The American Animal Hospital Association
About AAHA
The American Animal Hospital Association (AAHA) is an international association of more than 32,000 veterinary care providers who treat companion animals. Established in 1933, AAHA is well known among veterinarians and pet owners for its standards for hospitals and pet health care. Over 3,000 veterinary hospitals voluntarily participate in the AAHA hospital evaluation program. Trained consultants regularly visit these hospitals to ensure compliance with AAHA's standards for services and facilities. Individual veterinarians can also be members of AAHA.
AAHA reminds pet owners that they can help pets live healthier and longer lives by taking their pets to the veterinarian for annual physical exams, vaccinations, and dental care as well as providing pets with fresh water, a balanced diet, and exercise.
The American Animal Hospital Association (AAHA) is the world leader in establishing high practice standards for animal hospitals. All of the teaching hospitals at colleges of veterinary medicine in Canada (and most in the U.S.) as well as many specialty referral practices maintain AAHA accreditation. Our facilities, and practice methods are inspected by te AAHA on a timely basis. Adherence to these standards by a pet hospital is voluntary, and is an indicator to you, the pet owner, that quality work is being done "behind the scenes" and we do not compromise the surgical standards in order to cut costs.
An example of the standards for major surgery (including spays) done at the Sardis Animal Hospital
- Pre-operative physical examination. Blood tests for liver and kidney function available to all patients, mandatory for patients over the age of 8 years.
- Gas anesthesia and oxygen are used routinely.
- Electrocardiogram and pulse oximetry monitoring is done routinely. EKG and Pulse-Ox are archived in your pet's file so we have a baseline to refer to as your pet ages or in the event of future heart problems.
- College trained, Registered Animal Healthy Technologists on staff to assist with anesthesia, surgery and post operative monitoring and nursing care.
- Hypothermia control equipment used to maintain body temperature during surgery and recovery.
- Surgery done in a fully equipped operating room built to BCVMA and AAHA specifications for sterility control and air flow, emergency lighting, suction equipment, and waste anesthetic gas removal.
- Emergency equipment and drugs immediately available in ethe event of a surgical or anesthetic emergency, along with staff trained in emergency and resuscitative procedures.
- Surgeons properly clothed with caps, masks, sterile gowns and gloves. Assistants are also capped and masked.
- Separate sterile instrument packs for each patient. Extra precautions are taken to monitor sterility of all surgical instruments, materials and gowns.
- The resources of a full service veterinary hospital capable of administering around the clock intensive care when required. An on site laboratory capable of performing the most common blood counts, chemistries and electrolyte at all times.
- Follow up suture removals included in the cost of original procedure.
- Staff doctor on call for emergency support outside of regular hours in the event of a post operative problem developing at home.
- Hospital policy of mandatory vaccination for pets admitted to our care to reduce chances of disease transmission in the hospital.
Why you should have your pet spayed or neutered in an AAHA facility
Veterinary licensure alone does not include any legal requirement for a facility to adhere to the above standards for surgery. We voluntarily adhere to them in order to do all we can to maximize patient safety, give quality assurance and because we take great pride in our work. Some facilities have adopted different methods in order to cut costs and/or use spays and neuters as a "loss leader" in order to attract business. One should not assume all spays are done the same way by all facilities. Consider carefully what assurance you have that patient safety is maximized when your pet needs surgery. AAHA accreditation ensures a standard of practice that you can have confidence in.
