How Telehealth can Improve Veterinary Team Wellbeing | Episode 26 | Reviving Vet Med

During the last several years, veterinary medicine has experienced an increase in demand for veterinary care, as well as an increase in attrition of team members and a shortage of available team members to fill those vacant spots. As such, most veterinary practices are routinely functioning with a staffing deficit while tending to a higher than usual caseload. 

These circumstances have led to burnout rates exceeding 50% among some veterinary team members. 

The benefits of utilizing telehealth services in veterinary medicine are numerous, not the least of which is providing care for pet owners who are unable to access veterinary appointments in a timely fashion. In this episode, I discuss the forms of telehealth used most commonly in veterinary medicine and the benefits for using these technologies to support veterinary team wellbeing. 

Resources

How telehealth can improve the wellbeing of veterinary teams (blog):
https://marieholowaychuk.com/2022/11/02/how-telehealth-can-improve-the-wellbeing-of-veterinary-teams/

Online Programs

To learn more about our 4- and 8-week online programs approved for CE credit in jurisdictions that recognize RACE, please visit:
https://revivingvetmed.com/programs/

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Questions or Suggestions
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Transcript

Hi everyone. Welcome to another episode of Reviving Vet Med. In today's episode, we are going to be talking about the many benefits of tele-health on veterinary teen well-being. So, during the month of November, we actually celebrate digital health week, which is a great reminder of all the ways that digital media can improve or help our health. This, of course, can refer to the different apps that we use for our health, such as meditation apps, exercise apps, and other important forms of technology that further our health.

But in the context of today's conversation, I'm going to be focusing on the use of telehealth. Telehealth has the potential to improve our own personal health as well. For example, when we have a phone appointment with our physician without going into the office or a video appointment with our counselor without seeing them in person. So, in today's episode, we are going to be talking about tele-health in the context of vet medicine. And I'm going to start by just broadly defining tele-health and sharing some examples of how we use it in the veterinary space.

And then I'm going to focus on the benefits of tele-health when it comes to preventing burnout and enhancing well-being amongst veterinary team members. So as always, there's lots of really important and practical information to share with you. So, let's go ahead and get into the episode. This is the Reviving Vet Med podcast and I'm your host Dr. Marie Holowaychuk. My mission is to improve the mental health and well-being of veterinary professionals around the world.

So, it's not uncommon for people to ask me the question, what I think would make a huge difference in veterinary medicine to improve the well-being of our teams? And one of the first things that always comes to mind for me is tele-health. This is a relatively new concept in the veterinary space. And by way of definition, tele-health is the use of digital information and communication technologies to deliver health information, education, or care remotely. So, in essence, tele-health is an overarching term whereby depending on who's involved in the exchange of information or communication, it can take on different forms or get divided up into different categories.

So, some of those in categories include tele triage, which is typically a non-client who's speaking to either a veterinary technician or nurse or perhaps a veterinarian. Can also be tele-consulting where a specialist is going to be offering information, advice, or education to a veterinarian. Then we can have tele supervision where a veterinary team might be relaying information to the veterinarian who is not currently in front of the animal. Then we can, of course, have tele-monitoring where an animal might be wearing some sort of device that is going to share digital information with a veterinarian or veterinary technician or nurse. And then of course we have telemedicine which is usually between a client and a veterinarian and usually that client is someone who has interacted with the veterinarian before or in other words has an established veterinary client patient relationship.

And then last but not least, we have e prescriptions, which is essentially when a pharmacy or distributor is exchanging information with a veterinarian. So, these different categories of tele-health use technology such as mobile devices, apps, video conferencing, recorded videos, recorded audio files, text messages, email, wearable monitoring devices, and various other technologies really that that share information that in some way serves to enhance the care of the patient. So, I think all of us can attest to the fact that tele-health really took off during the pandemic when face to face appointments were limited and the demand for veterinary care was increasing. In some instances, veterinary practices just really seamlessly adopted these technologies. They started streaming all of their veterinarian's exams to the pet owner in the car via their phone while they waited outside.

Whereas others even took it a step further and started allowing consultations between the veterinarian and the pet and owner at home. Since then, we've seen an increase in companies that have emerged to offer these services to anybody really who wants to utilize them. Specifically, they might be practices that want to utilize additional services for tele-health or they might be clients who are looking to access veterinary care. So, when we think about tele-health services in the form of telemedicine, we typically think of companies like Smart Vet or Vetster. So, these are companies that are offering routine care or non-urgent care for pet owners when they cannot get in to see their regular veterinarian in a timely fashion.

