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This document pertains to infection prevention and control in small (companion) animal veterinary clinics and is relevant to all personnel who work in association with such clinics, including veterinarians, veterinary technicians and lay staff. For the purposes of this document, “veterinary personnel” refers to all personnel who work in a veterinary clinic. This includes non-clinical staff, as in many situations these individuals may still have periodic direct or indirect contact with patients and pathogens within a clinic. The purpose of this document is to provide veterinary personnel with a succinct guide to principles and practices of infection control relevant to small animal veterinary clinics. This document provides the basic information needed to develop an infection control program and establish basic infection control practices for such a clinic, with specific emphasis on critical routine practices such as hand hygiene, and cleaning and disinfection.
Anderson MEC, Wimmers M, Weese JS. Infection Prevention and Control Best Practices for Small Animal Veterinary Clinics, 2nd ed. Guelph: Ontario Animal Health Network, 2020. First edition, November 2008.

This document sets out the VMD position statement and proposals for veterinary surgeons when balancing the considerations for meeting legislative requirements with responsible use of antibiotics.

Dr Rachel Dean of VetPartners and Professor Ulrika Gronlund of AniCura discuss the clinical benefits of corporatisation, in a Knowledge Sessions podcast.

Transcript of a presentation on quality improvement in practice chaired by Dan Tipney, featuring Louise Northway, Alison Thomas, Pam Mosedale and Richard Byrne at SPVS-VMG Congress January 2020, as part of the Quality Improvement stream.

Guide to setting up and running a journal club in practice

Following input and feedback from clinic and hospital teams, Vets Now have developed two flowcharts to assist their clinic and hospital teams in the practical aspects of seeing cases whilst maintain social distancing.

One flowchart is designed to aid in seeing cases when they are arriving at a steady rate and can be examined by the duty vet soon after arrival at the clinic or hospital.

The other flowchart is for use during busier periods when there is a build-up of cases waiting to see the duty vet following nurse triage.

The flowcharts aid the Vets Now Contact Centre teams in communicating with clients as to what they can expect when they arrive at the clinic or hospital.

This case example details how a practice team reacted after a patient escaped while trying to maintain social distancing during COVID-19.

Surgical safety checklists from Animal Health Trust, including an opthalmic surgery safety checklist

A series of checklist examples from Bell Equine, including a catheter care checklist, pre-surgery checklist and a nurse theatre checklist (PDF Doc)

End of day checklist and in-patient checklist from Bright Side Vets.