What Can You Do in Your Veterinary Practice For COVID-19?

COVID-19 is all everyone is talking about lately and for good reason. Between the growing number of positive cases and the lack of adequate testing, it really is hard to determine where this will go. However, there are many steps that can be taken now to help reduce risk in the veterinary industry. Here are the ones we’ve compiled so far:

We’ve compiled a list of common questions and different ideas being posed by managers. As a “disclaimer,” every practice is different. These ideas are just that; ideas that may be working for other clinics. It is up to the practice leadership to determine if any of these ideas will help your practice.

Where to Start

Make a plan!

1. Elicit staff feedback: This is important to ensure that you are addressing the stresses that your staff are feeling. It is important to keep a pulse on staff morale and if you can directly answer the concerns of your team, you are already one step ahead. This can be in a staff meeting or anonymous submission.
2. Leadership meeting: Meet with the leadership team to address the below 3 areas (inter-hospital logistics, client service and employee support). Work out different scenarios. Talk about your team’s concerns and what you can do.
3. Staff meeting: Transparency is so important at a time like this where there is already so much uncertainty. Let them know what steps your hospital is taking and include supporting evidence (CDC/AVMA recommendations) when appropriate. Also let them know you will update weekly, even if just to say, “Great job, keep doing what you’re doing.” It is so important to make sure that you don’t unveil a policy without discussing it with the entire team first.
4. Client updates: This means creating handouts to give in-person, and crafting a similar message for social media, your website, email blast and push notification for your app.
5. Weekly updates or as status changes

Three Areas to Consider:

Your hospital may identify more areas, but below are three primary areas we have identified as important as COVID-19 continues.

Inter-Hospital Logistics

• Is there a way to avoid closure if someone turns up positive for COVID-19? Ultimately, this will be determined based on your health department recommendations. However, thinking about and instituting creative scheduling now may help. The idea here would be to decrease the potential exposure if someone comes down with symptoms. Maybe you have a Team A and a Team B that alternate days or every few days so that if someone comes up with symptoms the entire team isn’t wiped out. Likewise, if a client comes up sick, it will be easier to trace who may have had interactions with them. If you have multiple hospitals that share employees, it may be a good time to scale this back.

Can we section the clinic into “pockets?” This would be minimal interaction between CSR’s and Techs and then maybe a tech is paired with a doctor who are then assigned to one room. Can we position workstations so that our team are encouraged to stay 6 feet away from each other?

• How do we address possible transmission via fomites from patient restraint? Right now, the AVMA cites a haircoat as an “unlikely fomite.” Right now, we don’t have enough data to express indefinites but transmission is far more likely via a client breathing next to you as you restrain their pet. This doesn’t mean we can’t wear gloves when handling patients or change scrub tops and practicing general good hygiene after handling pets will likely be more effective. Putting policies where interactions with other people are also more effective.

Client Service

• What do we tell clients? Having a standard “script” is indicated here. The leadership team should come up with a hospital policy on what they want to communicate with clients. Something like the example below is a good staring place. Make sure all receptionists are trained (even putting reminders on computer screens if necessary) so that the message is  consistent from person to person.

“I understand your concern Mrs. Peterson, per the AVMA, at this time there is no evidence to suggest pet dogs or cats can be a source of infection. We are keeping track of updates as they occur. You can find any pertinent information to your pet’s health or hospital operations on <insert where you will be providing updates>. Please check back here at least weekly. This is what we’re doing in-hospital to help decrease risk <list heightened protocols>.”

• What if clients ignore our new policies we’ve created due to COVID-19? This really stinks. If a client is insistent that they are seen or they do not follow your parking lot communication protocol, we need to empower our CSRs to know how to address this. This isn’t unlike any of our other policies. If you decide that no one will be waiting in the clinic, and instead they will be in their car until an exam room opens up, your CSRs should be empowered to ask someone to leave if they won’t follow protocols. Management should be ready to back up these policies and address client concerns. Likewise, encouraging an open dialogue with your CSR team can help head off problems before they blow up. Really, this should be treated like the education/adherence to any of your protocols, even if it is a unique situation that proved the catalyst.

• How do we help clients while keeping them and our team, safe? Look at your policies to see where you can minimize interactions between individuals. There are more ideas below but it might be a good idea to increase “curb-side,” services. Clients can call or text you when they get into the parking lot.

Employee Support

• I can’t come in because schools are closed and I have no childcare. Be careful finding an older child to care for a staff’s younger children. There are licensing requirements that you simply don’t want the liability from with something that qualifies as “in-home daycare.” The best solution I’ve found here  are staff pulling together, being honest about their needs, support they may have at home and figuring out a solution that works for everyone.
• Increase sanitation standards. Due to the nature of our work, we already must maintain fairly high sanitation standards. However, a more routine disinfection protocol isn’t a bad thing. You can increase your focus on areas such as door handles, computer accessories, etc. Likewise, bathrooms should be cleaned more frequently and any client facing areas that are still being used should also be wiped down more frequently. Set a defined standard to give your team guidance. “More frequently” can mean different things to different people.
• I don’t currently provide sick time, but my staff are concerned about missing work. This one is largely going to depend on your resources as a clinic. Can you afford to offer temporary sick time to your team? Knowing that a lot of our team members live paycheck to paycheck, the reality is that it may be detrimental to your team’s finances to have to stay home quarantined due to COVID-19. Now, before you set any in-stone policies, the government should be passing the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, which may help support your team if they have to miss work. Giving your team an idea of what to expect here is important. Even if the message is, “Let’s see what this benefit may turn out to be and in the meantime, come and all other situations will be discussed on a case by case basis.”
• A few miscellaneous areas:
  • Cash Handling – cash is gross…it’s also free to accept. Do you stop taking cash? Do you have one person handle it and practice sanitizing procedures post-handling?
  • Magazines and other public materials in the reception area – probably a good idea to put these away for the time being.
  • Coffee Machine – Do you take out of commission or do you provide wipes for self-sanitation?
  • Pens! Our beloved pens! The best idea I’ve seen here is to have a set of “clean” pens and “dirty” pens. Those used clean get put into the dirty area and are sanitized.
  • Discourage food sharing – perhaps the most disappointing? We are a food motivated profession.
  • Stay home if sick – This ties into the one above but leadership are have to lead the charge on this one. No one wants to be short-handed, but there are no heroes coming to the clinic sick.

Interesting COVID-19 Developments to Keep a Pulse On

• The Governor of Ohio recommends veterinary clinics suspend elective procedures to help conserve supplies. The AVMA also recommends suspending elective procedures and appointments (including vaccine and wellness appointments). Making a solid recommendation here is hard. This is really going to have to be a thoughtful business decision. Use historical data to project what this may look like from a revenue perspective. What will this mean for staffing? Telemedicine is going to really be a hero in a lot of ways. If you have been on the fence about introducing it – now may be the motivator to jump on board. I don’t want to introduce doom and gloom but we really have to look at unique ways to address income generation.
• The Governor of Ohio also ordered restaurants to close – actively discouraging the congregation of people. This is significant because of the implication to veterinary practices if we are forced to close. They can still offer carry-out and pickup but what would the impact to your business be if you had to stop accepting in-person appointments? Once again, telemedicine may be the hero here. Coming up with a “worst-case” scenario plan isn’t “panicking,” It is a good business decision when we know the possibility is out there.
• The CDC has updating guidelines on canceling any events with more than 50 people for the next 8 weeks. Just another thing to keep a pulse on.