They might also serve to triage these animals so that they can make sure that if they do need immediate care that they are finding some sort of veterinary or emergency hospital that they can go to. We also have companies like Animal Health Link who offer specifically tele triage services whereby they might respond to client calls in or outside of business hours to screen patients for life threatening emergencies. And what they can do then is if they decide after speaking with the owner, maybe watching videos, you know, listening to audio, that they can determine whether the patient needs urgent or emergent care and direct them to the nearest facility. Or if it's not necessarily urgent, they could even help them to schedule an appointment with their regular practice at the next available time. But the great thing about these tele triage services is they're alleviating a lot of these calls that practices would otherwise be fielding, whether it be in hours by the reception team or out of hours by whomever is on call so that they can actually decide what is urgent and how to get care if urgent or emergent care is needed.

And then we also have companies like Vet CT who are teams of veterinary specialists who liaise with the veterinarian to offer advice and support for challenging cases that require advanced level care. So many of these patients really would benefit from being seen directly by a specialist. But as we all know, there are circumstances where pet owners don't want to go to a specialist, or they cannot go to a specialist. And in these situations, a company like Vet CT would offer support in the form of consultation with a neurologist, cardiologist, anesthesiologist, critical care specialist, internal medicine, surgery, exotics, you name it. They've got all the specialists there, and those specialists are speaking to the veterinarian who is then continuing to manage the patient in front of them.

So, in full disclosure, I am a part time contractor for Vet CT. And I have to say, my mind has just been blown by the care that this company is able to provide for these veterinarians and for these challenging cases that they're dealing with. And it's just been a pleasure to be able to be a part of that and to really see this aspect of tele-health grow so much in the veterinary space. So, you might be wondering, well, what does all of this have to do with the well-being of veterinary teams? Well, of course, we all know that during the last several years, veterinary medicine has experienced an increase in demand for veterinary care.

So, whether that be because people adopted more pets during the pandemic, because people were home more during the pandemic and looking more at their animals, or whether we've just seen a shift in our demographic of pet owners whereby our pet owners are really wanting to pursue more advanced veterinary care. We're not really clear on where this increased demand has come from, but we've definitely seen an increase in caseload presenting to veterinary hospitals. And unfortunately, concurrently with that, we've also had a reduction in our team members. So, we've seemed to have an increase in nutrition in both our veterinary and our support team members, leaving practice and a shortage of available team members to fill those vacant spots. We've never, in recent memory, had so many job vacancies in veterinary practice.

And, really, this is everywhere. This is certainly everywhere in Canada and the US, and most parts of Europe and Australia are also feeling the pinch of this veterinary team member shortage. And so, of course, most of our veterinary practices now or many are routinely functioning with a staffing shortage while tending to a higher than usual caseload. And this combination, of course, is probably a big contributor to these burnout rates that we're seeing at higher than ever levels. So, the most recent study to come out of the AVMA Merck veterinary well-being research demonstrates that approximately thirty percent of veterinarians are experiencing high burnout and more than fifty percent of veterinary team members, mostly veterinary technicians and veterinary assistants, are experiencing burnout.

So, these numbers are pretty astronomical and are really the reason why we're looking for some strategies to be able to alleviate, you know, the stress and various other burdens on the veterinary team. So, the benefits of utilizing telehealth services in veterinary medicine are numerous, not the least of which, of course, is providing care for pet owners. There are many pet owners out there who cannot get an appointment with a veterinarian in a timely fashion. They might be waiting a week to talk to a veterinarian about their pet's itchy skin or two weeks to, you know, talk to them about something else routine. So, you know, there's no doubt that this is a really great option for us to have in terms of allowing more clients to access the care that they need.

And there are many, many more benefits of tele-health in the context of team member well-being in the veterinary space. And the first of those is that veterinary team members will experience less stress and exhaustion. So, I think there's this pervasive feeling that there are all of these patients who need help, but there just isn't enough time in the day to see them. We're seeing veterinary client care teams overwhelmed with the number of calls that they're fielding, trying to fit these clients into an appointment, ending up double or triple booking appointments, and then the veterinarians and vet tech teams are feeling overwhelmed and exhausted trying to, you know, keep up with all of these appointments. So, the option to refer pet owners to tele-health or telemedicine services for non-urgent concerns or to use even a tele triage service to field those client calls can have a huge impact on alleviating some of the burden on general practices.

Another benefit to the well-being in terms of veterinary tele-health is that veterinarians can spend less time on call and get a better night's sleep. So rural practitioners especially spend a large amount of time on call fielding questions from clients or even tending to emergencies outside of normal practice hours. There's a lot of research demonstrating that time spent on call, even when people aren't actually getting calls, leads to more feelings of tension and tiredness the next day. Of course, there's also negative impacts on sleep. There's some research that demonstrates that there's a higher risk of mental illness such as depression and anxiety.

