The Olds Pet Care Clinic has achieved accreditation from the American Animal Hospital Association, signifying a high quality of care at the clinic.
The association awarded the accreditation to the clinic on Aug. 27 after the association carried out an evaluation of the facility.
The voluntary accreditation process evaluated 900 different criteria, including safety, diagnostic and laboratory quality, human resource management, surgical quality, maintenance of records and the facility, among others.
“It does give you higher standards to potentially choose and implement,” said Dr. Laureen Hall, the veterinarian who asked for the evaluation. “It's not a strict standard. They definitely have a set of mandatory ones that have to be abided by or you cannot pass, and then they have numerous other (criteria) that you need a certain percentage to pass. It gives us the ability to say that we strive to provide above provincial standards.”
With the new accreditation from the association, the clinic will have another evaluation within the next two years, and then three years following that. Between now and the next evaluation, Hall said the clinic will need to keep up to date on the standards that change on a regular basis in order to pass its next accreditation. This process is meant to reassure pet owners that clinics such as the Olds Pet Clinic are always following best practices.
“The guidelines are constantly evolving, so just because we were to pass this time, there could be new guidelines that they are constantly sending out to their practices of what is changing and what they're going to be recommending. It gives (owners) more information in choosing their health-care provider for their pet,” Hall said.
The pet clinic, which opened in 2011, is among 3,472 accredited practices throughout North America, including 154 in Canada and 18 in Alberta.
It is the only clinic in Olds with an accreditation from the association.
The association is the lone accrediting organization in North America, said Kate Spencer, the association's communications manager. Association-affiliated veterinarians have made a voluntary commitment to go beyond provincial regulations of care for companion animals and have made a commitment to continuing pet-care education, she said.
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