The ClientEd library contains over 250 medication handouts, which help practices in states like California and New York comply with consultation requirements as mandated by Buoy’s Law. As new medications come to market, new handouts are published to the library.
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GUELPH, ON—April 11, 2023—To help New York State veterinarians easily comply with Buoy’s Law (Senate Bill S1289B signed into law in December 2022 by Governor Kathy Hochul and taking effect in June 2023), LifeLearn Animal Health’s client education resource ClientEd now has more than 250 pet medication handouts that cover the consultation requirements under the new law.
Similar to consultation requirements mandated for California veterinarians under Lizzie’s Law (Section 4829.5 of the Business and Professions Code), Buoy’s Law will require New York State veterinarians to provide consultation to pet owners (or a designated agent) every time a pet medication is initially provided or prescribed in an outpatient setting.
Buoy’s Law came about due to the unfortunate death of a three-year-old Labrador retriever named Buoy, who died from kidney failure in 2013 after being prescribed a painkiller following routine knee surgery. Buoy’s owners, Mary Kate and Jimmy Tischler, said they hadn’t been told that the painkiller could be lethal and there hadn’t been a warning label on the bottle.
To ensure no other pet would have to suffer like Buoy, the Tischlers led a charge to raise awareness about the lack of required pet medication warnings and change the law. Senator John Brooks later took up the cause and stayed behind Buoy’s Law through several State Assembly defeats until the New York State Senate passed the bill in February 2021.
As part of minimum requirements, veterinarians will be required to provide to pet owners (either in person or through electronic means) the name and description of each drug, directions for use, details on common side effects and other relevant warnings, and more.
“We certainly appreciate and respect the protective nature of Buoy’s Law and how it came about,” says Dr. David Goodnight, LifeLearn’s EVP of Business Development. “Yet we can also appreciate that gathering and supplying requisite consultation information to pet owners could create big costs for practices, including the cost of time when veterinary practices are short-staffed, stressed, and busier than ever. Without the support of a solution like ClientEd, compliance with new legislation like Buoy’s Law can feel extremely daunting and overwhelming.”
To help save practices time while meeting the consultation requirements under Buoy’s Law, ClientEd includes over 250 pet medication handouts in its library of more than 2,100 pet health handouts. Designed specifically for fast and effective client education, all ClientEd handouts are written and reviewed by animal health experts and edited by plain language specialists to ensure pet owners receive the maximum benefit from the information being provided.
Handouts are easily shared in print or emailed directly from the ClientEd platform, a practice’s website, or one of the many server-based or cloud-based practice management software systems that ClientEd is integrated with, and as new medications come to market, new handouts are published to the library.
Dr. Goodnight adds, “Our hope is that by making compliance as fast, easy, and automated as possible, we can dually support pet health outcomes through pet owner education as well as the practices and veterinary teams that serve them.”
About LifeLearn Animal Health, a ProSites Company
LifeLearn provides flexible, affordable, and customizable online software solutions for veterinary practices to save time, improve practice efficiency, and strengthen client relationships. LifeLearn’s award-winning competencies in digital media, combined with longstanding veterinary content expertise and customer support, are just part of why LifeLearn continues to be a leading and trusted name in the animal health industry.
To learn more about LifeLearn, please visit https://www.lifelearn.com/.
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