Guidelines for zoo and aquarium veterinary medical programs and veterinary hospitals

These guidelines for veterinary medical care and veterinary hospitals are written to conform with the requirements of the Animal Welfare Act, which states that programs of disease prevention and parasite control, euthanasia, and adequate veterinary care shall be established and maintained under the supervision of a veterinarian. Ideally the zoo and aquarium should be providing the best possible veterinary medical care for the animals in their collections. Many of these animals are rare and endangered and the institutions should endeavor both to provide for the long term health and well being of these animals and to advance the field of non-domestic animal medicine. It is hoped that this publication will aid in this process.     

Development and implementation of veterinary anesthesia medical quality standards for primary care

ObjectiveThe provision of general anesthesia is common in veterinary hospitals and procedures include some level of risk, up to and including mortality. A quality initiative was introduced with a focus on reducing canine and feline anesthesia mortality. This paper describes the development and implementation of risk-based medical quality standards (MQS) and resultant impacts on anesthesia mortality.Study designThis was a qualitative observational study. MQS focused on the provision of anesthesia were researched, developed and implemented. Anesthesia mortality rates, captured via an automated process based on the electronic medical record, were recorded before and after implementation. Compliance to standards was determined via hospital auditing.AnimalsClient-owned dogs and cats presenting to Banfield Pet Hospital (a national network of primary care hospitals) for elective and nonelective general anesthesia procedures. Over the course of the study, 2,038,318 dogs and 350,410 cats had a general anesthesia event.MethodsLiterature reviews and analysis of veterinary patient medical records identified risk factors associated with anesthesia mortality. Risk factors informed the development of MQS. Evidence-based standards focused on the provision of general anesthesia were written, reviewed, evaluated and edited. Implementation occurred over 6 months via a robust communication plan. Anesthesia mortality rates were continuously monitored before, during and after the introduction of standards. Compliance with all quality standards was assessed via hospital-based auditing performed on an annual basis.ResultsPrior to quality standards implementation, anesthesia mortality rates for dogs and cats combined was 7.4 deaths/10,000 procedures. At 6 months after implementation, the mortality rate was 6.24 deaths/10,000 procedures, representing a 16% decrease. Compliance with standards improved over time with continued focus and education.Conclusions and clinical relevanceDevelopment, implementation and continued focus on MQS can improve anesthetic safety and reduce anesthesia mortality in primary care veterinary hospitals.     

Two differentiated programs of veterinary medical education at the university of veterinary and pharmaceutical sciences in the Czech Republic

This article describes the two separate programs of veterinary education offered at the University of Veterinary and Pharmaceutical Sciences in Brno, Czech Republic, which are directed to clinical veterinary medicine and to veterinary food safety, hygiene, and ecology, respectively. Both programs provide a level of training such that all graduates are competent for veterinary practice in any area of veterinary medicine; however, each offers an extended and deepened emphasis of training in clinical medicine, on the one hand, and food safety, on the other. A key feature is that the cohort of students for each program enters having pre-selected a career in one of these two areas. One of the important end results of this structure is that it fulfills the growing and important mission of providing a critical number of veterinarians in food safety and all of its allied fields.     

Understanding veterinary practitioners' decision-making process: implications for veterinary medical education

Understanding how veterinary practitioners make clinical decisions, and how they use scientific information to inform their decisions, is important to optimize animal care, client satisfaction, and veterinary education. We aimed to develop an understanding of private practitioners' process of decision making. On the basis of a grounded-theory qualitative approach, we conducted a telephone survey and semi-structured face-to-face interviews. We identified a decision-making framework consisting of two possible processes to make decisions, five steps in the management of a clinical case, and three influencing factors. To inform their decision, veterinary surgeons rarely take the evidence-based medicine (EBM) approach. They consult first-opinion colleagues, specialists, laboratories, and the Internet rather than scientific databases and peer-reviewed literature, mainly because of limited time. Most interviewees suggested the development of educational interventions to better develop decision-making skills in veterinary schools. Adequate information and EBM tools are needed to optimize the time spent in query and assessment of scientific information, and practitioners need to be trained in their use.     

Suggested guidelines for immunohistochemical techniques in veterinary diagnostic laboratories

This document is the consensus of the American Association of Veterinary Laboratory Diagnosticians (AAVLD) Subcommittee on Standardization of Immunohistochemistry on a set of guidelines for immunohistochemistry (IHC) testing in veterinary laboratories. Immunohistochemistry is a powerful ancillary methodology frequently used in many veterinary laboratories for both diagnostic and research purposes. However, neither standardization nor validation of IHC tests has been completely achieved in veterinary medicine. This document addresses both issues. Topics covered include antibody selection, fixation, antigen retrieval, antibody incubation, antibody dilutions, tissue and reagent controls, buffers, and detection systems. The validation of an IHC test is addressed for both infectious diseases and neoplastic processes. In addition, storage and handling of IHC reagents, interpretation, quality control and assurance, and troubleshooting are also discussed. Proper standardization and validation of IHC will improve the quality of diagnostics in veterinary laboratories.     

Funding opportunities for veterinary medicine with USDA competitive programs

Dramatic changes are underway in how public higher education and professional training are funded. The shift from a public to a beneficiary funding model is driving increases in tuition for students, the collection of user fees, and fee-for-service activities and has focused increased attention on the need for funding support from federal grants and contracts. The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) was the first federal agency to support university-based research and education. While the funding provided by the USDA is now only a fraction of what is available through other federal sources, the USDA remains an important source of funding dedicated specifically to farm-animal-related research and the training of the next generation of veterinary scientists and educators.     

ASVCP guidelines: quality assurance for point‐of‐care testing in veterinary medicine

Point‐of‐care testing (POCT) refers to any laboratory testing performed outside the conventional reference laboratory and implies close proximity to patients. Instrumental POCT systems consist of small, handheld or benchtop analyzers. These have potential utility in many veterinary settings, including private clinics, academic veterinary medical centers, the community (eg, remote area veterinary medical teams), and for research applications in academia, government, and industry. Concern about the quality of veterinary in‐clinic testing has been expressed in published veterinary literature; however, little guidance focusing on POCT is available. Recognizing this void, the ASVCP formed a subcommittee in 2009 charged with developing quality assurance (QA) guidelines for veterinary POCT. Guidelines were developed through literature review and a consensus process. Major recommendations include (1) taking a formalized approach to POCT within the facility, (2) use of written policies, standard operating procedures, forms, and logs, (3) operator training, including periodic assessment of skills, (4) assessment of instrument analytical performance and use of both statistical quality control and external quality assessment programs, (5) use of properly established or validated reference intervals, (6) and ensuring accurate patient results reporting. Where possible, given instrument analytical performance, use of a validated 1_3s control rule for interpretation of control data is recommended. These guidelines are aimed at veterinarians and veterinary technicians seeking to improve management of POCT in their clinical or research setting, and address QA of small chemistry and hematology instruments. These guidelines are not intended to be all‐inclusive; rather, they provide a minimum standard for maintenance of POCT instruments in the veterinary setting.