We are always looking for partner clinics with a robust practice, clean and well-equipped facilities, and engaged staff members. That being said, the largest practices in your area will not necessarily be your best clients. MOVES specialists form successful partnerships with 1- and 2-doctor practices all the time, and having many such partnerships is integral to your long-term success. While this varies from market to market, we find that partnership with 30 clinics is a reliable benchmark of sustainability for a mobile specialist.

The MOVES team wants to ensure the success of each surgeon and recognizes the value of the appropriate equipment in the hands of a skilled specialist. Each MOVES specialist is allowed a customizable package for ordering equipment and supplies that fits your training and skill set.

Preferred vendors are available for most start-up supplies and equipment. Purchases should be based on the most commonly needed items and mentorship and guidance is provided by the MOVES veterinary leadership team. Additional vendors and specialized equipment can be utilized depending on your practice and preferences.

Inventory and organization of equipment and consumable products is your responsibility. You will have access to online portals to replace consumable orders as needed.

An autoclave will be on the first initial equipment purchase order. It is your responsibility to clean and sterilize your instruments. In the majority of cases, instruments can be scrubbed and cleaned post-operatively at the general practice. From there, sterilization and packaging occur at your home office. Guidelines for use of the autoclave and sterile packing can be discussed in detail with a MOVES mentor or chief specialist. Manufacturer guidelines for sterilization and quality control are required.

As your partner clinics generally have technicians available to help you, most MOVES specialists will not require an assistant or technician on Day 1. As caseload increases, it will become strategic to have a technician travel with you.

Any assistant or technician hired will be an employee of the company, and you will be his or her manager. The duties of the technician will be assigned by you and can include patient care assistance, operating room set-up and assistance, cleaning, packaging, and sterilizing equipment, or managing the work phone/email for scheduling and follow-up purposes.

When general practices require specialty services, the referring DVM, practice manager, or technician will submit a case through our cloud-based online referral portal, and then the dialogue between you and the general practice begins. From there, you will use your own freedom and flexibility for scheduling each case within a reasonable time frame. Initially, the flow of cases and scheduling may be slow but caseload will increase as your popularity and reputation within a marketplace grows.

General practice owners love to have the option to keep additional revenue in their clinic, but building a client base of partner general practices does not happen overnight. With a good communication strategy and strategic work from the marketing team and MOVES specialist, caseload is expected to increase over the first 90 days. As a specialist, you’ll be expected to use your available time to visit clinics, participate in follow-up tasks via phone and email, and (in some cases) prepare a continuing education lecture. Launching a new market takes time and effort, but the MOVES team is here to ensure your success.

All full-time MOVES employees are eligible to participate in our group health insurance plan with UnitedHealthcare. Vision and Dental coverage is provided through Principal. MOVES will pay 100% of employee premiums and 50% of dependent premiums for vision, dental, and the UnitedHealthcare base plan. Employees may opt to join the UnitedHealthcare premium plan for a modest additional expense. Benefit eligibility begins on the 1st of the month following your hire date.

Yes! Our 401k plan is through John Hancock. Plan eligibility begins at 90 days for full-time employees, and MOVES will match dollar-for-dollar on the first 3% of employee contributions, and 50¢ on the dollar up to a maximum company match of 4%.

Outside of your medical/surgical equipment, a vehicle will be one of the most important tools for your success. In most cases, MOVES will purchase a brand new vehicle for you to drive. You’ll work with the corporate team to select a vehicle that strikes the ideal balance between your preferences, the practical demands of your work, and the available budget. A few real-world examples of vehicles chosen by our specialists include the Chevrolet Tahoe, Honda Odyssey, and Subaru Forester. In addition to purchasing the car itself, MOVES will pay for fuel, maintenance, and insurance as well. In rare circumstances where insurance and/or regulatory requirements make a company-owned vehicle unavailable, MOVES will make an alternative vehicle allowance or reimbursement program available to you.

One of the biggest advantages of joining MOVES is the freedom to set your own schedule and arrange your life the way you want. When we say that Quality of Life is our number one value, we truly mean it. Let’s work together to establish a sustainably productive market for you, and as long as you don’t abuse the privilege there will be no limitations placed on personal time off and vacation days.

Our intent is to partner with board-certified small animal specialists who will not be violating a valid restrictive covenant. Relocation incentives will be offered to interested specialists who are bound by an enforceable non-compete and our team can help identify markets in need of a MOVES specialist.

Each general practice is unique and the variety of cases encountered in a general practice will depend on the scope of medicine practiced at the facility, whether or not the practice is open 24 hours, or has emergency/ICU staff and personnel.

The majority of cases in general practice will be orthopedic procedures in otherwise healthy patients. This includes (but is not limited to):
• Surgery for repair of CCLR (TPLO, CBLO, TTA, Extracapsular techniques)
• Patellar luxation repair
• Various fracture repairs
• Osteotomies/ostectomies for angular limb abnormalities, joint incongruence, or salvage procedures
• Joint exploration
• Implant removal

Soft tissue surgeries requested will vary depending on the clinic, patient health status, and post-operative monitoring. This includes (but is not limited to):
• Gastrointestinal surgery
• Anal Sacculectomy
• Thyroidectomy/parathyroidectomy
• Herniorrhaphy
• Perineal urethrostomy
• Amputation
• Splenectomy
• TECA-LBO, VBO
• Maxillofacial reconstruction

These are examples and recommended guidelines. Markets and practices will have exposure to different aspects of veterinary medicine and various surgical needs (i.e. high volume 24-hour ER facilities or ICU may have access to ventilators for cardiothoracic surgery). Advanced surgical procedures that have an expected prognosis and recovery are prioritized in the general practice setting. Transfer of critical care cases for overnight monitoring and care is recommended, if needed. In addition, surgeon preferences and experience may also dictate comfort with various procedures.

We encourage MOVES surgeons to take an integrative surgical solution approach to all general practice clients. This approach promotes teamwork between the general practice and surgery team. At the time of consent for surgery, a MOVES surgeon is expected to call the pet’s owner before and after surgery. These discussions should be brief, but include an introduction, confirmation of procedure, brief list of complications, and expected outcome/recovery.

After surgery, the patient is under the care of the general practice and attending veterinarian. Many times, the decision to send a pet home or to stay at the general practice post-operatively depends on the type of procedure, expected discomfort level, willingness of owner to care for pet, and recovery of pet. It is the general practice’s duty to inform pet owners on the practice policy of anesthesia and overnight care. We strongly recommend overnight monitoring at a nearby 24-hour ER for general practices not equipped for surgical procedures or for cases requiring critical care monitoring post-operatively.

As a MOVES team member within a general practice, we encourage open dialogue with colleagues on patient re-checks and any questions/concerns they may have.

No. As a MOVES surgeon, an emergency or after-hours case load is not required, but we do encourage you to consider requests for emergency or after-hours appointments on a case-by-case basis. You can set your own fee for emergency work and MOVES pays a very high production rate on the fee. It all comes down how this type of work fits into your lifestyle and your goals for production. Some surgeons may want to incorporate the occasional emergency or after-hours case into their schedule to increase production, while other surgeons may reach their goals working 4-5 days a week. In the end, we will work with you to build a practice that is sustainable both personally and financially.