Client Case Study: How Galaxy Vets Centralized Relief Staffing and Boosted Profitability with Serenity Vet

Veterinary practices are entering a new era of economic pressure. With client visits trending downward and revenue under strain, clinics must optimize every operational decision – including how they manage relief staffing. While hiring a full-time veterinarian can take up to 10 months and cost as much as $500,000 in lost revenue, relying on relief vets has become a vital strategy to maintain coverage and avoid burnout on core teams. 

Despite its benefits, relief staffing presents its own challenges: from schedule management and profitability tracking to the added administrative load on clinic teams. Without the right tools and systems, relief staffing can quickly become inefficient, unpredictable, and costly.

However, what’s a challenge for some is a growth opportunity for others – Galaxy Vets, for example.

Galaxy Vets is a rapidly growing veterinary urgent care group with locations across the U.S. and Canada. The network is created with an employee-ownership model, offering a new way for employees – veterinarians, technicians, and support teams – to become business owners with zero upfront investment. Built with burnout prevention in mind, Galaxy Vets strives to create the best employee experience and automate processes where possible.

At the helm of hiring is Lindsay Mosher, RVT, head of talent & referrals at Galaxy Vets. With over a decade of experience across clinical care, operations, and HR, she leads referrals, recruiting, and relief staffing – always with a focus on attracting, integrating, supporting, and retaining the best talent across the network.

Challenge | Unstructured Relief Hiring

The Galaxy Vets team regularly brings in relief veterinarians to keep coverage consistent, support open roles, and step in quickly when unexpected gaps come up. But one of the biggest challenges Galaxy Vets faced wasn’t just filling shifts – it was figuring out how to truly make relief vets feel part of the team. Too often, they are treated like short-term solutions, but Galaxy saw the value in taking a more intentional path. They wanted to establish a more structured and supportive approach to working with relief professionals on a regular basis.

“So for us, retaining a relief veterinarian  (or at least those we want to retain) is extremely important. First things first, they still drive the revenue at the end of the day. From the other side, the motivation of the reliefs directly influences their performance. Checking in with them, getting their feedback, making sure the expectations set across the board – these all make sense. We were able to notice that treating relief vets as if they’re our employees to a certain degree has a positive effect on their productivity during shifts and team collaboration,” shares Lindsay.

While relief veterinarians played a critical role in reducing pressure on full-time staff, Galaxy Vets faced challenges common in many veterinary organizations: manual invoicing processes, limited performance visibility, and inconsistent onboarding.

So, Galaxy Vets tried Serenity Vet – and saw rapid change.

Solution | A Unified Platform for Managing Relief

Now Galaxy Vets uses Serenity Vet to centralize relief staffing, automate administrative tasks, and improve financial transparency between both sides, resulting in faster hiring, easier payments, and better scheduling decisions.

Centralized Relief Hiring Process

Serenity Vet streamlines the relief staff search process without relying on expensive external recruiters. The platform allows the company to publish available shifts, specifying key details such as required hours, compensation, type of services needed (e.g., surgery or dentistry). The platform also gives Galaxy Vets visibility into available veterinarians in the area, along with their rates, making it easier to offer competitive compensation. This helps attract the right talent and reduces recruiting costs.

Improved Shift Fill Rates and Cost Efficiency

With Serenity Vet, Galaxy Vets can quickly fill urgent positions with terms that are favorable to both the clinic and the relief vet. Clinics have full control to set their own rates for each shift, while relief veterinarians can negotiate their compensation directly through the platform. This built-in flexibility ensures faster shift coverage without compromising on fairness or transparency, and also streamlines short-notice bookings when urgent needs arise.

Cost-Effective Decisions 

Serenity Vet’s profitability calculator allows the internal operations team to determine shift rates that make financial sense and protect clinic margins. This has enabled data-informed compensation that aligns with clinic’s financial targets while ensuring fair and sustainable pay for relief veterinarians.

Flexible Compensation That Rewards Productivity

As an urgent care group, where caseloads fluctuate and high-volume days are as common as slower ones, Galaxy Vets found particular value in offering production bonuses to relief veterinarians. With this option, clinics pay either a flat hourly rate or a production bonus, whichever is higher for that shift, creating a more rewarding and performance-driven compensation structure. Relief veterinarians have the opportunity to earn more when they take on additional cases, while clinics benefit from more engaged shift coverage and greater case retention in-house.

Streamlined Payment and Administration

Previously, relief veterinarians were required to submit individual invoices per shift, creating unwanted delays and requiring multiple hours weekly from the finance team. Serenity Vet eliminated this process by automating payments via direct deposit. The operations team can now finalize shifts, verify hours, and issue payments without involving the finance department.

A Single Platform to Manage Relief

As part of an early pilot, Galaxy Vets tried Serenity Vet’s new subscription-based model – designed to eliminate two of the biggest pain points in relief staffing: coordinating schedules with existing relief veterinarians and managing inconsistent, manual invoicing. With this model, clinics can invite their current relief vets to the platform and book them without any added fees. At the same time, they gain access to Serenity’s wider network of available veterinarians. The result is a single, streamlined system where clinics can view availability, book shifts, and process payments for all relief professionals – both existing and new – in one place.

Results | Increased Shift Coverage and Loyalty Level

Using the Serenity Vet platform, Galaxy Vets was able to bring structure and strategy to relief staffing. For the internal team, the platform eliminated administrative bottlenecks, streamlined day-to-day coordination, and optimized resources:

• 2-3 hours reclaimed weekly by finance and admin teams previously spent on hiring and managing relief veterinarians.
• $25,000 saved in recruitment fees per relief veterinarian.
• Higher shift fill rates, even for short-notice coverage.
• Data-driven compensation decisions through profitability insights.

Beyond operational efficiency and cost savings, Galaxy Vets’ relationship with relief staff has also improved. Production-based incentives have increased earning potential and attracted top-performing professionals, while transparent communication ensures relief vets feel valued, fairly compensated, and empowered in how they work.

“We had a DVM who was doing relief work at several different hospitals, but after experiencing the support and production model at our clinics, she now only books shifts with Galaxy. Being able to earn more when she took on additional cases made a big difference – and that kind of flexibility is something we can only offer through Serenity. But what stood out even more was having access to mentorship when she needed it. That combination helped her build confidence and grow as a doctor. And that’s exactly what Galaxy Vets is about – striving to be the employer of choice, even for relief veterinarians,” says Lindsay.