The first
wave in veterinary medicine 100
years ago was the introduction of
Scientific Method,
what Dr. Tripp calls, Vet
Centered.
The
second wave about 25 years ago was
adding Client Service (Client
Centered) and those that adopted it
prospered.
The third
wave is proposed to be looking at
the vet visit from the pet’s point
of view. Using the behavior
strategies in this lecture will
result in a “Pet Centered Practice”
by preventing Veterinary Phobia in
pets.
Instead
learn to bond them to your staff and
location while still providing the
highest level of Client Service and
Veterinary Medicine. Those that
adopt this will prosper!
Have you ever spent a moment
imagining what our patients
experience when they visit any
of our facilities. What are they
thinking? What are they
feeling?
|
We focus our efforts on their
physical pain in order to make a
diagnosis and enact a proper
treatment plan, but how much
consideration do we give to the
emotional aspects of our patients’
visit? With today’s pell-mell pace of
practice it’s easy to lose sensitivity
to how the patient may be viewing his
visit as we go about our task of
diagnosing and treating the physical
problems.
Forty years ago a veterinarian had to do
little more than put up a shingle and he was
inundated with business. Practices were
generally small and somewhat homey places. A
bond between the practitioner, the client and
their pet was easily maintained. In fact,
our profession and our practitioners were
grounded in that relationship to such an extent
that no label such as “human animal bond” was
necessary or utilized - it was taken for
granted. Everyone just assumed that Doc loves
animals. In fact, no assumption need be made.
The
client had a greater exposure to the
veterinarian and the pet owner could intuitively
experience Doc’s spirit and compassion. Imagine
(or remember) what it was like to run a practice
when there was little overhead in equipment, no
O.S.H.A. regulations, labor laws were vague and
required little attention, inventory management
was simple and straightforward, and so on ad
infinitum. A veterinarian really could focus on
the patient!
The veterinary facility was a small
operation, the support staff had fewer
duties and the veterinarian, with a
paucity of weapons in his armamentarium
with which to fight disease, relied more
on bed-side manner and utilized a more
tactile approach in his administrations.
Knowledge
and technology have exploded in the ensuing
decades and as 21st century
veterinary physicians we now have access to
oceans of information and incredible tools to
aid in patient care. The “mixed animal”
practitioner is a doomed species, soon to be
seen, if not already, as a “jack of all trades,
master of none.” In fact, the terms “small
animal” and “large animal” veterinarian have
been pretty much relegated to the dustbin of
yesterday’s lexicon. Specialists have emerged in
all disciplines, and what’s more, their
habitation is no longer limited to the few
veterinary universities.
Compassion Deficit?
A friend of a friend is a specialist in
ophthalmology in the New York area. When one of
this fellow clients asks him about a
non-ophthalmologic veterinary problem during the
visit, he holds up his hands and declares, “If
it’s more than an inch from the eye, I don’t
touch it.” His interests are scientific and
technical, his talents are formidable and
specific, his patients benefit greatly from his
care and I would not like to operate my general
practice without the expertise of him and his
ilk to rely upon.
We can offer
our patients so much more in
effective medical and surgical
care than our colleagues of
decades past but this progress
has come at a cost.
|
But when I compare this empirical,
detached attitude, so common today, with
the empathy of our predecessors, I
become a bit nostalgic. How much of this
detached aloofness has now set seed even
in today’s general practices?
Evolving Veterinary Care
These issues were on my mind last August when
I attended the PVMA meeting in Hershey. I went
specifically for three days of lectures on
behavior by Rolan Tripp, DVM, founder of
www.AnimalBehavior.Net. You may have seen some
of Dr. Tripp’s published works or caught him on
Animal Planet.
The primary focus of
Dr. Tripp's lectures is how to
build behavior care into the
general practice.
|
Rolan is an extremely engaging speaker. The
first lectures, as evidenced by a hand count,
were attended mostly by technicians and
assistants. As the sessions went on, word got
out – each succeeding lecture brought more and
more people until, by the end of the second day,
the room was SRO. As Rolan spoke, what I heard
beneath the advertised topic was a unique
practice approach.
If the “old days” featured the “vaccine
practice,” and the second wave during the 1990’s
saw our profession move toward the “client
focused practice” or "bond focused practice”
with separate dog and cat reception areas,
coffee in the waiting room, etc., where the
progressive practice is moving in the 21st
century is toward what Tripp coined as the
“the third wave” or “the pet-centered
practice.”
The crux of this concept is the
enhancement of the pet's
experience and our clients’
improved relationships with
their pets.
|
Yes, of course we
should be addressing behavioral issues involving
our patients, but more than that it is incumbent
upon us to set the proper example by engaging
them in the most positive ways while they visit
and reside in our facilities.
Rolan Tripp, D.V.M.
obtained his veterinary degree from U. C., Davis
in 1979 after attaining an undergraduate degree
in music. His minor in college was in philosophy
with a special focus on ethics and logic. His
interest in animal behavior developed after
discovering that behavior is the most common
concern for pet owners, and the most common
cause of euthanasia in pets. Dr. Tripp would
approach the subject of developing the
pet-centered practice detailing the roles of
each member of the veterinary staff.
Receptionists would learn
how to instruct clients on the telephone to
prepare for their visit so as to reduce the
stress on their pets and even make the
experience enjoyable. They would also
learn behavior techniques that could be utilized
to get dogs to sit during the weigh-in and to
manage barking or confrontations between pets in
the reception area.
The kennel team will learn how
to reduce stress in hospitalized
patients, feeding techniques
that keep dogs engaged and how
to recognize behavior cues that
indicate pain or stress, as well
as techniques for safe animal
handling.
|
Veterinarians,
technicians and assistants
would learn how to make the best
first impression with the
pet. Distraction techniques for
unpleasant procedures and
restraint procedure for tame,
fractious and downright wild
patients would be addressed.