Not every animal needs to be seen immediately. Here are five typical situations that could be going on when a client calls the practice:
- The animal must be seen immediately (extremely urgent)
- The animal must be seen today (urgent)
- The animal can be scheduled normally (non-urgent)
- The situation is urgent in the eyes of the client
- The situation is believed to be urgent because of the client’s schedule
If there is an extreme emergency, the animal must be seen as soon as possible. If the animal should ideally be seen today, but if it is not a matter of extreme urgency, then we describe it as urgent. If the animal can be scheduled normally, we call this non-urgent. Then there are two cases in which the owner himself is interpreting the level of urgency, “urgency in the eyes of the client” and “schedule urgency.” Click through to find out what we mean by this.
Urgency in the Eyes of the Client
Urgency in the eyes of the client means that the client considers the animal’s situation to be serious, while in reality it may not be that bad. How do you handle situations like this? The steps below can help you with that.
- Triage:
- It all starts with a good triage. Ask open questions and make sure you map out the urgency of the situation. Is the situation really life-threatening or is the owner mostly panicking? The best option for the animal is to be seen by a vet. But with a good triage, you decide when the animal can come.
- Check the Clinic Calendar:
- In addition, it is important to look at the busyness of the clinic schedule. Do you have a lot of openings available? Then let a concerned client come by. Is the schedule completely full and is the situation not urgent? Then choose a time that suits you best as a practice. When an owner agrees, urge the owner to call again if the situation gets worse.
- Reassure the Client:
- Emergency appointment or referral: Can’t convince this owner? That also sometimes happens. In that case you can do two things: have this owner come by for an emergency appointment (and if it is appropriate, at an emergency rate) or refer the animal to an emergency service or clinic.
- Emergency appointment or referral:
- Can’t convince this owner? That also sometimes happens. In that case you can do two things: have this owner come by for an emergency appointment (and at an emergency rate) or refer the animal to an emergency service or clinic.
Schedule Urgency
What do we mean by “Schedule urgency?”
This means that the owner insists on an appointment at a specific time, because, for instance there is a hairdresser’s appointment ahead of it and afterwards they have to pick up the children from school. As real an urgency as it is to the client, it’s not the clinic’s problem. Adjusting a bit to each other is allowed, but you shouldn’t change your entire schedule for that one client. No is a perfectly acceptable answer it there’s nothing urgent regarding the health of of the patient. You may also say, “I’m really sorry, but that’s not a problem I can solve for you right now.”
