Although we all want our pets to live longer, we don’t want them to get old. Happily, in the last four decades, their life span has doubled. Unfortunately, as our furry friends live longer, it also increases the possibility that they contract a serious illness. In fact, nearly half of both dogs and cats over the age of 10 develop cancer. And as author Andrea Laurent-Simpson explores in her book, Just Like Family, almost 95 percent of adults who share their homes with dogs and cats treat their animal companions as legitimate members of their families. So when a pet contracts a serious illness like cancer, just like a human, the family pulls out all the stops to ensure a return to good health. But as cancer cases increase, so does the use of the hazardous drugs in veterinary medicine to treat those patients. USP developed guidelines to help ensure the safe handling of these drugs to minimize the risk of exposure. Take these steps to manage USP <800> in your veterinary practice and ensure the safety of your staff, patients and the environment.

How many times have you been taken by surprise due to an unexpected event? From the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centers to the COVID pandemic and Russia’s war with Ukraine, there are hundreds of examples throughout history where very few people worldwide, from noted experts to casual observers, anticipated and prepared for those events to occur. 

The fact is, we don’t know what’s on the horizon. Take the recent torrential rains in St. Louis and eastern Kentucky. Although they were possible, both were 1-in-1,000-year flood events and had a .1% chance of occurring in a given year. That’s why preparing for what may happen is so important for any organization. And it’s especially important for hospitals that play such a critical role in their communities. Mark Twain once said, “History doesn’t always repeat itself, but it often rhymes,” and that’s the idea behind preparing for a full spectrum of emergencies or taking an “all-hazards” approach to emergency management. 

Although the biggest risks remain the ones you don’t see coming, implementing effective emergency management standards serves an important purpose. They help you meet the challenges you can imagine and the ones you don’t that you may face in the future.