at least twenty-six of them or have supervised others who performed those jobs. Some of these jobs include:

Education of clients
Training of staff
Payroll
Employee records
Inventory records
Safety protocols
Medical records
Accounts receivable
Accounts payable
Income reconciliation
Credit policies
Budgeting
Community involvement

Candidates must also pass an exam, provide college transcripts and supply four letters of recommendation. They are also required to have taken 48 college semester hours of continuing education in management classes within the previous seven years.

What Skills and Qualities are Required for a Veterinary Hospital Manager?

Recommended or required personal skills and personality traits include:

Excellent verbal and written communication skills suitable for a wide range of settings and audiences
Decisive decision-making
Ability to delegate responsibility
Professional demeanor and friendly disposition
Respect toward clients and their pets
Multi-tasking ability
Contagious enthusiasm for the job
Passion for leadership
Organizational ability
Interpersonal skills
Ability to coach employees

What is the Salary for a Veterinary Hospital Manager?

As of January 2023, according to ZipRecruiter, the average salary for veterinary hospital managers is $71,912.

What is the Job Outlook for Veterinary Hospital Managers?

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) does not provide job outlook data specific to this field of work. However, a closely related occupation, administrative services manager, is projected to grow at a rate of 6 percent through the first half of the next decade. This rate represents only average growth.

One of the primary factors in determining the job outlook for veterinary hospital managers is the state of the overall economy. In lean times, families are less likely to purchase pets, and, therefore, have no reason to patronize a veterinary hospital, causing staff cuts. These cuts usually begin with the administrative staff.

Conversely, now that the economy is back on its feet, more individuals and families are acquiring pets that will need veterinary services. As businesses grow, so too does the demand for qualified veterinary hospital managers.

However, with increased demand comes increased competition for jobs, so while the outlook for jobs in this sector appears to be strong, there may be more people applying for these jobs than there are jobs available.

How to Become a Veterinary Hospital Manager