It May Be a Dog's Life But the Relationship with Her Owners Is Also Key to Her Health and Well Being: Communication in Veterinary Medicine

I am writing to you, to describe the situation I had to deal with, because I took my dog to Random Animal Hospital.Never have I seen such incompetence.My dog did not receive proper care.It was obvious that this veterinarian wanted nothing more from me than my money and he charged me as much as he could.But, my dog was in worse condition after Dr. X was finished with him that afternoon.And I felt like I was part of a three ring circus, due to the numerous people I didn't even know but had to deal with when I was at the Hospital with Toby. . ...This was probably the worst experience I've had in my life. The excerpt above comes from a review of letters of complaint to the College of Veterinarians of Ontario (CVO).It illustrates one of the most pervasive problems in veterinary practice today: a lack of trust and poor communication that clients experience with veterinary professionals.A recent issue of Update, a newsletter published by the CVO, reported that 60% to 67% of complaints from 2002 to 2004 contained some concern regarding communication [1].A list too extensive to include in this article was published itemizing the most prevalent types of communication problems found in the complaint letters.These included failure to ask for the pet's name, return phone calls, obtain consent, provide postoperative instructions, or demonstrate empathy at the end of a pet's life.Poor communication in human medicine has been associated with higher rates of medication errors, patient dissatisfaction, Parts of this article are identical to that published in a previous communication; Frankel RM.Pets, vets and frets: what relationship-centered care research has to offer veterinary medicine.JVME 2006;