And there's research to even demonstrate that when cortisol levels are measured amongst individuals who are on call that they're much higher amongst those on call compared to those who have not been on call. So just imagine if you are a veterinarian who spends, you know, half of your nights on call, how much better you would feel knowing that you have a tele triage service to field most of those overnight calls, thereby reducing the need to interrupt you at home or interrupt your sleep and letting you show up to work the next day more alert and ready to go. So huge impact on those veterinarians who spend time on call. The third benefit to telehealth in a veterinary space is that veterinarians can experience less frequent moral stress. So, let's be honest, we're all faced with situations where we are doing something that we don't really think we should be doing, and these situations create a sense of moral conflict or moral stress.

An example, that I think speaks to this topic is when veterinarians are looking after a patient that they really feel would benefit from a specialist care. But the client cannot afford the specialist, maybe they're too far to drive or they don't want to drive that far to access a specialist. Or for whatever reason, you know, they just say, no. I just don't wanna see anybody else but you. So, the primary care veterinarian is then left to manage a patient whose condition might be very complex or very challenging.

And there's this moral dilemma that ensues when a veterinarian is managing a case where they really feel like it exceeds their capabilities or expertise. So, this is where tele-consulting services veterinary to share the details of the case, they can share blood work and radiographs and ultrasound images and, you know, vital signs and everything else and that board certified specialist can take in all of that information and then give advice and recommendations to allow for the best management of that pet's care. This has been my primary experience in veterinary practice in terms of me as a specialist delivering this information to veterinarians. And I can't tell you, you know, when I speak to these veterinarians and they give me, you know, feedback afterwards, it's always, oh my gosh. Thank you so much.

I learned so much. I feel so much more comfortable managing this case. And very often, you know, they're doing everything right already, but it's just having that affirmation that I can do this, you know, this is in my wheelhouse or now that I have this information, I know that I'm doing the best for this patient, thereby just alleviating that sense of moral stress. Now the fourth situation where I really see tele-health benefiting veterinary team member well-being is in the context of veterinary team members who cannot work full time in clinical practice. So, since the pandemic began, some people have had to permanently step away from clinical practice, whether they've got a family member at home who is immunocompromised or needs care, or they've opted to homeschool their children, or because they've been experiencing burnout that they no longer feel that they can do clinical practice.

All of these circumstances have contributed to the shortage of veterinary team members, some of whom would continue to provide veterinary care if they could do it remotely. And I really feel like companies really need to be thinking outside of the box in terms of what sorts of positions they're offering to their team members because I really feel that the employment of veterinarians and veterinary technicians and nurses as well by tele-health companies or other large veterinary practices and even small veterinary practices could offer this on a, you know, part time basis for their team members. These sorts of positions provide opportunities for veterinary care providers who cannot work typical in practice workdays but can work from home and continue to practice medicine in some way, thereby staying in the profession, serving the client needs, and helping to alleviate the burden on the people within the veterinary practice. So, I really can't stress this enough, and I really hope to see more of this in the future. And last but not least, the fifth way that I really feel that tele-health can improve veterinary team member well-being is in reducing experiences of burnout and job dissatisfaction.

So, there is a lot of research to demonstrate that a sense of overwhelm and insufficient support are both factors that contribute to burnout and job dissatisfaction among all veterinary team members. Additionally, we go into negative emotional states when we perceive that we are not offering good patient care or when we worry about a case not having a good outcome. In those situations, we're more likely to be dissatisfied with our job and to even consider leaving our job. So, in this context, support in the form of telemedicine, tele triage, and tele-consulting all have the potential to lower the risk of burnout and increase job satisfaction among all veterinary team members. So, overall, I really cannot overemphasize how much promise telehealth holds for meeting not just the growing increase in client demand, but creating more efficiency in the veterinary practice workflow, reducing stress and fatigue among veterinary team members, alleviating moral stress among especially general practice veterinarians, retaining veterinary team members in the profession who have to work remotely, and leading to greater job satisfaction long term.

So, I really hope that this has prompted you to consider the many different ways that tele-health can fit into the veterinary space and not just enhance the care that we are delivering to our clients but also enhance the experience that our veterinary teams have in the veterinary space. Well, that's it for this episode of Reviving Vet Med. Thanks so much for listening. I hope you found this conversation helpful and that you will think about ways to incorporate tele-health into your personal life or into your professional life as well. If you enjoyed this episode, please take a moment to send it to a friend or a colleague.

You can do that by copying the link and shooting it off to someone in a text or email. And of course, I would love it if you would subscribe to get the episodes as soon as they are released. I'm really excited to share with you that I am planning the next round of my online programs for 2023. If you're interested in any of my four week or eight weeklong programs related to burnout prevention, workplace wellness, or boundaries, you can visit my website marieholowaychuk.com to learn more and to sign up for the wait list. Thank you so much to my amazing assistant, Jamie, for producing this episode and of course thank you to you for listening through to the end.

Until next time take care of yourself. Bye now.