Emergency Call Protocol
Emergency Call Protocol for Veterinarians
When a pet owner calls in a panic, your response determines the animal's safety and your clinic's revenue. This protocol ensures your staff remains calm while identifying life-threatening situations like GDV or poisoning immediately. A clear system helps you transition from a $75 vaccination to a $2,500 emergency surgery without missing a beat.
Defining Veterinary Emergencies
Not every frantic call is a true emergency. You must train your staff to distinguish between life-threatening events and urgent care needs. True emergencies include 'Hit by Car' (HBC) cases, difficulty breathing (dyspnea), seizures, or suspected poisoning from chocolate or Xylitol. These situations require immediate intervention and often lead to high-value procedures ranging from $1,500 to $5,000. Urgent cases, like a minor ear infection or a small paw laceration, can often be scheduled for the next available slot or charged a lower urgent-care fee of around $150 to $250. Understanding this difference prevents your surgical suite from being backed up with non-critical cases.
Key takeaway: Differentiate between life-threatening emergencies and urgent care to protect your surgical schedule.
The Phone Triage Decision Tree
When the phone rings, the first goal is triage. Staff should ask specific questions: 'Is the pet conscious?', 'What color are the gums?', and 'Is the pet struggling to breathe?'. If gums are pale or blue, the pet needs to come in immediately. SkipCalls can assist here by handling basic inquiries or routing these high-priority calls directly to a technician's line even when the receptionist is busy. This ensures that a dog with a 'blocked' bladder—a $1,000+ procedure—doesn't get put on hold while someone else asks about puppy food brands. Fast triage saves lives and captures high-revenue cases that might otherwise call the competitor down the street.
