Ohio’s AAHA-accredited veterinary hospitals are no longer subject to state inspections in most cases. The American Animal Hospital Association reported Wednesday that the Ohio Veterinary Medical Licensing Board agreed to exempt 106 clinics—and future accredited hospitals—from compliance inspections because of the national organization’s stringent standards. Alabama is the only other state to accept a hospital’s AAHA accreditation in lieu of a government examination. “Our board’s view is that Ohio veterinarians whose hospitals have achieved AAHA accreditation have met and exceeded Ohio’s standards for their facility,” said Tim Kolb, DVM, president of the state licensing board. “Our limited budget does not permit us to do compliance inspections on all Ohio veterinary facilities on as regular a basis as we would like,” Dr. Kolb said. “This [policy change] will allow us to do more random compliance inspections on the veterinary hospitals that are not AAHA-accredited.” Hospitals earning AAHA accreditation are evaluated on more than 900 standards, ranging from patient care and pain management to team training and medical recordkeeping. Accredited hospitals are re-evaluated periodically. Ohio regulators will not inspect accredited hospitals “unless there is a written complaint filed with the board related to the conditions of the veterinary facility,” AAHA stated. “We are so pleased to see states like Ohio and Alabama recognizing the rigorous nature and the standard of medical excellence required to meet the AAHA accreditation standards,” said AAHA’s CEO, Michael Cavanaugh, DVM, Dipl. ABVP. “The approximately 900 standards of AAHA regularly go above and beyond state and provincial regulations.”
