Mitigating cold stock loss in your veterinary practice (Advertorial)

In recent years, Guild Insurance has identified an increase in cold stock-related claims. Any loss of refrigerated stock can significantly impact your veterinary practice and clients. While ordering its replacement may sound like a simple solution, there’s no guarantee that the stock will be delivered before your patients need it. At its core, a loss in cold stock has the potential to significantly impact the health and well-being of your patients. It also has the potential to cause undue stress for owners who may need to seek veterinary treatment elsewhere. Therefore, all veterinary staff must understand their role in reducing the likelihood of these incidents occurring as well as the impact if they do.

What can go wrong

Fortunately, there are simple steps you can take to mitigate your risk. But first, it’s essential to understand what can go wrong. We’ve identified four key causes of cold stock damage with our claims data.

One of these common causes is accidental damage. This is when staff actions cause cold stock to be damaged. This can be anything from staff not securing the refrigerator door properly to storing stock on a non-refrigerated shelf. Another leading cause is power supply failure. This occurs when, as the name suggests, there’s been a loss of power to the premises. This happens for several reasons, such as faults with, or overloaded, network supplies. Similarly, another one of the frequent causes is storm damage. In these cases, the storm's impact causes a loss of power. Storm damage can also prevent access to the premises, hindering any opportunity to move the refrigerated stock to backup storage. The last common cause is breakdown. This occurs when the fridge has stopped working or isn’t working effectively. Unfortunately, in many cases, breakdown-related causes aren’t realised until the temperature has been impacted for too long and the stock is already damaged.

What you can do

While we pride ourselves on settling these matters quickly and with as little stress as possible, we also believe prevention is key to avoiding stressful situations. With just a few simple changes, any practice can mitigate their risk.

Investing in purpose-built refrigerators designed for storing and preserving cold stock is a solid start to minimising your risk. Next, thorough processes and protocols should be established to cover all aspects, such as receiving deliveries, placing stock in fridges, monitoring temperatures, maintaining fridges, and reporting issues. Staff should also be adequately trained to ensure these systems are effective.

Prepare action plans for both planned and unplanned power outages, with clear procedures for preserving cold stock. We suggest keeping the amount of stock you store to a minimum, only keeping what is necessary for your practice, instead of stocking an excess. The less stock there is, the less that will need to be replaced should an incident occur.

Lastly, it’s also important to periodically review your insurance policy to ensure your cover meets your current needs. You can contact Guild today by calling 1300 810 213 or visiting guildne.ws/AVAmember

DISCLAIMER

Insurance issued by Guild Insurance Limited ABN 55 004 538 863, AFSL 233791 and subject to terms, conditions and exclusions. Guild Insurance supports the Australian Veterinary Association (AVA) through the payment of referral fees. This information is of a general nature only. Please refer to the policy wording and policy schedule for details. For more information call 1800 810 213. VET359858 November Member Vet advertorial 09/2024.