We are not owned by a corporation, a private equity firm, or a national veterinary group. There are four owners, and three of us are here on this campus: two veterinarians who see patients in this building, and a managing director who works down the hall. The fourth owner is a veterinarian who works outside of clinical practice and is not involved in running the hospital day to day.
That is the entire ownership structure – no parent company, no regional director, no investor group waiting on a return.
Why We Are Telling You This
Veterinary medicine has changed enormously over the past fifteen years. A great many practices, particularly the larger ones, have been bought by corporate groups, private equity firms, and national chains. Consolidation is now one of the defining features of the profession.
Here is the part most pet owners have no way of knowing: when a practice is acquired, the name usually stays the same. The sign out front does not change. The staff often does not change, at least not right away. From the parking lot, an independently owned hospital and a corporately owned one look exactly alike.
We want to be clear about what we are not saying. We are not telling you that corporate-owned practices provide poor care. Many are staffed by excellent veterinarians and technicians we respect, refer to, and work alongside. But ownership decides who makes the decisions, and that is something you are entitled to know about the people caring for your animal.
What Independent Ownership Actually Changes
- Your veterinarian decides. Recommendations here come from the doctor standing in the exam room with you. There is no corporate care protocol handed down from a head office, and nobody outside this building is reviewing whether your vet recommended enough.
- We set our own prices. Our fees are set in Tipp City, by the people who own this hospital and live in this community. They are not set by a regional pricing team, and they are not raised to meet a target somebody else established externally.
- The owners are here. If you have a complaint, a question about a bill, or a case that did not go the way anyone hoped, the people with the authority to fix it work in this building. There is no corporate service line and no ticket number.
- We answer to an outside standard by choice. We are AAHA-accredited, which means we volunteer for a comprehensive independent evaluation that most practices in the country do not undergo. Nobody requires this of us. We do it because we think you should be able to check our work against something other than our own word.
- What we earn stays here. It funds equipment, wages, and the next generation of this practice, right here in Tipp City.
A Fair Question To Ask Anyone
If you are choosing a veterinarian – for your pet, for a second opinion, or for a procedure – ownership is a reasonable question, and any practice should be willing to answer it plainly. Ask directly: is this practice independently owned, or is it owned by a corporate group?
You may be surprised by some of the answers, and you may not be. Either way, you will know something real about where your pet is being treated. We think every practice should be comfortable answering that question. We certainly are.
You Do Not Have To Take Our Word For It
Independent Vet is a public map of locally owned veterinary practices. It is not run by us and has no connection to this hospital. You will find Tipp City Veterinary Hospital on it, along with Zoomies and a good number of the independent practices around us.
Find us, and find other independent practices near you: independentvet.com
If you would rather check one specific practice than browse a map, its companion database tracks practices owned by corporate groups and private equity firms, and names the investor behind each group where it is known. Search a practice name or your ZIP code at privateequityvet.org.
Both sites state plainly that ownership is not a measure of medical quality, and we agree with them about that. We are pointing you at them because we would rather you checked than took our word for it.
The Same Is True Next Door, and Down the Road
The owners of this hospital also own Tipp to Tail Pet Resort next door and Zoomies Veterinary Surgery & Dental at 4960 S. County Rd. 25A. Same four people, same town, same answer to the ownership question. Whichever door you come through, you are dealing with the people who own it.
Questions about any of this are welcome. Ask at the front desk, or ask your veterinarian directly. We will tell you exactly who owns us, because the answer has not changed since 1980.