Veterinary Clinical Services Incentive Plan (VCSIP)

Introduction

The goal of the pilot Veterinary Clinical Services Incentive Plan (VCSIP) is to enhance and grow veterinary clinical services offered to the state and region. The program is designed to compensate high-performing faculty in the form of variable pay funded by fee-for-service revenues.

Rationale

VCSIP will provide financial recognition to faculty for their contributions to clinical service provided and incentivize the growth of fee-for-service activities providing increased revenues to the college and expanding services offered to the state and region which will also further the college’s teaching and research missions. VCSIP seeks to support entrepreneurial activity among faculty that leads to the advancement of animal health management with evidence-based outcomes, conducting leading edge clinical research, and provide industry leading training for undergraduate, professional, and graduate students. Specifically, the program is intended to return to faculty that are meeting or exceeding expectations in all areas of their position responsibility statement (PRS) a portion of the professional service fees generated from the specific clinical services and/or professional consultation which the faculty member is providing to third parties on a fee-for-service basis. The VCSIP will be a useful tool to make faculty salaries more competitive and improve recruitment and retention.

The plan is:

A one-year pilot program for a college-wide plan
Subject to funding availability and a reasonable fee structure for the departments and units
Equivalent to 25% of professional fee revenues gained per faculty member(s) approved for the program
Annual payments capped to 20% of the employee’s base salary
Tracked throughout the fiscal year and paid out in two lump sums

Units

The units below and the respective sections within these units and the services provided will be considered independently for purposes of the Veterinary Clinical Services Incentive Plan and are referred to as units or sections in this document. Keeping in mind the overall missions of education, research and service, each unit will independently establish guidelines, within the basic framework described below, that works best for the services provided.

Lloyd Veterinary Medical Center (LVMC)
Veterinary Field Services (VFS)
Veterinary Pathology (VPATH)
Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory (VDL)

Eligibility

Effective with approval of this pilot program and subject to an established, auditable professional service fees structure for the individual units, all Tenured/Tenure-Track and Term faculty will be eligible based on meeting the entirety of the following criteria:

The faculty must complete a minimum of one academic year (AY) of employment in the College of Veterinary Medicine; new faculty members are not eligible until July following the AY in which employment began
The faculty must have received a satisfactory rating for all areas of the PRS for the most recent year
The faculty member cannot be participating in the Faculty Incentive Salary Increment Program (FISIP) during the same time period
Should a faculty member choose to resign or retire before the payout of VCSIP, the proportional payout will be made during the last month of employment.

The following are ineligible to participate:

Faculty who have received an unsatisfactory rating for any area of the PRS for the most recent year
Faculty hired on a one-year (or less) appointment
House Officers
Post Graduate Trainees including DVM’s pursuing advanced degrees while working in the service units

Criteria

When a department chair or academic unit director determines through the annual performance review and budget development processes that a faculty member is eligible for VCSIP, the chair/director will recommend that the faculty member receive a VCSIP increment of an amount equal to 25% of professional service fees generated during the fiscal year.

The VCSIP may not exceed 20% of the faculty member’s institutional base salary effective July 1 of the respective fiscal year. The total amount of the VCSIP increment and corresponding fringe benefits will be funded by fee-for-service funds. The chair/director will be responsible for funding the entire incentive increment and corresponding fringe benefits payable twice per year in the months of December and June.

Eligibility for the VCSIP will be reviewed each year. The VCSIP may result in variable distributions from year to year..

Eligible Revenue

Eligible revenues are strictly limited to the portion of professional service fees being assessed that are specifically being charged to compensate for the individual faculty member’s time and effort spent on providing said service. Any portion of professional service fees being assessed that aim to charge for anything beyond the individual faculty member’s time and effort spent in providing a given clinical service are not eligible.

Prior to implementation of the program, in some situations, or units, the existing fee structure will need to be modified to very clearly identify the professional (clinical) services fees being assessed that are specifically charged to third-parties (clients) for the individual faculty member’s time and effort.

Selected examples of eligible professional service fees may include professional consultations, lesion scoring (gross and microscopic) for clinical trials, scoring microscopic image capture and analysis, professional services for summarizing diagnostic and production data for a veterinary clinic or production system (which may include site visits), and herd health consultations and performance evaluations.

Roles and Responsibilities

Department Chair/Director

Determines anticipated funding availability in the respective units as part of the annual budget development process; consideration should be based on reasonable estimates of the anticipated costs or previous records of actual costs
Forwards recommendations for participation in the VCSIP program to the Dean
Authorizes VCSIP payments to each faculty

Dean

Has the discretionary authority to make all determinations in response to questions arising in connection with the Plan, including its interpretation and the adoption of procedural rules
Reviews and approves unit participation of VCSIP for the upcoming fiscal year and forwards recommendations for participation to the Office of the Senior Vice President and Provost no later than May 15 each year
Submits an annual report of all units participating in VCSIPs for the impending year to the Associate Provost for Faculty by July 1
Submits an annual report of faculty and the VCSIPs paid to each to the Associate Provost for Faculty following the completion of each AY

Associate Provost for Faculty

Reviews and approves requests for VCSIP

Process for the VCSIP

The VCSIP recommendation is initiated by the Department Chair/Director, accepted by the faculty member, and approved by the Dean and the Senior Vice President and Provost (SVPP). Recommendations for participation in the VCSIP program must be forwarded from the department chair/director and dean to the SVPP Office by May 15 each year.
The approved amount of professional service fees generated by an individual will be distributed to the faculty member twice per year via the One Time Payment process (OTP’s will be processed for December and June payment annually).
The length of time for which a faculty member can be awarded VCSIP is one year, renewable. VCSIP increments may be renewed pending the outcome of annual performance reviews and department chair/director recommendation. To end VCSIP participation, a department chair/director must complete the VCSIP agreement for the next fiscal year and indicate that the VCSIP participation will terminate.

This is a one-year pilot program with a review and to the board for renewal date of June 30, 2023.

June 2022