Energize your team and get them all pulling in the same direction regarding preventative care. By utilizing the first AAHA/AVMA Preventive Healthcare Guidelines for Dogs and Cats, along with a suite of tools, you can align your entire team around preventive healthcare protocols.

Partners for Healthy Pets (PHP), an alliance of 100+ veterinary associations, veterinary colleges, and animal health companies focused on preventive care led by AAHA and the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA), is offering free, downloadable tools to help your practice implement the preventative care guidelines in a simple step-by-step process.

Developed jointly by the American Animal Hospital Association (AAHA) and the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA), these guidelines provide information for veterinary professionals on the care and treatment of feline and canine patients.

The 2-sided, single-page guidelines are in PDF form and easy to download. They feature an easy-to-use, checklist style format that offers information on: recommendations for frequency of visits, assessment components for a health evaluation, and a client communication and education plan.

To help you with the process, check out some of the available tools.

A Getting Started video gives a brief intro about the various tools available to practice staff for implementing the guidelines.  In the video, each tool is clearly explained with a visual map of how all of the tools work together.

A webinar, Focus Your Clinic on Preventive Pet Healthcare, provides answers to all why and how questions about inspiring and organizing a practice team to improve preventive pet healthcare and client communications. Hosted by Mike Paul, DVM, the webinar also provides an overview of the 10 Steps to Success handout, providing a process of how to organize your practice team. The handout can be used as reference notes for the webinar or to give you ideas on how to apply implementation to your own practice.

Or, as a way to get the team fired up, try the Sharpen Your Axe video, an inspiration presentation by Andy Roark, DVM, designed to reignite your passion for your work with pets and the people who love them.

Preventative healthcare is an important aspect of veterinary medicine, and with the AAHA/AVMA Preventive Healthcare Guidelines for Dogs and Cats and a series of free, downloadable tools from PHP, you can take the steps to help ensure your practice is focused on the best care for your patients.

Photo credit: © iStock/fatihhoca