Читать книгу Infectious Disease Management in Animal Shelters - Группа авторов - Страница 90

Many shelters already have protocols outlining the active identification and reporting of animals with infectious diseases. Much of that data is entered into software programs but retrieving disease rates in a useful format is challenging. Shelter software companies have generally been slow to provide disease rates or facilitate flexible, efficient retrieval of much of the data needed to calculate these rates. Fortunately, the ALOS and daily census metrics are now routinely provided.

Medical staff need the ability to obtain overall morbidity, mortality, and medically related euthanasia rates, as well as the ability to classify these rates by age group, source, and over various time periods. Since trends and group comparisons are usually best understood when graphed, an easy means to produce visual presentations is also essential. Inevitably, regular monitoring of basic data leads to new questions and additional analyses. As these new questions arise, software also needs the flexibility of data retrieval that helps veterinarians and shelter staff address such questions.

Software providers should facilitate retrieval and graphing of disease surveillance and related data. They should understand that, without a clear understanding of the incidence of disease, veterinarians cannot assess whether and to what degree their disease‐management recommendations are effective. Similarly, their efforts to set health priorities and communicate the importance of their health‐related goals are hampered by words like “a lot, some or very little disease” because they cannot quantify disease at the population level.