New COVID-19 tool: Essential employee authorization

With shelter-at-home and similar orders in place in some locations, veterinary practices that remain open may need or want to provide documentation for team members to travel to and from work. AVMA has created a template you can customize to issue essential employee authorization letters for this purpose.

Because rules and requirements will vary in different localities, you’ll need to understand the specific information required by your jurisdiction, and use that to customize the letter. The language in the template can help you type up your own authorization letters, incorporating the specific language required in your state or jurisdiction.

The form should only be used if your jurisdiction includes veterinary services as a business that can continue to offer essential services during a closure period. 

Designating veterinary businesses as essential

AVMA is working hard to ensure that veterinary medicine is classified as an essential business so that veterinary professionals will be free to continue providing critical services in our communities. On March 19, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security issued guidance recommending that animal health and veterinary services be considered essential. However, this is a recommendation to state and local authorities, not a federal mandate. 

COVID-19 veterinary resources and information

AVMA continues working to gather, interpret, and share breaking information about COVID-19 and create resources to help veterinarians and veterinary teams. All of this information is available on our COVID-19 webpage, avma.org/Coronavirus. Other resources added recently include:

• Veterinary case management flow chart
• Guidelines for using personal protective equipment (PPE) 
• Considerations for mobile and house call veterinarians 

More COVID-19 resources and information are in development. Subscribe to this blog and follow our social media pages to stay informed as we release new tools and information.