Client Rights

As a client at SACH, you can expect:

1. We will always approach your cat in a kind and gentle manner by utilizing cat-friendly interactions. We have a strict no-scruffing policy, and we commit to making your cat’s experience as low-stress as possible.
2. We will offer the highest standard of medical care for your cat. All of our recommendations will be made with the health, welfare, and best interest of your cat in mind, and we will never put forth an option we do not feel is reasonable.
3. We understand that you know your cat better than anyone else in the world, so we commit to truly listening to all of your concerns in order to make the best possible plan for your cat.
4. We will ensure that all of your questions get answered, and we will never rush an appointment or procedure. All of our team members have extensive feline knowledge, and if any individual you speak with doesn’t know the answer to your question, we are committed to getting you that answer.
5. We will be transparent with you about financial requirements for any given visit, and we will work with you to find a solution to any financial constraints.
6. We will be transparent with you about time requirements for any given visit, and we will work with you to find a solution to any time constraints.
7. We will provide the necessary resources for administering any prescribed treatments. If clarification is needed, we will make ourselves available to answer follow-up questions.
8. We will communicate with you in a respectful manner, and we will work with you to find appropriate solutions to problems or concerns. We truly want to make every situation right!
9. Our policies are created with the best interest of everyone in mind including you, your cat, and our team. We would never enforce a policy that we ourselves do not uphold.
10. If we are unable to provide medical care to your cat for any reason, we will provide you with any requested medical records and recommendations for alternate veterinary facilities that may be able to provide care to your cat.

Client Responsibilities

As a client at SACH, you are responsible for:

1. We expect understanding from clients when a patient is too stressed, scared, or painful for a treatment or procedure to be performed without the aid of pain or anti-anxiety medications or sedation. Please do not scruff or ask us to scruff or otherwise manhandle your cat!
2. We request that clients assume good intentions regarding our medical recommendations and actions.
3. We expect clients to share with us all potentially relevant medical information including allowing us to obtain your cat’s previous medical records from other veterinary facilities.
4. We expect clients to plan appropriately the time needed for the appointment, drop-off check-in, or patient discharge.
5. We expect clients to be respectful of our time by alerting us of any necessary cancellations at least 24 hours in advance and giving us notice if a certain drop-off or pick-up time is required. Clients should also understand that our doctors are unlikely to be available to speak directly outside of a scheduled appointment.
6. We expect clients to accept responsibility for their accrued medical bills and to let us know at the time of the appointment if there is a budget we need to work within. Clients should not request free or discounted services.
7. We expect clients to adhere to the medical recommendations and to contact us if there are any complications or if further clarification is required.
8. We expect clients to communicate respectfully, even when upset. We will not allow clients to yell at or be disrespectful to the team. We ask you to bring any concerns to management’s immediate attention.
9. We expect that clients will follow our policies, including bringing all cats to the hospital in a secure carrier. Clients should also respect and follow all COVID safety precautions implemented by SACH. All of our policies are written with the health and safety of you, your cat, and the SACH team in mind.
10. If you feel we have failed to uphold the Client Rights portion of this document, please discuss the issue with a member of our leadership team!

Policy

• Respectful communication and cooperation between all team members
• Teamwork and team member participation, permitting the representation of all groups and team member perspectives
• Work/life balance through consistency in work schedule to accommodate team members’ varying needs

Commitments

South Austin Cat Hospital promotes workplace equality, diversity, and inclusion. Our culture creates an environment free of bullying, harassment, victimization, and discrimination, promotes dignity and respect for all, and where individual differences and the contributions of all team members are recognized and valued.

This commitment includes training managers and all other team members about their rights and responsibilities under this policy.

We are committed to a nondiscriminatory approach and provide equal employment and advancement opportunities in our departments and programs. We respect and value diverse life experiences and heritages and ensure that all voices are valued and heard.

We’re committed to modeling diversity and inclusion for the entire veterinary industry and maintaining an inclusive environment with equitable treatment for all.

