Lafayette Veterinary Care Center (LVCC), the largest veterinary practice in six parishes, recently announced being named the American Animal Hospital Association (AAHA) Accredited Practice of the Year.
Lafayette Veterinary Care Center proudly accepted the award this year at the Connexity Gala held in Nashville, TN from September 15-17. The AAHA- Accredited Practice of the year award recognizes the outstanding achievements in workplace culture, patient care, client engagement, and community involvement among AAHA-accredited practices.
“This award is about an overall level of excellence that not only reflects the highest level of patient care, but also reflects the importance of the practice culture, community service, and team development. This practice exemplifies that high level extremely well.”
In an anonymous staff survey conducted by LVCC, results indicated that several of the team members did not feel heard by management. In return, LVCC held follow-up meetings to learn more about staff concerns.
In efforts of keeping lines of communication open, the Lafayette practice implemented a suggestion box in which suggestions could be made both handwritten and virtually, at any time during the day.
Subsequently, staff members suggestions are now routed through HR and allocated to the correct department, followed by a reply.
“This has made the biggest impact on our culture,” Nursing Director Danielle Richard said. “We had to become realistic with how far we could be pushed, so we honestly examined our team’s struggles and were determined to make the necessary changes,” she added.
In comparison to human hospitals, not all animal hospitals are required to be accredited and less than fifteen percent of small-animal hospitals in the US, Canada and Japan achieve AAHA accreditation.
According to officials, pet owners can trust that AAHA-accredited hospitals follows AAHA standards that are reviewed and updated continuously to reflect best practices in the veterinary industry.
In accordance with AAHA standards, LVCC and other accredited hospitals are voluntarily chose to be evaluated on more than 900 quality standards that go above and beyond state regulations from patient care and pain management to staff training and advanced diagnostic services.
Lafayette Veterinary Care Center has been an AAHA-accredited hospital for 50 years, with a total of 13 doctors and 140 team members overall.
For more information on the the AAHA Accredited Practice of the Year award, you can visit their website by clicking here.
