Internal Medicine Veterinary Technician

Job Description

General Description of Position:

Specialty technician for the internal medicine doctor (Internist). This technician is solely dedicated to the internal medicine service, working the same schedule as the doctor assisting in daily activities including outpatient appointments (clinics), procedures, inpatient management and radioactive iodine consultations.

Essential Functions:

Report to work at scheduled time

Must be an experienced veterinary technician. CVT or other licensing is preferred but not required. Desire to pursue VTS specialty certification is a plus, and encouraged

Good communication skills with coworkers and clients

Able to draw blood, place IVC, and run bloodwork

Knows how to take x-rays/proper positioning

Able to sedate patients and monitor while under sedation

Can lift and restrain up to 40lbs

Can monitor anesthesia

Knows basic math calculations for medications

Clinics:

Scheduling of appointments. Directly scheduling as well as working with the front desk and referral liaison to schedule consults and recheck visits

Run outpatient clinics with IM doctor. This includes ensuring we have RDVM records, starting the visit (history from owner), filling in the top portion of the SOAP document in cornerstone, some client communication, and brief outpatient procedures/treatments such as drawing blood, obtaining blood pressure, etc.

Help facilitate the flow of outpatient clinics so that things move in an efficient and multi-tasking manor

Client call backs, updates, and calling in prescriptions

Occasional RDVM communication

Check voicemail and service emails throughout the day

Work with the IM technician assistant to accomplish these tasks

Procedures:

Proficiency in anesthesia required

Run anesthesia for medicine procedures (generally one day per week)

Set up, clean and maintain the endoscopy equipment

Be responsible for keeping stock of endoscopy equipment and generating order lists

Opportunity for on-call procedures

Inpatient management:

Attending morning rounds

Helping doctor with exams, treatment sheets and some client communication

Organizing any inpatient procedures with the daily flow of outpatient clinics

Internal Medicine Technician Role and I131:

Background: I131 is a joint program between radiology and internal medicine. The cases and clients are internal medicine while radiology is responsible for the safety and management of the I131 ward. All full time IM technicians have the below role in I131

IM technician has option of deciding whether or not to be part of the management of the ward itself (i.e. entering the room and helping to clean and feed the cats). In general, the IM tech has an otherwise heavy responsibility with the program and is required to undergo the I131 training with Dr. Rozear (radiologist) so as to be familiar with the overall process and safety

Important Documents to read: I131 Program Client Information Sheet, I131 Patient Discharge and Home Care Instructions, and I131 Referral Packet for referring veterinarians

IM responsibilities include:

Consultation— The IM technician helps to schedule these consultations, start the appointments and fill in the top portion of the I131 SOAP document

RDVM communication—helping to answer questions such as what testing is required prior to referral. You should be familiar with what the referral packets contain

Familiarity with the treatment and discharge instructions—this is critical. The IM technician must be able to explain to an owner the process of treatment, required hospital stay, and restrictions once home (discharge instructions). Sometimes this is over the phone ahead of time (prior to consultation) and then needs to be reviewed again with an owner when they are here in the exam room

Helping with discharge-- Thursday discharges are generally done with the IM technician.

Client communication while cats are being treated—daily updates over the phone to clients whose cats are in the I131 ward (Mon-Thurs). Communications on Friday or during the weekend (if boarding) are done through radiology or the nursing staff that is managing the ward. At least one of the daily communications should remind the owners of the at-home limitations (discharge instructions) so as to limit the amount of questions the client may have at the time of actual discharge

The client must be contacted 3-5 days after discharge to ensure that they are complying with the discharge instructions and to check if the owner has any questions or concerns. This communication is to be documented in the medical record. This is a requirement to maintain our license

Managing I131 schedule—scheduling cases for I131 treatment so as not to exceed case load or radiation load in the ward. We cannot exceed 20mCi of radioiodine dosing at one time. The IM doctor decides the dose that each cat gets after consultation; generally 3-5mCi each.

Cases are scheduled in Cornerstone under I131 admittal so that all staff can see who is coming in. The IM tech is responsible for calling the upcoming cases the Thursday prior to treatment to remind them of their treatment appointment, when to drop off, what to bring with them, etc.

Also on Thursdays, the IM tech will provide Dr. Rozear with the doses each cat is getting so that he can order them. This is usually done by printing out a patient label for each case scheduled for the coming Monday and writing the mCI dose of radiation they will be receiving. The mCi dose is listed at the bottom of the consultation SOAP form

Part of scheduling the cases requires ensuring that staff is available for injection, cleaning and managing the ward. Occasionally, an owner will want to board their cat in the ward beyond the mandatory 4-5 day stay. IM tech is responsible for making sure that staff is available to manage the cases during the weekend prior to authorizing a boarding. IM tech will need to work with Joe (radiology) and Melinda (nurse scheduling) to help manage the calendar

A case cannot be scheduled if either Dr. Rozear or Dr. Harley are on vacation that week.

Keeping a log of post-treatment T4 values—Keep track of the cases and what their pre-treatment T4 value was, how much radioiodine they received and what their T4 is at recheck visit with their vet (at 4 weeks post treatment)

General:

Answer phones- they ring constantly; “Thank you for calling Central hospital for Veterinary Medicine, this is how may/can I help you?”

Work Environment:

Clean and well organized exam rooms and surgery suites

Easily accessible medical equipment and supplies

Noisy conditions can occur

Protective equipment for nervous animals is easily accessible

This is a position at both locations: North Haven and Guilford. It has a rotating weekend day schedule.

Holidays and weekend day required.