Читать книгу Infectious Disease Management in Animal Shelters - Группа авторов - Страница 82

A key component of disease surveillance is regular data review and communication (Anderson 1982; Nelson and Williams 2007). Regular review by medical staff facilitates prompt recognition of changes in disease frequency and heightens responsiveness to these changes. This facilitates the timely achievement of disease‐related goals and enables the medical staff to inform the administration and other shelter staff of health changes in a timely manner. No less than monthly reviews of the frequency of some diseases (e.g. upper respiratory tract infections) at regular staff meetings are warranted. Monthly reviews have the added benefit of maintaining interest in disease surveillance and attention to the collection of quality data. It is powerfully motivating for staff to realize that their adherence to protocols was responsible for falling disease rates and the achievement of other goals.

The timing of some analyses can be pre‐specified, but other analyses may need to occur as the data suggests new questions. Frequency of monitoring is usually related to the incidence and severity of the disease, and whether the shelter has specific goals related to that disease. Generally speaking, high‐incidence diseases (e.g. feline URTD) will be monitored more frequently (e.g. monthly) than those of lower frequency. Disease outbreaks also trigger more frequent monitoring.

Interpretation of the results should include staff that may have insight into a particular analysis. The medical staff should obviously be involved but, in many instances, the shelter manager, kennel personnel or volunteers may also have important insights into why disease is manifesting as it is. For example, the interpretation of data relating to a rise in the mortality of fostered kittens might involve the shelter manager, veterinarian, executive leadership, foster‐care providers and others empowered to make protocol changes based on that data.

The ability to interpret and communicate findings based on the data is heavily influenced by the data presentation; the presentation can obscure or enhance the message it contains. It is beyond the scope of this chapter to make recommendations for effective data presentation, but references are provided (Knaflic 2015; Tufte 2001). A consistent recommendation in these references is to keep presentations simple and focused on the message that needs to be conveyed; it is important to avoid ostentatious presentations that obscure that message.