The American Animal Hospital Association, which has accredited an estimated 15 percent of veterinary clinics in the United States and Canada, has extended the honor to a hospital network for the first time.
PetWell Partners, a Houston company operating 31 hospitals in five states, was granted Practice Network Accreditation by meeting a set of standards different from what individual clinics must achieve.
The “new, stringent standards,” AAHA reported, are “designed to evaluate business operations at the network level, including medical autonomy, leadership, culture, human capital management, marketing and communications, financial management, and stewardship of the veterinary profession.”
A practice network becomes eligible for accreditation if at least 90 percent of its hospitals are AAHA accredited or pre-accredited and if the company intends to pursue the status for every hospital.
The new designation is partly tied to the uptick in hospital consolidations.
“As the trend of corporate ownership increases throughout the profession, there is an opportunity to standardize best practices for delivery of care to improve patient health while helping these companies promote excellence throughout the practices within their network,” said AAHA’s CEO, Michael Cavanaugh, DVM, DABVP (Emeritus).