MSVS – The Essentials

To be the preferred specialty veterinary medical care provider and the preferred employer of veterinary medical professionals in the Rocky Mountain Region.

We provide the highest quality care by focusing on clinical excellence, effective communication, and healthy practice culture. At Mountain Star, we honor the Golden Rule: treat others as you’d like to be treated. We deliver a premium experience — one that’s personalized and focused.

1. Elevate Others: We create an environment that supports others to foster a positive and inclusive culture.
2. Earn trust: We are honest with strong moral principles. We do what we say we’ll do.
3. Act with Empathy: We genuinely care about others. We’re empathic, well-meaning, and kind.

We opened Mountain Star to ease the suffering of pets. Clients may have exhausted several options to heal their pet’s eye or skin conditions.

We work alongside family veterinarians to provide the highest level of care, support, and communication for clients and patients.

All team members are an integral part of the leadership of this practice. Our words and actions are constantly on display with each other and with our clients. You are a leader from your first day here and we expect your actions to be consistent with that mindset. We ask that you direct your team members toward appropriate behaviors. Do not tolerate behaviors that are damaging to the values and culture of Mountain Star. At any point, we urge you to speak openly with your Hospital Manager or Medical Director regarding any issues you are questioning or are uncomfortable with.

We believe communication is the key to our success. We also know that clinical communication skills are learned, and that we should treat those skills with the same level of importance as our medical skills. To achieve our mission, it is critical that we communicate effectively. We want to build trust with our clients, and we want them to consider us a resource and partner in making decisions for their pets. This is only possible if we are skilled in communication techniques.

A significant amount of our onboarding process involves teaching each team member 20 individual communication tools. Our teams learn about:

1. Communication Styles: frisbee vs shotput and open-ended inquiry
2. Building Relationships: demonstrating empathy, extending partnership, and recognizing non-verbal communication
3. Providing Structure: utilizing logical sequences and sign posting

We break communication skills related to patient visits into four parts with different tools:

1. Opening: preparation & introduction, setting the agenda
2. Gathering History: open-ended inquiry, reflective listening, understanding pause vs interruption, summarizing
3. Explaining and Planning: assessing client knowledge and experience, utilizing chunk and check
4. Closing: summarizing, making a contract for next steps, utilizing a final check

Effective communication helps the team work efficiently and accurately. It improves our level of patient care and makes our clients feel heard and understood.

Emotional intelligence is the ability to understand and manage emotions effectively. Emotional intelligence in the workplace can provide significant benefits and further develop your career, in addition to creating better relationships and promoting a positive work environment. Emotional intelligence is important at work so you can perceive, reason with, understand and manage the emotions of yourself and others. Being able to handle emotions gives you the ability to guide and help people, and it can help you be happier and more successful.

1. Emotional intelligence is important because it can help you improve our interpersonal relationships, both professionally and personally.
2. The five components of emotional intelligence at work are self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy and social skills.
3. The benefits of emotional intelligence in the workplace include being able to better understand nonverbal cues, properly adjust your behavior, make good decisions, and become a respected leader.

All team members are required to watch Shawn McVey’s Emotional Intelligence training course within their first six months of employment.

We take immense pride in serving and supporting our local communities. We know our team and clients feel the same. As we grow, we will continue to serve and support our community. We’ll partner with more nonprofits that offer a better quality of life to our pets.

We certify Freedom Service Dogs to begin training for military personnel.

We recognize that the experience of visiting Mountain Star Veterinary Specialists matters more to our clients than almost anything else. That drives our culture and business philosophy. Our clients may not be able to recite what we told them a week after we saw them, but they will be able to tell you if they liked the hospital, how it smelled, if they were treated well, if we went the extra mile for them, or if the doctor was collaborative and thorough. We want to provide great medicine, but more importantly, we want to provide a great experience! This is the one thing that truly sets us apart.