Veterinarians, in general, trust others. A practice is a community, typically with a family atmosphere. Yet, there is a giant elephant that few want to acknowledge, and that is the fact that theft is a reality in most practices. If your inventory as a percent of revenue is higher than normal, and you have sound inventory management in place, it is likely that you are a victim of theft.
However, if you don't have a locked pharmacy or aren't proficient at accounting for inventory from ordering to receiving to storage to dispensing or use and billing, then you will never know if you are being stolen from, and you probably don't care. However, if you account for your inventory in each of these situations, and your inventory costs are still too high, then it's time to explore the reality that theft from veterinary practices is frequent and common. Theft can originate from numerous sources. It might be from employees taking one item at a time to support their own pets, thinking that one item isn't a big deal. It is a big deal. It might originate from a fellow shareholder who has extra pets or livestock that they treat with clinic inventory without proper accounting. Yes, absent an agreement to do this, it is theft. It might also originate from a bookkeeper who writes duplicate checks, disguised to pay the same invoice, with one being cashed or deposited into a private account. Or it might be a customer service representative who has found a way to deposit client payments into their own account, instead of the clinic account. Typically, this scenario is the result of a long-time, most trusted employee, who would never be suspected.
How common is theft? In 2010, AAHA surveyed member practices and found that 86% reported theft or embezzelment in their practices.
Bottom line: if it happens, and it does, it's always disheartening. It costs you dearly in profit and in decreased practice value. And perhaps an even greater cost is the damaged trust that you afford your employees. The lesson is that theft is real. Take precautions to prevent it and put sound internal financial and inventory controls in place immediately.
