Organization of your pet’s complete records will assure your pet gets the best care available.
It’s no secret.
In all branches of medicine, including veterinary, the variety of diagnostic tests, tools, medications, treatments, immunotherapies, regenerative procedures, vaccines, supplements and volume of information available to consumers has sky-rocketed.
Health-care practitioners have their hands full managing cases, coordinating care, dealing with understaffing and work overload.
Add to that the increasing demands and expectations of patients.
Because veterinary medicine has historically offered everything from dental, medical, surgical and hospital care under one roof and with quick turnaround on tests, pet owners have higher expectations for their pets’ care and higher demands for complete communications with staff and veterinarians than they have from their medical doctors.
This high expectation is maintained, even though owners are charged anywhere from 1 to 10 percent of fees charged on the human side of medicine.
I frequently hear complaints from pet owners about veterinarians not catching certain diagnoses. It is common for me to read pet records from two clinics with duplicated vaccines, because neither vet knew the pet was seeing another veterinarian.
There are pet parents who visit numerous vets and are giving medications that they are not disclosing completely to any of those veterinarians.
The source of all these problems is lack of accurate and complete record keeping. How can we all improve records, information management, pet/health care and prevent errors?
Start with these practices:
1. Keep a pet care folder, complete with a notebook for all records.
2. Avoid withholding records because you think your regular vet will be “mad” if you seek another opinion.
3. A vaccine folder and receipts are not your pet’s actual record. Be sure to keep accurate records complete with all test results. (I do second-, third- and fourth-opinion visits for pets who have hard-to-diagnose problems and rarely do I get complete records from owners. Most have little knowledge of what has been performed. I frequently hear, “Doctor, my pet was tested for everything!” I have yet to see a pet that had an open diagnosis that received even 50 percent of necessary testing. The primary reason for this is client hesitancy due to cost.
4. Have lots of questions for the vet? Ask the receptionist to schedule a longer consultation. My offices offer 30- and 60-minute visits for clients who want as much information as possible. You can ask your vet about the cost of longer consultations and schedule according to your budget.
5. Have realistic expectations about communications with the veterinarian. Do not demand that staff put the doctor on the phone every time you have a question.
6. When you want the veterinarian’s opinion, schedule an appointment. The receptionist is not the veterinarian, so please stop pressuring this staff member to give you free advice, which can only be given by the vet after an exam.
7. Be sure to provide all records from all other vets before your visit. Better preparation will prevent duplicate tests and treatments that were previously ineffective.
8. Some tests should be repeated, at times within as little as a day, and analyzed for trends. If your vet recommends this, it’s good to ask the reason why. The reason we do this is medical, not to get more money.
9. Keep data on your mobile device. If you visit an after-hours emergency clinic, take photos of all tests, treatment sheets and surgical records. Some drug or anesthetic protocols may need to be given in the future. We want to know how your pet responded to prior drugs. When my daughter had surgery, I took a photo of the drugs administered pre, intra-op and post-op. Her poor recovery from some of the meds is now listed in her primary care physician’s records for all future surgical planning.
10. Take notes of all office communications, and better still, record the doctor’s in-office communications -- with her knowledge -- so you can share it with your family and reference it later. The veterinary staff is not obligated to personally communicate the same updates with four separate times with all of your family members who couldn’t be present -- and, yes, that happens in a vet office.
Your organization of your pet’s complete records, full disclosure about other vet care, food, treats, play, vaccine clinics and pet behavior, in addition to realistic expectations of staff (like asking for longer, paid-for visits/phone consults with more involved problems), will assure your pet gets the best care available. You will likely save some expenses by following these practices.
Dr. Cynthia Maro is a veterinarian at the Ellwood Animal Hospital in Ellwood City and the Chippewa Animal Hospital in Chippewa Township. She writes a biweekly column on pet care and health issues. If you have a topic you’d like addressed, please email ellwoodvet@msn.com.
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Dr. Maro: Pet owners can get better, cost-effective care with these tips - The Times
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