Declining Spay/Neuter or Other Procedures
How to decline treatment/surgery from Patient Flow
If an animal showed for their appointment but it was is declined to be treated or receive surgery because of health, aggression, already sterilized – you should indicate this on the Exam.
Anesthetic appointments:
- The animal will be on the Exam/Pre-Med click the Exam options Normal / Abnormal to retrieve the exam pop up.
- Under the Plan, indicate the animal was declined. This will trigger an additional option to select why the animal is being declined.
- Make any additional notes and click Done.
- If the animal is scheduled for a spay/neuter appointment, declining will remove the spay/neuter from the list of services.
Non-Anesthetic appointments:
- The animal will be on the Roster screen of PF. Click Jump to Finalize. This will redirect you to the Treatment sheet.
- Locate the exam box and and in corner, click Update.
- Make any additional notes and click Done.
How to decline surgery when the animal has moved past Exam.
Scenario 1: The animal will not be receiving surgery but has been given drugs and/or the animal is on the prep table and discovered to be already sterilized.
- At this point the animal should be on the Surgery phase of Patient Flow.
- Select the animal from the dropdown menu on Surgery.
- Ensure all drugs that were given have been marked as such. Waste any drugs if necessary.
- Ensure that the vet’s surgery defaults were not applied yet, of so clear the selection.
- From the right corner of the Treatment sheet, locate the Action drop down menu beside Paperwork and Medical Notes.
- Click Decline Surgery. From the pop up select the reason why.
- Remove any services or products from the service list that the animal did not receive.
Scenario 2: The animal was determined already sterilized but only because of an exploratory.
When a spay/neuter appointment is marked for the “Plan: Surgically Sterilize: No,” the spay/neuter is removed from services. Most often in this case, you will need to have a line item that is used to charge a client or indicate on the record that the animal went through a surgery. A common line item “Exploratory Surgery” or “Surgery – Already sterilized” works well here.This line item will be applied by staff in lieu of the spay/neuter.
In Patient Flow, here is what you will need to do:
- Select the animal from the dropdown menu on Surgery.
- Ensure all drugs that were given have been marked as such.
- Ensure that the vet’s surgery defaults were not applied yet, of so clear the selection. You may need to apply a skin closure technique for females. The Surgery Summary notes box is the ideal place to make notes of what the veterinarian did to determine ABN/ABS. Once those notes are added, be sure to click Save on the Surgery Summary box.
- From the right corner of the Treatment sheet, locate the Action drop down menu beside Paperwork and Medical Notes.
- Click Decline Surgery. From the pop up select the reason why as Already sterilized.
- Additionally when selecting this reason, you will be prompted to indicate how it was determined. In tis scenario, choose Exploratory surgery.
- Remove any services or products from the service list that the animal did not receive.
Declining Treatment/Surgery Outside of Patient Flow
If your clinic does not utilize Patient Flow, or you need to note a declined surgery after midnight of the appointment date, you will need to decline from the Exam section of their Treatment Sheet via Checkout.
- Navigate to the Checkout page for the appointment by going to Clients > Check In/Checkout > Check In/Checkout and click on the animal’s status (In Progress, Checked Out.)
- Click on the Treatment Sheet tab.
- Click Update on the Exam.
- Under the Plan, indicate the animal was declined. This will trigger an additional option to select why the animal is being declined.
- Make any additional notes and click Done.
- If the animal is scheduled for a spay/neuter appointment, declining will remove the spay/neuter from the list of services.
