Importance of Quality Veterinary Care
Veterinary services are integral to your pet's overall health and well-being. A quality veterinary hospital strives to provide high-level, compassionate care to your pet while upholding exceptional veterinary standards.
Value in veterinary care of the Humane Society of New York is created by improving outcomes across the full cycle of clinical care, from initial referral to follow-up. This requires close communication and cooperation between specialists and referring veterinarians.
Preventative Care
Veterinary clinics that focus on preventative care help keep pets healthy and can stop severe illnesses from developing. This includes regular physical exams, blood and urine tests, vaccinations, parasite prevention, dental care, weight management, and nutrition guidance.
Veterinary researchers work to find new ways to diagnose, treat, and prevent animal and human diseases. They have found cures for malaria and yellow fever, developed an anticoagulant used in people with heart disease, and created permanent artificial limbs.
Veterinarians also serve in governmental positions and uniformed services, managing animal populations in disaster relief efforts and promoting public health through food safety, biomedical research, and infectious disease prevention programs. Veterinarians are the only doctors trained to protect both animals and humans, making them uniquely qualified to help people in crisis. They are responsible for preventing the spread of illness, including bioterrorism, and ensuring that government-owned animals receive appropriate care. They also manage wildlife, zoologic, and aquatic animal programs.
Diagnosis
Veterinarians have the knowledge and expertise to diagnose your pet's condition. They can then recommend the best course of treatment. This includes surgery, medication, and other therapies.
Veterinary scientists at universities, colleges, and government agencies are finding ways to prevent, treat and cure animal diseases, including cancer, infectious diseases, and other ailments. They have contributed to developing vaccines, antibiotics, permanent artificial limbs, and other medical advances.
In value-based care (achieving patient outcomes for the lowest cost), the veterinary profession needs to embrace quality improvement methods appropriately for its practice settings. This will require collaboration and cross-learning between specialists and veterinary generalists, as well as a greater understanding of how to measure patient outcomes and costs in a clinically meaningful way. Low-cost/short-time evaluations are available for practitioners to use in their practice.
Treatment
You must provide the best care possible for any resident at your sanctuary who requires medical treatment. Your veterinarian can create a specific plan for each individual to their condition and needs. This may include administering fluids and medications via IV or intravenous drip, monitoring for post-surgical complications like wound infection, and ensuring the animal is comfortable and stress-free during its stay at your facility.
Veterinary medicine has made many contributions to human and animal health, including dramatically reducing the number of humans exposed to diseases such as tuberculosis and brucellosis through exposure to laboratory animals. Veterinarians also develop vaccines and other preventative measures for companion animals.
Unlike human healthcare, where complex payment models and insurance companies complicate the concept of value-based care (VBC), veterinary medicine can utilize VBC to improve outcomes in a financially sustainable way. Veterinarians can educate pet owners and communicate treatment options' advantages, disadvantages, and costs to help them make informed decisions about their pets' health.
Post-Surgical Care
Veterinarians help to keep people and pets safe from the spread of diseases. For example, veterinarians working for the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) investigate animal and human diseases like rabies, Ebola, and food-borne illnesses. They also work to protect people from exposure to animal feces and other contaminants.
Veterinary surgeons often take on managerial roles in private practice and governmental agencies and must be able to manage employees and businesses. In addition, many vets perform research at universities, colleges, and governmental agencies to find new treatments for animal and human diseases and conditions. Their discoveries have led to the development of permanent artificial limbs and vaccines for rabies and malaria, among other things.
Veterinarians can improve clinical outcomes and provide quality veterinary care by embracing value-based care. This strategy seeks to maximize patient outcomes at the lowest possible cost and requires multidisciplinary teams to communicate effectively across disciplines. Implementing owner-reported outcome measures in veterinary practice would enable this and lead to cross-learning across clinics.
