For any practice utilizing laser therapy, it is crucial that a treatment design be formulated according to the types of patients that are treated, as well as taking into account the number of technicians trained to perform these treatments.
Oftentimes, it is a veterinary technician who will be the laser safety officer of the practice and will take ownership of providing the benefit of this modality to the patients. From this person, others can be cross trained so that there is a system of redundancy and personnel availability at any given time when the practice is open.
Some practices are so invested in laser therapy that they will have a “designated daily operator” who will have scheduled outpatient appointments. In order for any practice to be efficient and reliable in having multiple operators deliver specific treatments for each patient, a laser treatment form must be documented in the patient’s daily record, this will ensure that all operators are on the same page when treating a specific patient.
Depending on the type of practice and the number of technicians trained to perform laser therapy treatments, it is not unusual for a practice to need several laser units. Some practices have a laser unit available for scheduled outpatient treatments, as well as another reserved for surgical or dental procedures, as well as being used to treat the hospitalized patients.
The attending veterinarian who has ordered laser therapy also needs to set specific goals for each patient, and to include a timeframe for either an intermittent course of treatments or establish a starting philosophy to treatment phases (induction, transition, and maintenance phases). This way, the client will also have reasonable expectations in how the patient should respond.
It is important to remember that “the plan” is only “the plan”. This may very well need to be adjusted as per the patient’s response to laser therapy. The conscientious laser operator will be sure to keep the attending veterinarian informed of the patient’s progress, as well as being prepared to deal with potential setbacks. The latter can occur early in the treatment phase as the patient starts to heal, they will get a false sense of security and may be prone to overdoing it with home activity, etc.
In order for a practice to be efficient in their use of this modality, multiple team members need to be adequately trained, a basic framework of scheduled appointments be set out, open communication between laser operators and attending veterinarians be maintained, and a hierarchy of oversight be established.