April 25, 2025
To mark World Veterinary Day 2025, IVC Evidensia is recognising the role of teamwork and how Care Frameworks are supporting every member of the team to improve the quality of animal healthcare.
Aligned with World Veterinary Day’s theme, ‘Animal Health Takes a Team’, IVC Evidensia emphasises how the collaborative efforts of its practice teams are central to enhancing patient care. Through the addition of Care Frameworks, the group continues to raise standards, ultimately supporting its mission of providing world-class veterinary care.
At London Road Vets, the team embraced the Osteoarthritis (OA) Care Framework, working hard to deliver joint and mobility clinics for patients. Veterinary Surgeon Elenor Walsh and Head Nurse Stacy Brooks drove the concept, helping elevate the standard of animal care.
Recognising a gap in client knowledge, Elenor and Stacy first created joint and mobility information packs. These were complete with a questionnaire, the signs of OA and wellness screenings support. The joint and mobility clinics followed, offering clients a dedicated space to discuss their pet's movement and lifestyle.
“Vets have so many therapeutic options available to them in practice, but we don't always have the time to discuss diet, lifestyle, complimentary therapy etc in a 15-minute consult,” Elenor explains.
Subsequently, nurses, vets, and client care teams all collaborated to ensure the best experience for both pets and their owners. Elenor shared her delight:
“These have been a huge success - the whole team have got involved, including the client care team, who have created a reception display. The nurses enjoy doing these and the feedback from clients has been wonderful - they are getting a much better service and feel very positive about their pet's mobility.”
This initiative demonstrates the power of teamwork across an entire practice, and how uniting clinical and non-clinical colleagues can have a positive impact on client service.
London Road Vets’ client care team also used the end-of-life framework to ease discussions about patient euthanasia. By introducing an electronic candle and sign on reception, colleagues were able to discreetly alert each other of a PTS in progress.
“It has been a great confidence boost for them, and they are better able to support clients through this process.” Elenor shares.
As a result, this proactive approach has enabled clear and compassionate communication with pet owners and ensured emotional sensitivity throughout end-of-life care.
Veterinary Surgeon, Amy Stamp also shared the key role of Care Frameworks at Lime Tree Vets. By integrating Care Frameworks into regular meetings, the team develops constructive feedback on current workflows and offers further learning opportunities.
Amy comments:
"We assign each Care Framework to a vet to go through it in detail, who will look at all the attached links and references and then put together a summary presentation highlighting what we could do to improve on our current approach.”
These presentations are shown at monthly meetings, allowing for a collaborative discussion of the new recommendations. Subsequently, assigned vets can contribute to their CPD hours as well as build new and improved workflows.
Care Frameworks are just one of IVC Evidensia’s quality improvement initiatives designed to support teams by offering clear, expert-led clinical guidance. Since its launch, the Otitis Externa and Periodontal Disease frameworks alone have helped improve care for more than 15,000 patients.
Stuart Garde, Chair of QI Steering Committee, emphasised the collective impact:
“This rapid progress has shown that even small, consistent changes—when embraced by the whole team—can lead to widescale, meaningful impact. Especially when these efforts are happening in hundreds of teams across the whole country.”
As World Veterinary Day highlights the importance of collaboration, IVC Evidensia extends its heartfelt thanks to its vast network of clinical and non-clinical teams who have embraced the Care Frameworks. Together, their collective efforts are delivering a meaningful impact to patients, clients, and the future of veterinary care.
Discover more about the launch of IVC Evidensia’s Care Frameworks and how teams are working to enhance veterinary care.