A friend of mine is a Vet at a place recently sold to a PE firm. If your wait times are crazy long, if you can't get through on a phone, if you realize your vet's office has parted ways with the great vet you used to see -- that's the PE firm counting beans and destroying the service for customers in an effort to squeeze every dollar out of the system.
As a specific obviously bad example -- Vet services in California are kinda seasonal. More visits in summer than winter, due to more time outdoors, etc. A PE firm looked at visits on a weekly basis and saw a downward trend in the winter and decided to re-set staffing based on that. Now that summer has arrived they are severely short staffed, have parted ways with great vets, and now wait times are horrific.
As a specific obviously bad example -- Vet services in California are kinda seasonal. More visits in summer than winter, due to more time outdoors, etc. A PE firm looked at visits on a weekly basis and saw a downward trend in the winter and decided to re-set staffing based on that. Now that summer has arrived they are severely short staffed, have parted ways with great vets, and now wait times are horrific.
Thanks PE!