Access to Care

Cornell's access to care commitment

What is 'access to care'?

A shelter medicine trainee with a cat and the cat's owner at a clinic

The phrase ‘access to care’ refers to the ability of a animal caregiver to acquire the care they need for their animal in way that meets both their needs. Often having access to care requires overcoming barriers, such as financial constraints, transportation issues, language barriers, cultural issues, internet access and more.

There are a variety of approaches that veterinarians use to address some of these issues, including incremental care, spectrum of care and contextualized care.

These approaches encompass every animal that a household may look after, whether it’s the family dog, backyard chickens, or a horse on a working farm. For every interaction, we ask ourselves:

What do the patient and owner need?
What is best for their relationship?
What is feasible for them?
What are the owner's goals and expectations with providing care?

Spectrum of care

Spectrum of care is defined as providing “a continuum of acceptable care that considers available evidence-based medicine while remaining responsive to client expectations and financial limitations.” ¹

Incremental care

Incremental care is defined as a strategy that delivers staged diagnostic and therapeutic options sequentially over-time.

Contextualized care

Contextualized care is a term from human medical literature that considers the animal, the owner and the real-world context when making treatment plans. This approach involves incorporating a spectrum of care approach and practices using relationship-centered communication skills to explore and address financial/contextual cues (such as lack of savings, physical limitations, lack of time and so on) with clients so they can choose a treatment plan that best fits their situation and outcome goals for care. ^2-5

Care

We are a team of professionals dedicated to increasing access to veterinary care for animals in shelters, homes, communities and beyond by offering care options tailored to clients’ and patients’ unique circumstances.

Education

A group of shelter medicine professionals sitting outside the Wayne County Humane Society — The shelter and community medicine team after running a free clinic, outside the Wayne County Humane Society.

Cornell's Shelter Medicine Program, which has trained students since 1999, has expanded its mission and scope to meet the diverse needs of people and animals. The more students and professionals trained in access-to-care practices, the more options there will be for animal owners out in the world.

Graduates will be prepared to deliver excellent medicine, support family quality of life, and shape innovative, equitable solutions in animal welfare and community practice.

Research

Our work is evidence-based, with ongoing projects that inform our team and the veterinary profession. We are currently leading a study to explore the national gap in access to veterinary care and how those national trends affect the regional communities we serve. We want to know why an estimated 40% of pets are going without the medical attention they need and how we can approach closing those gaps using best practices.

Explore our access to care research online.