The State of Emergency and Specialty Care

Hello 👋 Welcome back to Weekend Rounds.

If we told you that Tina Fey rescued a shark this week, would you believe us?

Well, it’s a trick question. Tina Fey did go viral this week for sharing a video of beachgoers rescuing a shark by pushing it back into the water. But it wasn’t the award-winning Tina Fey that you’re thinking of.

However, it did remind us that Tina Fey’s show 30 Rock gave us some of some of the best advice we’ve ever received:

Here is what we’re covering today:

🏥 The State of Emergency and Specialty Care
🐕️ Amazon Enters the Pet Tracking Market
📰 The Central Role of Animal Welfare in Pandemic Prevention
🚀 Quick Hits

🏥 State of Care

A new survey from Instinct, a veterinary technology company, looks at the state of ER and speciality hospitals in 2023. The survey of 277 veterinary professionals sheds some light on how hospitals and clinics are addressing workforce challenges, enhancing productivity, and advancing their use of technology in 2023.

The report is a relatively unique data set, as most reporting across the industry focuses on general practice clinics and employees. While the results of the survey are not entirely surprising, it does provide some valuable insight into some of the challenges and possible solutions facing our profession.

Here are some takeaways for key sections of the report:

Workload & Morale

High patient volumes and surging workloads have widespread impacts on staff hours, overtime, mental health, and client wait times.

• 33% of respondents have increased their working hours in 2023, and 50% of respondents reported that their hospital's average wait time exceeds an hour.

• 83% of survey respondents report experiencing stress and mental health challenges.

• 67% of respondents increased overtime hours to accommodate more cases, while 52% reported their hospital hired relief workers in the past year.

Somewhat interestingly, employees working more hours were more likely to report high morale, likely due to their role and compensation:

Hiring and retention

• 83% of respondents reported that a shortage of veterinary talent was the top challenge in hiring for their hospital, with technicians/nurses being the most challenging roles to hire and retain

• Burnout and work-life balance continue to be primary causes of turnover amongst full time veterinarians and technicians/nurses

The study covers much more, including workload trends, productivity, and compensation. You can view the full results of the study here.

🐕️ Amazon tracking numbers

Ring, the video doorbell software that revolutionized the way home owners monitor their front porch and was acquired by Amazon for $1 Billion, has entered the pet tracking market.

Amazon is one of the largest multinational e-commerce and cloud computing companies in the world. But if you thought they would be developing a product that leverages an exciting new technology to change the way we track our pets, you would be very wrong.

Instead, Ring has launched a dog collar that has a QR code on it. Yep - that’s right. Amazon, the same company that tracks millions of packages from door to door every day, has launched a QR code. The QR code conveniently sits on a tag on the dogs collar. This way, in order to help return a lost dog to it’s owner, all you need to do is approach the dog and try to pin it down so you can pull out your camera phone to scan its collar! Sounds fun!

Even though it is only $10, we’ll still stick with a good old dog tag…. or better yet, a microchip.

🚀 Quick Hits

Data, safety regulations lacking when it comes to pets and vehicles [AVMA]

Can animals give birth to twins? [The Conversation]

‘Productivity levers’ key to practice efficiency [Veterinary Practice News]

Zoetis Foundation grants aim to advance opportunities for veterinarians and livestock farmers [DVM360]