A credentialed veterinary technician spending most of a shift on restraint and cage cleaning isn't just an underused hire, it's a specific, measurable dollar amount the practice is leaving on the table. Studies show that when a technician works to the top of their training, licensure, and education, the supervising doctor's revenue rises by a median of 36%, according to Dr. Dan Markwalder, chief veterinary officer of Mission Pet Health, in a session at AVMA Convention 2026 covered by AVMA News. He calls it the "delegation dividend."
Why Underutilization Is a Financial Problem, Not Just a Morale One
Dr. Markwalder built his session, "Technicians Unleashed," around reframing technician training and development as revenue-generating investment rather than overhead. Citing Gallup data that estimates each employee departure costs an employer 1.5 to 2 times that person's annual salary, he called turnover a "financial hemorrhage" and argued for tying compensation directly to technician utilization through skills-based pay increases or production-based bonuses.
Co-presenter Jeni Sagaribay, a licensed veterinary technician and manager of field learning at Mission Pet Health, put the human cost in blunter terms.
Credentialed vet techs went to school and passed the Veterinary Technician Licensing Exam. When they spend most of their time on tasks below that training, Sagaribay said, they disengage, and engagement is what actually predicts whether they stay.
What Full Utilization Looks Like in Practice
The presenters pointed to veterinary technician appointments as the clearest starting point: not just nail trims, but chronic disease monitoring, weight management check-ins, surgical rechecks, bandage changes, and rehabilitation visits. At a diabetic dog's appointment, for example, a technician can check eating habits and insulin levels, run a spot check, and escalate any concerns to the supervising veterinarian, freeing the doctor to do the diagnosing, prognosing, and prescribing only a doctor can do.
Getting there takes more than good intentions, according to the presenters: skills-based leveling that spells out what a level three technician can do that a level two can't, an audit of which doctor tasks a technician could appropriately take on, and standard operating procedures that turn the idea into an actual weekly workflow rather than a note that gets shelved once the schedule fills back up.
A lot of practices already know their credentialed vet techs are underutilized; the harder part is building the leveling structure that makes full utilization stick past the first week back from convention, rather than the good notes ending up back on the shelf once the schedule fills up again.