To provide informed, authentic leadership for cultural equity, South Austin Cat Hospital strives to:

• See diversity, inclusion, and equity as connected to our mission and critical to ensuring the well-being of our team members and the communities we serve
• Acknowledge and dismantle any inequities within our policies, systems, programs, and services, and continually update our organization’s progress.
• Explore potential underlying, unquestioned assumptions that interfere with inclusiveness.
• Advocate for and support board-level thinking about how systemic inequities impact our organization’s work and how best to address that in a way that is consistent with our mission.
• Help to challenge assumptions about what it takes to be a strong leader at our organization and who is well-positioned to provide leadership.
• Practice and encourage transparent communication in all interactions
• Commit time and resources to expand more diverse leadership within our team
• Lead with respect and tolerance. We expect all team members to embrace and express this notion in workplace interactions and everyday practices.

South Austin Cat Hospital abides by the following action items to help promote diversity and inclusion in our workplace:

• Pursue cultural competency throughout our organization by creating substantive learning opportunities and formal, transparent policies
• Improve our cultural leadership pipeline by creating and supporting programs and policies that foster leadership that reflects the diversity of American society.
• Pool resources and expand offerings for underrepresented constituents by connecting with other veterinary organizations committed to diversity and inclusion efforts
• Develop and present diversity, inclusion, and equity sessions to provide internal information and resources to members.
• Develop a system for being more intentional and conscious of bias during the hiring, promoting, or evaluation processes. Train our hiring team on equitable practices.
• Include a salary range with all public job descriptions and abide by the qualifications and ranges published.
• Advocate for a public and private-sector policy that promotes diversity, inclusion, and equity.
• Challenge systems and policies that create inequity, oppression, and disparity

Team Responsibilities Regarding DEI

Team members must conduct themselves to help the hospital provide equal opportunities in employment and prevent bullying, harassment, victimization, and discrimination. This includes but is not limited to the following:

• Respect for each other’s pronouns during written or spoken daily interactions and speaking of each other with third parties
• Include one self’s pronouns in email and communication signatures
• Educating one another in diversity, equality, and inclusion subjects
• Bring to the attention of Hospital Leadership any issues that may violate this policy by team members, clients, suppliers, or the public.
• All team members should understand that they, as well as the hospital, can be held liable during their employment for acts of bullying, harassment, victimization, and discrimination, against fellow team members, clients, suppliers, and the public.

Client and Patient Care

Team members must provide a client experience free of bullying, harassment, victimization, discrimination, and profiling based on age, color, disabilities, ethnicity, sex, gender identity or expression, gender reassignment, sexual orientation, language, national origin, physical and mental ability, race, religion or belief, marriage or civil partnership, family status, pregnancy and maternity, socio-economic status or caring responsibilities, veteran status, or other characteristics that make them unique.

Maintaining equal and inclusive client and patient care includes but is not limited to:

• Treat all patients as if they were our own, regardless of their owner’s characteristics or status.
• Providing the clients with full cost estimates containing the medical recommendations that best address the patient’s needs
• No team member must assume that the client won’t be able to afford the recommended care for their cat and have this stop them from presenting the best treatment plan.
• Educate and inform our clients regardless of their characteristics or status.
• Once a treatment plan is presented to the client, they will decide what treatments or services to approve according to their needs.
• All team members should introduce themselves to clients and vendors with their pronouns to build the trust of the clients, vendors, or public to share theirs with us.
• All team members’ email signatures must include their pronouns.
• All team members must respect each client’s pronouns as requested by them.

Client Responsibilities Regarding DEI

Clients must behave respectfully toward one another and our team. This allows us to provide outstanding medical care and equal opportunities in employment and prevent bullying, harassment, victimization, and discrimination. This includes but is not limited to:

• Respect for each other’s pronouns during written or spoken daily interactions and speaking of each other with third parties
• Bring to the attention of Hospital Leadership any issues that may violate this policy by team members, other clients, suppliers, or the public. This will allow the hospital to maintain accountability for any policy violators.

