Vet Visits from Home

We’ve been using our AirVet telemedicine app at Tampa Veterinary Hospital now for several months- and it truly is a great way for pet owners to contact their veterinarians while remaining comfortably at home.  With the recent COVID-19 pandemic, telemedicine is important more now than ever for both humans and their pets.

The FDA has temporarily relaxed the VCPR requirements on telemedicine providers. What does that mean?  A VCPR is a veterinarian-client-patient relationship. A VCPR is established when a veterinarian has physically seen your pet within the last 365 days. If your veterinarian hasn’t physically seen your pet in that time, the VCPR does not exist.

The recent FDA announcement means that an in-person examination or visit is not required within the past year for a veterinarian to see your pet using telemedicine. It means they can offer medical advice as well as prescriptions for your pet even if they have not physically seen them in the past year.  Previously, without a VCPR, veterinarians were extremely limited in the advice they could provide and they could not offer to write prescriptions. 

This temporary change in policy will allow pet parents to remain at home while still getting quality care for their pets that don’t have an established VCPR.  Please keep in mind that in many cases, it may not be possible to make an accurate diagnosis of a pet’s condition in the course of a virtual visit, and the pet may still need to be physically examined by a veterinarian.

For more information on virtual visits through our AirVet app, please see my blog on virtual visits here.