Tracking and sharing patient outcomes is equally important in veterinary medicine as it is in human medicine. We all benefit from knowing statistics and the likelihood of a positive result when it comes to treatment plans. Having a large pool of data allows doctors to understand patient risks and outcomes better.
Initial Research:
There are many levels in which monitoring a patient’s outcome can occur, which are equally important from the science to the treatment.
First, the vaccine, drug, or treatment is thoroughly tested and validated by the manufacturer to receive approval by the appropriate government organization.
Why is validation important? Validation of drugs through these government organizations leads to the knowledge of potential side effects related to each medication. However, clinical veterinarians also play an essential role in further monitoring the outcomes of patients. Veterinarians are always able to and should report adverse reactions once the vaccine, drug, or treatment is on the market (exact reporting requirements vary by state).
Beneficial Advice:
As veterinarians begin to use new methods of practice, they can share benefits or setbacks they face through scholarly advice. Veterinarians can seek recommendations from other veterinarians in a multi-doctor clinic, textbooks, and online forums such as VIN. This communication enables veterinarians to practice better medicine, which leads to a decreased mortality rate and increased effectiveness of care.
Setbacks:
In every sort of work environment, there are setbacks, in veterinary research and practices, this happens to be patient mortality. Patient mortality, while always a somber event, allows clinics to evaluate their protocols and ensure all assistants and nurses are fully trained on monitoring patients that are sick, in critical care, and recovering from anesthesia.
Patient mortality can also be used to highlight gaps in the clinic’s monitoring protocols. A problem we are focused on fixing here at VetMeasure with our harness MeasureON!
Future Satisfaction:
Veterinary clinics and hospitals can also monitor patient and client experience by offering surveys after each visit. This information is valuable as it allows clinic staff to determine how to ensure clients are satisfied with clinic staff and the care their pets received. In turn, this increases client retention and satisfaction of their visit.