BESTPRACTICE Accreditation

Our Pukekohe, Papakura, Beachlands, Hamilton, and Waiuku clinics have achieved BESTPRACTICE accreditation. This means we offer pet owners the best possible standard of veterinary care at all times.

What is BESTPRACTICE?

BESTPRACTICE is New Zealand’s ONLY veterinary quality accreditation programme.

It’s a quality assurance programme modelled on overseas best practice standards and adapted to suit the New Zealand veterinary environment. It ensures a high standard of service and professionalism for veterinary clinics and hospitals in New Zealand. We have an external audit every two years to ensure we maintain our high standards.

The goal of the BESTPRACTICE scheme is to raise the standards of practices by setting a minimum level that all members have to achieve. The scope of the BESTPRACTICE scheme is wide, including business management, health and safety, staff training and review, systems, procedures, equipment maintenance and much more.

Achieving BESTPRACTICE status requires running systems all year round that comply with the standard, then submitting to an audit every two years from an external, independent auditor. The process is tough, it involves hours of preparation, but of course, following the protocols created as part of BESTPRACTICE is something that never stops.

This has enormous benefits to the practice, the staff, and the customers and their animals.

There are only 7 BESTPRACTICE clinics in Auckland and 5 are Franklin Vets clinics.

“What does this really mean for me and my pets?”

Well for starters, one of the most important aspects of BESTPRACTICE is the consistency of care. Because our team work shifts to cover seven days and late hours, it is not always possible to get the same vet when you book an appointment with us. However, with BESTPRACTICE all procedures are documented and all the team need to follow these guidelines. While individual vets and vet nurses will have their own style, everyone is following the same protocols and you will receive uniformity of care, in line with BESTPRACTICE standards, no matter who treats your pet.

BESTPRACTICE also includes a lot of stuff that goes on out the back that you as a client will never see. We allocate large amounts of staff time training everyone to the standard. We also have to invest in new equipment, which other clinics could choose not to do. The benefits we see are a better run clinic, happier staff, and better-treated pets and their owners.

And it is not only our furry friends who benefit from BESTPRACTICE accreditation.

There are also benefits in terms of attracting the best employees. Membership of BESTPRACTICE is listed every year by graduating vets as a major determinant as to which jobs they apply for. They see the BESTPRACTICE clinics as those which they would like to work in.

When we discuss the requirements of BESTPRACTICE with customers during the audit week (when we are all focusing heavily on it!) there is normally surprise that such a scheme is not compulsory. We simply wouldn’t want to work in a clinic unless it had achieved BESTPRACTICE status.