college connection
PUBLIC HEALTH
The Opioid Crisis
ONE EXAMPLE OF A VETERINARIAN’S ROLE IN PUBLIC HEALTH
Veterinarians have the distinct societal
privilege to be both a prescribing and a
dispensing profession. With this privilege
comes the ability to purchase drugs for the
purpose of the treatment of animals. And with
the purchase of drugs comes the necessity to
have a system to assure their safe and secure
storage, along with accurate record keeping.
Privileges and responsibilities, of course, go
hand in hand.
While different facility types will purchase
different types of drugs to match the scope of
the particular practice, there is no doubt that
veterinary medicine includes the prescribing,
dispensing and administration of controlled
substances inclusive of narcotics. And while
these drugs may not include widely abused
drugs such as Vicodin, Oxycontin or Percocet,
they do include tramadol, ketamine and
hydrocodone.
And sadly, the growing abuse of opioids on
the street is causing pressures for people
to seek access to them in any way possible,
inclusive of through interactions with
veterinarians and veterinary clinics.
Veterinary Medicine
&
The Opioid Crisis
“Veterinarians have a vital role in
public health.”
the importance of this issue to public health
has seen an increasing trend in the United
States, for example, to include veterinarians as
mandatory reporters of clients suspected of
abusing drugs. • Do you regularly audit your controlled
drug inventory (ie. performing a weekly
controlled drug audit)?
• Are your controlled drugs securely
stored?
In this first of a series of awareness articles
on the intersection of veterinary medicine
and the opioid crisis, here are some specific
questions for veterinarians and their teams to
think on: • Do you have a risk protocol for flagging
discrepancies and managing them?
•
•
And while veterinarians are not physicians,
What is your procedure for recording
receipt of newly purchased controlled
substances?
Do you have and maintain your controlled
drug logs?
Take a minute to review the College’s online
resources related to managing your controlled
substances and stay current with this
important responsibility.
Veterinarians have an important and vital
role in public health - the opioid crisis is no
different. Ontario citizens, thank you for being
part of the solution.
Learning Modules
NEW MEDICAL RECORD KEEPING MODULES NOW AVAILABLE
The College offers online learning modules
to assist veterinarians in understanding the
requirements and expectations.
Recently added is the learning module
series which presents “Foundations for
Medical Record Keeping: Companion
Animal.” The self-study module is a resource
for veterinarians and clinic staff who are
seeking education in understanding the
requirements for companion animal medical
record keeping. The three modules, which are
facilitated by the College Practice Advisory Dr.
Susan Sabatini, focus on the following areas: and benefits of complete, quality records,
the legal requirements and expectations
for medical records and options for record
formats. Additional modules are being
developed with focus on medical record
keeping for food animal and equine.
• Introduction to Medical Record Keeping
(15 minutes long) • Components of a Complete Medical
Record (60 minutes long) The College also offers a learning module
on informed client consent which discusses
the principles of consent, a veterinarian’s
professional obligations around consent and
preparation of clinic consent forms.
• Medical Record Maintenance & Security
(10 minutes long)
The modules share details on the importance
Learning modules can be found on
the College website at:
www.cvo.org/Learning-Modules
Winter 2017
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