Pet-Specific Care for the Veterinary Team. Группа авторов

1.6 Adapting to a New Normal

       Lowell Ackerman, DVM, DACVD, MBA, MPA, CVA, MRCVS

       Global Consultant, Author, and Lecturer, MA, USA

BASICS

      1.6.1 Summary

      Life has changed for veterinary practices, the hospital team, clients, and even pets. Periodically, the world experiences events considered “shocks” that change the fundamental way we do things. These events can include such diverse things as war, terrorist attacks, financial crises, climate change, and pandemics. Even though the event may only occupy a finite span of time, the after‐effects can last significantly longer. As economic shocks appear to be occurring with some regularity, it is important to adapt to the realities that follow.

      1.6.2 Terms Defined

      Economic Shock: An event that has a major impact on economic indicators, such as unemployment, inflation, consumer confidence, or consumption.

      Formulary: An approved list of medications that may be stocked in a practice or are allowed to be prescribed.

      New Normal: The changed state recognized following the occurrence of a major or catastrophic event that alters our routines.

      Pet‐Specific Care: An approach that tailors veterinary care to individual pets based on their predicted risk of disease and likely response to intervention.

MAIN CONCEPTS

      1.6.3 Client Experience

      The occurrence of COVID‐19 may have been the latest notable economic shock, but there are bound to be others. In the immediate post‐COVID era, even with vaccination, clients may continue to be wary of their interactions with staff, so it is a great opportunity to innovate. This includes rethinking how we engage with clients (even hand shaking), and how we articulate the value of our services. Clients have experienced new ways of dealing with their own physicians and the healthcare system and are bound to question why dealing with veterinary teams should be any different. It is important to consider the long‐term applications of appropriate principles, because there are bound to be future pandemic concerns as well as other economic shocks that will affect the profession. It is important to adapt to such shocks and learn from them.

Immediately following a pandemic, clients are likely to have expectations when it comes to routine wellness visits, conditions that they believe could be handled virtually, preference for “curbside” services rather than coming into the hospital, home delivery of products, and much more. For a service industry such as veterinary medicine, it is important to articulate the value proposition in ways that make sense to consumers. This is a particularly great opportunity to consider pet‐specific care, in which we take a more proactive and transparent approach to the care that pets will need over their lifetimes, and do so on a customized basis. It will also be important to curate resources used for client education, so we can be sure that pet owners are receiving consistent messaging about the care of their pets. We also need to ensure that such resources are deliverable in paperless forms and even contact‐less, so direct contact can be minimized.

      Clients are quite aware when their world has changed, and it is likely that they have experienced stay‐at‐home isolation, so their attitudes toward social contact will likely be affected for some time. Expect that they will continue to be looking for assurances that they, their pets, and their families will be safe in their interactions with the veterinary team. Many of them will have been working from home, teleconferencing with work colleagues, family, and friends, doing much of their shopping online, downloading their entertainment, and receiving many of their purchases by home delivery.

      Clients have also changed dramatically in terms of their knowledge of infectious disease transmissibility, hand washing, physical (social) distancing, premise disinfection, contact tracing, and the wearing of facemasks. This type of vigilance and anxiety tends to continue until they feel completely safe, and pet owners will be looking for some assurance that the veterinary hospital is a safe place to visit.

      Some clients will have prolonged trepidation about visiting businesses, including their own physicians, and so veterinary hospitals should not consider themselves unaffected by this. Client anxiety may be heightened if they do not have access to a vehicle but are still hesitant about the inherent risks of using public transportation or ridesharing. This apprehension can be allayed if teams explain all the protocols in place to keep those anxious clients and their pets safe, and this might include telehealth options based on telephone triage with clients.

      For pets that need to be seen in hospital, clients should receive instructions on how this can be done safely, and expectations should be established for how the visit will be conducted in a step‐by‐step manner. This might include instruction for the pet owner to wear a facemask (if indicated), access they may or may not have to the facility, whether they are allowed to accompany their pet for its veterinary visit, communication options with the veterinary team, and what is being done to ensure their safety. Even long after a pandemic has passed, some clients will likely have developed habits around hand washing, physical distancing, and the use of hand sanitizers, and everything possible should be done so they can feel comfortable seeking veterinary care for their pets.

      In the immediate aftermath of a pandemic, there is also a great opportunity to introduce topics that might not have garnered much attention previously, such as One Health (see 2.19 One Health). This initiative that links the health of animals, humans, and the environment is a great way to highlight the interrelatedness of such concerns, and the need for clients to appreciate the “big picture” of caring for our pets, ourselves, and our planet.

      1.6.4 Changing Practice Protocols

Veterinary staff are typically well educated and dedicated to animal health, but at the same time they want to protect themselves and their families from transmissible diseases, and their concern is legitimate. For the foreseeable future, we should expect that they will appreciate ongoing instruction on practice safety protocols, patient flow, and access to appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE). Because veterinary teams work collectively, there should be protocols in place for monitoring the health of individual staff members, having policies for isolation and quarantine, and supporting unambiguous and generous policies about which situations should prompt team members to leave the premises to preserve the health of others. It is also important to be aware of the additional stress experienced by staff and how that can take an immeasurable toll on productivity, commitment, and teamwork. Most veterinary hospitals have a relatively small contingent of team members, so without careful and considerate policies, staff could wrongly interpret that their physical and mental health is not a major concern of the hospital, which would be a very unfortunate conclusion.