Your Veterinary Hospital Staff

Trisha McLaughlin, CVT, sprinted from the emergency room into the parking lot to triage an 18-month-old puppy that someone had thrown from a speeding car. “I looked at this dog who had been completely torn up and rolled over by a car, and he jumped across my shoulder, as if he was hugging me,” she recalls.

Roadie survived but lost a rear leg. The now 10-year-old pit bull grew up with the veterinary technician who helped save him. “In that moment, I knew I was in the right field . . .,” says McLaughlin, who works at Newtown Veterinary Hospital in Pennsylvania. “This is truly why I stay in nursing.”

THE PRACTICE TEAM
In the early days of veterinary medicine, veterinarians did nearly everything themselves. However, as veterinary medicine began to match the complexity and standards of human medicine, veterinarians needed help. That’s why today’s typical animal hospital team is bigger and better trained.

Medical Staff
Credentialed veterinary technicians have completed 2- or 4-year degree programs and passed state licensing exams. This credential is noted as RVT, CVT, or LVT (registered, certified, or licensed). Some technicians learn through on-the-job training; however, in many states technicians must be credentialed to perform certain tasks, such as inducing anesthesia. In most hospitals, credentialed technicians fill the same role as registered nurses in human medicine. They put the veterinarian’s diagnostic and treatment plans into action—drawing blood, running lab tests, taking x-rays, giving medications, assisting in surgery, and the like. Some also handle client education, physical rehabilitation, and even behavioral counseling.

Veterinary assistants help veterinarians and technicians with animal care duties or serve as client relations staff. Some have completed short certificate programs (less extensive than a credentialed technician program).

Kennel assistants are often high school and college students with an interest in veterinary medicine. They keep pets company, walk them as needed, help feed them, and provide basic cleanup.

Administrative Staff
Practice managers often work their way up through the hospital ranks. Others come from outside industries and bring with them strong business-management skills. Practice managers usually handle human resources, marketing, client relations, drug and supply ordering, inventory, and finance. A certification program is available through the Veterinary Hospital Managers Association. People who complete the program and pass a national exam earn the Certified Veterinary Practice Manager (CVPM) credential.

Receptionists usually come to a veterinary hospital with animal industry or customer service experience. They schedule appointments, greet clients, help maintain charts and records, and handle day-to-day communication with clients.

CHANGING ROLES
Veterinarians now rely on their staff members’ varied skills to take better care of more pets than ever. “I think it’s a great thing in our profession that veterinarians are realizing that they can’t do it all,” says Katherine Dobbs, RVT, CVPM, hospital manager at Fox Valley Animal Referral Center in Appleton, Wisconsin. Walter Rowntree, DVM, at Bannock Animal Medical Center in Idaho, says, “Technicians are doing most of the work I used to do.”

This shift frees veterinarians to focus on the big-picture needs of patients, to keep up with the latest advancements, and to maintain better written patient records because they have more time to document everything. “I no longer feel like I’m under a time constraint all day long,” Dr. Rowntree explains.

At Rowntree’s hospital, veterinary technicians are referred to as “nurses” because that’s a term more clients understand. The nurses serve as case coordinators for each patient. They talk to clients, do preliminary examinations, and brief the veterinarian before he or she enters the exam room. After the doctor’s visit, the technician provides fee estimates, hands out client-education materials, and starts treatment—taking an oversight role from start to finish. “That technician knows what’s going on,” explains Shannon Alarcon, one of Dr. Rowntree’s nurses, “what needs to be done, what has been done.”

“This staffing model allows the client to bond with the nurse who is clearly taking care of and in charge of their animal,” Alarcon says. “Technicians are able to spend more time chatting with people on the phone or in the hospital than veterinarians can.”

Different animal hospitals use different strategies. Some pair doctors and technicians, and they tackle cases together. Other hospitals, like Dr. Rowntree’s, send technicians into the exam room before and after the veterinarian to extend the amount of direct client and patient contact.

Each hospital decides what works best. They may not follow the same blueprint, but they all strive toward a common goal: providing the highest level of care for their patients—your pets.

HOW DO CLIENTS RESPOND?
Janna Farnes’ 4-year-old Bernese mountain dog, Tobi, was diagnosed with lymphoma in June 2006. During Tobi’s 20 weekly chemotherapy treatments, Farnes stood in awe of the staff at Dr. Rowntree’s hospital. “There was such an emotional net for me, just so reassuring and kind,” Farnes says. “Everyone worked together to get the job done . . . they treated my dog like she was the only patient they had. There was just an intrinsic harmony.”