Abstract
The historical norm for many animal shelters has been to admit animals on an unscheduled basis, without prior assessment of animal or client need or regard to the shelter's ability to deliver humane care or ensure appropriate outcomes. This approach allows little opportunity to provide finders or owners with alternatives to keep pets safe in their homes or community rather than being impounded. In addition to needlessly impounding animals and separating pets from families, unmanaged/unscheduled admission frequently results in animal influx exceeding shelter capacity, leading to crowding, stress, disease, and euthanasia of animals, as well as poor customer experience, compromised staffing efficiency and decreased organizational effectiveness. Many of these harmful consequences disproportionately impact vulnerable community members and their pets. Triage and appointment-based services have been well developed in healthcare and other service sectors allowing organizations to prioritize the most urgent cases, align services with organizational resources and provide situation-specific solutions that may include virtual support or referral as appropriate. This article discusses the trend in animal sheltering toward triage and appointment-based services that parallels the use of these practices in human healthcare. Reported positive results of this approach are detailed including improved staff morale, reduced disease rates and substantially reduced euthanasia. These positive outcomes support the endorsement of triage and appointment-based services by multiple North American animal welfare professional and academic organizations, recognizing that it better realizes the goals of shelters to serve the common good of animals and people in the most humane, equitable and effective possible way.
Highlights
“Triage” is a well-developed strategy in human general practice medicine and refers to the provision of care based on exigency and available resources
Urgent cases can be routed directly to immediate care, non-emergencies can be scheduled for a time when the practice is able to accommodate the patient’s needs, and some cases can be identified that can be handled more conveniently and efficiently through remote services, for example through a telehealth visit or call with an advice nurse [2]
The norm has been ad hoc, unscheduled admission of any animal presented during open hours regardless of shelter capacity or animal needs
Summary
“Triage” is a well-developed strategy in human general practice medicine and refers to the provision of care based on exigency and available resources. The resulting response may range from a recommendation for immediate intake (for instance, of an injured or dangerous animal), intake by appointment for nonurgent cases (e.g., healthy kittens old enough for adoption), or guidance to help manage the situation without shelter admission (e.g., resources to reunite found pets with their owners or strategies for co-existence and spay/neuter support for healthy community cats). Lower intake, reduced euthanasia, decreased disease rates and higher staff moral have the potential to trigger a virtuous cycle, freeing resources for greater investment in safety net services that improve community health and decrease the overall need for animal impoundment, as exemplified in this quote from one director of a public shelter from a survey of California shelter leaders regarding the impact of changes made in response COVID-19:. The decrease in cost allowed us the ability to push through our plan to place a clinic building on the shelter property, which will open up so many opportunities to serve the public without increasing intake.” (California shelter survey performed by UC Davis Koret Shelter Medicine Program, April 2021)
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