Veterinary Practice Partners Is the First Veterinary Partnership Community
On October 16, at our annual Homecoming in Charlotte, NC, we shared something we have been building toward for a long time: VPP is the profession’s first Veterinary Partnership Community.
A Veterinary Partnership Community is a group of hospitals whose doctors and administrators hold real co-ownership in the practices they lead. Each hospital keeps its own local identity and is connected to a larger community by a shared mission, shared values, and a shared culture.
What a VPC is
A Veterinary Partnership Community, or VPC, is a new kind of organization in veterinary medicine. It brings true co-ownership together with community and culture, so clients and their pets get better care and the doctors and leaders who serve them find more fulfillment in the work.
In this model, the doctor, and increasingly the practice manager, owns a meaningful piece of the hospital. They set the standard of medicine and make the decisions that shape the practice, with the support of a central home team.
A VPC is not a corporate aggregator or consolidator. It is a way to preserve the heart of veterinary medicine and still practice it at scale.
The community is the other half
Ownership is only part of the story. The community side of the model is a peer network where people share best practices, find mentors, and build confidence and resilience. Doctors, practice managers, and team members meet in person at community events, trainings, and advisory groups, and they grow together as clinicians, operators, and leaders.
For owners, that means peers who understand the challenging and rewarding path of running a business and leading medicine. It also means learning from a much wider set of experiences than any one hospital could offer.
Many paths to ownership
Today we partner with more than 330 doctor co-owners at more than 200 hospitals across 35 states. Our community includes more than 700 doctors and more than 3,600 team members.
The path to ownership looks different for every doctor, so we have built more than one route. Doctors can work with us to open a new hospital, buy into an existing VPP practice, or partner with us to purchase a hospital.
Building Dogwood Trails
Dr. Audra O’Keefe is one of the doctor partners who built a hospital this way. She graduated from veterinary school in 2018, began her career in emergency medicine, and later served as a medical director for a corporate aggregator. She wanted to build a practice of her own.
She partnered with us to open Dogwood Trails Animal Hospital in Bentonville, Arkansas, a new market for VPP with no existing client base. Since opening in fall 2024, the hospital has grown to approximately 3,000 clients.
“I didn’t want another job. I wanted to build something and own a hospital I could be proud of. I knew there had to be a path to real ownership. VPP gave me the opportunity to build and own Dogwood Trails while surrounding me with the support and community to make it successful. I can focus on medicine, my team, and my family without carrying every part of running a business by myself. I’m incredibly proud to be part of a Veterinary Partnership Community, and I’m excited to show the next generation of veterinarians that meaningful ownership isn’t just possible, it’s the future of our profession. VPP is leading the way.”
Dr. Audra O’Keefe, Doctor Partner, Dogwood Trails Animal Hospital
Thank you
Being first matters to us less than who we are building this with. Every doctor, practice manager, and team member in our community helped make this model real, and we are grateful to each of you.
Learn more about the Veterinary Partnership Community model on our Our Community page.