Animal Health Solutions

39 Q4 2020 | Animal Health Solutions "We converted half of our doggie day care and boarding teams in client greeters and parking lot liaisons to help facilitate our pet valet service." — Billy Hess, Winter Park Veterinary Hospital (Winter Park, FL) Have you established or modified any best practices (cleaning, how you see patients, etc.) due to COVID-19? We took a different approach to other practices around the country because our rural area saw a relatively low level of infections. There were also concerns about staff safety when getting patients from cars, the possibility of lost/loose pets during client to staff transfer, and worries about effects on overall efficiency. We never went to curbside-only visits. Instead, we closed our waiting area in the hospital and asked for only one client at a time to bring their pet, if possible. Clients called the hospital from their cars in the parking lot to tell us they had arrived and waited in their vehicles until they could be moved directly into an open exam room. If a client preferred curbside, we were able to accommodate their request, but found that a vast majority wanted in-person visits. We installed a plexiglass barrier at the front desk to protect our staff, made sure to keep the exhaust running in the exam rooms, and cleaned surfaces between appointments. We utilized a portable, handheld POS system to assist checkout in exam rooms after a visit or allow checkout in the parking lot when a client was only getting medication, eliminating the need for them to enter the building. We converted half of our doggie day care and boarding teams in client greeters and parking lot liaisons to help facilitate our pet valet service. Numbered parking spots for appointments as well as designated areas for SX and DO, emergencies, and medication pickups, helped organize the parking lot. We use short wave radios to communicate within and between team members which really helped communication in a large hospital. We had these before the pandemic, but that are an essential now. Best practice is making the team feel as safe as possible through financial support, a healthy environment, and conscious updates on the status and what we as a team need to do to stay safe. Our team has been amazing rock stars and are underappreciated frontline workers in this pandemic. We haven't modified, but we changed our appointment times. We used to see 20-30 minute appointments, but now see 40 minute appointments to accommodate the extra running. We really stress the importance of communication and are more focused on ensuring we have the updated emails and primary phone numbers in the system. We do a morning cleaning once we arrive, mid-day wipe down of everything, then an end-of-the-day cleaning by a cleaning company. The doctors and techs are assigned to an exam room for the day so we don't have communal sharing in rooms. Greencastle Winter Park Cannon Valley Care First

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