Be Safe! Manager's Guide to Veterinary Safety by Philip J. Seibert, Jr. CVT

Click on the image to take you to the AAHA Press page for this book.

 

When talking about books that cover regulations and safety, the best authors in the world are going to be challenged to make them “entertaining,” and anything other than a chore to wade through. Therefore, the thing that is probably most important when considering a book on OSHA is probably that it is brief, delivers the information that is required, and is easy to refer to in the future.

This publication from the American Animal Hospital Association (AAHA ) fits all of the above criteria. At 48 pages (this includes the introduction and index), it is certainly brief. The author, Philip J. Seibert, who many will recognize from VIN and VSPN, and is probably the foremost expert on OSHA and how it relates to the veterinary practice. Having been a Fan of Philip’s for quite some time now there is not actually a lot here that can not be found in other places. However having it all in one volume, with the specific concerns of the practice manager directly addressed, is really very useful.

The book offer very practical advise about setting up and OSHA and safety program from scratch and also gets into some of the nitty-gritty of such issues as chemotherapy which can cause long sleepless nights without a resource of this type. Even if you do already have a safety and OSHA program in place , this volume can bring a lot of reassurance and the odd additional tip.

I do have an issue, however.

At $69.95, and that is the AAHA member price – for non members it is an additional $10.00, it is hard to look at this volume as anything other than a license to print money.

For those for whom math is not their strong suit, we are talking about almost $2.00 per page here. Now I truly do understand the economics of a low volume print run such as this. And that what we are purchasing here is not actually the text, but the research that goes into it behind the scenes. But this is an eye-watering price considering that is is coming from a veterinary association and that it is one in a series of books. I also understand that, unlike most text books, it is unlikely that this volume could have any market other than at best one copy per veterinary practice.

To put this in perspective, however, the excellent “Veterinary Fee Reference,” is 470 pages, has almost 700 tables covering 450 services, and is a monument to data collection in the veterinary industry. It is also very unlikely that the market for this volume is anything other than one copy per veterinary practice.

It is $139.95!

I don’t have any good answers as to why there is this discrepancy. If piece of mind is worth a few extra dollars then by all means get this volume. If you already have an OSHA program and you are pretty confident of your program – save up for the Veterinary Fee Reference!