Post-Surgical Care Checklist Builder
Combine the patient, the actual surgery, anaesthetic events, current concerns and the surgeon's instructions into a tailored recovery checklist, monitoring timetable, discharge review and owner care sheet. This tool organises and checks a veterinary plan. It does not prescribe treatment, calculate doses or declare an animal safe for discharge.
Checklist builder
For veterinary professional use. Proposed clinical decision-support design, content version draft-1.0, for review by veterinarians responsible for anaesthesia and recovery, surgery and the species profiles offered, with nursing input on workflow, before clinical release. The builder organises and checks a veterinary plan; the treating veterinarian remains responsible for every clinical decision. Part of the ASK A VET™ veterinary tools.
How this checklist builder works
Quick answer. Enter the patient, what was actually done, how the anaesthetic went, the current concerns and the surgeon's orders. The builder assembles a core postoperative checklist, adds procedure modules by tissue affected, adds review prompts for patient-specific modifiers and devices, and shows why every item appeared. Status options keep unknown, not assessed, not applicable, planned and completed distinct. The veterinarian records the discharge decision; nothing is inferred.
Who it is for
Veterinarians, veterinary nurses and technicians managing recovery, ward care and discharge for dogs and cats. Other species use a clearly labelled clinician-authored pathway. Written by Dr Duncan Houston, an emergency and critical care veterinarian, as a proposed clinical decision-support design for veterinary review before clinical release; it is not a validated postoperative scoring system.
Workflow
- Patient: identifier, species, weight with date and measured or estimated status, conditions, home medicines, baseline mobility and resuscitation status as documented.
- Surgery and anaesthetic: each procedure actually performed, modules, wound class and closure, intraoperative events, ASA from the record, and separate clocks for surgery finished, anaesthesia ended, extubation, observations started and discharge.
- Recovery concerns: modifiers such as airway concern, glucose management, fluid intolerance, bleeding, sepsis, nonambulatory status, blocks, pregnancy, handling and previous anaesthetic complications.
- Care instructions: monitoring orders with separate supervision and recording interval, pain assessment, transcribed medicines, antimicrobial decision, fluids, devices, wounds, feeding pathway, staged activity and follow-up.
- Review checklist: handover, immediate recovery, ongoing inpatient care and pre-discharge tasks, the discharge review domains and veterinary approval.
- Export: recovery sheet, timetable, discharge record, owner instructions (approved plans only) and a plain-text summary for the practice system.
What it deliberately will not do
- Calculate a drug dose, a treatment fluid rate, a healing date, a mandatory hospitalisation duration or a probability of complications.
- Install one universal normal heart rate, temperature, blood pressure or respiratory rate for every species and patient.
- Convert "twice daily" into an exact 12-hour schedule unless that is the prescriber's written instruction.
- Turn a suture removal date into "recovery complete", or the end of a calendar period into activity clearance.
- Extubate on a timer, add antibiotics because surgery occurred, or show a patient as "safe to go home".
Rules that keep the plan honest
| Situation | What the builder does |
|---|---|
| Safety-critical information missing | Keeps "unknown", flags the affected section, still allows a labelled draft to print |
| Two procedures with different feeding or activity orders | Red conflict warning; veterinary resolution required before approval and owner instructions |
| Last medication dose unknown | "Next dose requires confirmation"; no next dose is guessed |
| Monitoring order exceeds available staffing | Flags the mismatch; requires an alternative care or transfer plan |
| Device removal planned but device still present | Removal task stays open until actual removal is recorded |
| Airway, breathing or circulation concern active | Prominent warning; routine discharge approval unavailable; emergency or transfer documentation still available |
| Critical task marked not applicable | Reason and veterinary authorisation required |
| New concern after approval | Affected items reopen; prior approval marked as needing update, record retained |
| Recurring task completed once | Later instances stay outstanding; progress counts instances |
Frequently asked questions
Does this tool calculate drug doses or decide when a patient can go home?
No. It transcribes prescriptions exactly as written, organises tasks and checks the plan for gaps and conflicts. It never calculates a dose, sets a universal monitoring limit, or declares a patient safe for discharge. The named veterinarian records the discharge decision.
Which species does it cover?
The clinical content is written for dogs and cats. Other species remain available through a clearly labelled clinician-authored pathway that never copies dog or cat fasting, feeding, temperature or recovery expectations.
What is the difference between Create and Record mode?
Create a care plan generates an uncompleted checklist and never implies that any examination or treatment has occurred. Record care and review discharge lets staff document observations, completed tasks and veterinary decisions.
Why does a recording interval not mean the patient can be left alone?
Required supervision and recording interval are recorded separately. An order to document observations every 30 minutes does not permit leaving a recovering patient unobserved between entries.
Does the progress bar mean the patient is safe?
No. It shows administrative progress such as 18 of 22 applicable task instances completed. It is never a surgical safety score or a probability of recovery.
Are postoperative antibiotics added automatically?
No. The antimicrobial plan requires an explicit veterinary selection. AAFP and AAHA guidance states that ongoing postoperative antimicrobial therapy is rarely required and many clean procedures do not need prophylaxis.
Where is patient information stored?
In the current browser session on your device, with an optional session file you can save and reload. There is no cloud record, multi-user account or verified sign-off in this version.
References
- 2020 AAHA Anesthesia and Monitoring Guidelines for Dogs and Cats
- 2022 AAHA Pain Management Guidelines for Dogs and Cats
- 2024 AAHA Fluid Therapy Guidelines for Dogs and Cats
- 2022 AAFP/AAHA Antimicrobial Stewardship Guidelines
- 2019 AAHA Dental Care Guidelines for Dogs and Cats
- ACVS: Gastrointestinal foreign bodies, GDV, Brachycephalic syndrome, Cranial cruciate ligament disease, Intervertebral disc disease, Urinary stones
- Feline Grimace Scale (copyrighted instrument; results are recorded here, the scale is not reproduced)
Content profile
| Author | Dr Duncan Houston, emergency and critical care veterinarian |
|---|---|
| Intended scope | Dogs and cats; other species through the clinician-authored pathway only |
| Evidence references | AAHA anaesthesia (2020), pain (2022), fluid (2024), dental (2019) and AAFP/AAHA antimicrobial (2022) guidelines; ACVS procedure pages |
| Reviewers | Anaesthesia and recovery, surgery and nursing review not yet recorded |
| Approval date | Not yet approved for clinical release |
| Version | draft-1.0 |
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