Team members should be treated with respect by all clients, have an experience free of bullying, harassment, victimization, discrimination, and profiling. We will maintain an equal and inclusive client and patient care, and we expect all clients to treat our team with the same considerations. This includes but is not limited to:

• Clients are responsible for understanding that we will provide them with full cost estimates containing the medical recommendations that best address their cat’s needs. Once a treatment plan is presented to the client, they will decide what treatments or services to approve according to their cat’s needs and other factors that may influence their decisions. We expect that clients understand that it is in their best interest for us to make all the recommendations in the treatment plan.
• Clients with financial limitations should expect to be treated equally and be willing to discuss the full treatment plan with our team members. The client will have the opportunity to work with the doctor on prioritizing recommendations within their budget.
• Clients are expected to receive education and information from our team members regardless of their individual characteristics or status.
• We hope that all clients introduce themselves to our team members with their pronouns so we can address them appropriately.
• We hope that clients include their pronouns in communications with our team members, so we record them in their profiles and address them correctly in future interactions.
• All clients must respect our team members’ pronouns as listed in their email communications and communicated in person or listed on their name tag.

In an instance where this policy is violated, Hospital Leadership will investigate the matter with all parties involved. A manager may issue the client with a verbal warning regarding their behavior. However, if the offense is grave or the behavior continues, South Austin Cat Hospital will exercise the right to deny services.

Deposits

Deposits for future appointments can’t be used to pay for goods or services provided before the scheduled appointment unless the appointment is canceled timely within the following guidelines.

Cancellations / Rescheduling / No-Show

• 3 days in advance (72 business hours+): Deposits for in-room appointments, behavioral consultations, in-house abdominal ultrasounds, and specialty surgeries canceled with at least 72 business hours (3 days) notice will have the option to be credited to the Client’s account for later use or be refunded to the original form of payment. For Monday appointments, the notice must be given on Wednesdays.
• 1 Day in Advance (24 business hours+): Deposits for in-room appointments, behavioral consultations, and in-house abdominal ultrasounds, canceled with at least 24 hours notice, are eligible to be credited to the Client’s account. However, they are not eligible to be refunded. For Monday appointments, the notice must be given on Fridays.
• Less than 24 hours / No Call / No Show: If a client provides less than 24 business hours notice of cancelation or rescheduling an appointment, does not call, and/or does not attend to their scheduled appointment, a Cancellation/No-Show fee will be applied to the Client’s account immediately, and the deposit will be used to cover that cost.
• Specialty Surgeries or SonoVet: These procedures must be canceled or rescheduled 72 business hours (3 days) or more before the appointment to be eligible for a refund or a credit in the Client’s account. Otherwise, the third-party provider will charge the deposit as a cancellation fee. For Monday appointments, the notice must be given on Wednesdays.

Credits and Refunds

• Food, Purina, and Royal Canin Nutraceuticals: All prescription food, Purina Vetoquinol, and Royal Canin supplements carry a palatability warranty. If the Patient doesn’t like the product, the Client must bring it to us within 30 days of purchase, and we will issue a credit or refund.
• Deposits made for appointments will be handled according to this Policy’s Cancellation/Rescheduling/No Show section.
• Credits for overpayment or Client service reasons can be used for any service or product.
• After management approval, cash, care credit, or credit card payments will only be refunded to the original payment form. If the original form of payment is unavailable, a credit to the Client’s account will be applied instead.
• Refunds for payments made with checks are not possible, and an account credit for later use will be applied to the Client’s account once the credit has been approved.

Client Service Credit / Refund Timeline

• Investigation: Investigating a refund or credit request may take up to five business days. All parties involved in the issue will be interviewed by the Practice Manager, including the Client. If phone call recordings or video footage are available, those will also be reviewed.
• Credits: Once the credit to the Client’s account has been approved, the Practice Manager will process it, and it will be available for use immediately. The Client may use a SACH account credit on any service or product.
• Refunds: Once the credit to the Client’s account has been approved, the Practice Manager will process it. Keep in mind the following:
  • Refunds can only be posted using the original form of payment.
  • If a refund is requested the same day the payment was made, the transaction will take 1 – 2 business days to settle in the system. Once the transaction is settled, the refund can be processed. This specific scenario may delay the timeline for the Client to see the refund reflected in their credit card account.
  • Once a refund has been approved, the Practice Manager will process it, and a member of our team will contact the client to let them know the process has been finalized. The refund may take 3-5 business days to reflect in the Client’s credit card account.

Limitations

• Requests for Credits or Refunds may only be submitted within 30 days of the original payment. We reserve the right to refuse the Client’s request on a case-by-case basis. Please note that we do not accept any returns after 30 days.
• By law, medications and medical supplies are non-returnable.