A review of Teaching Hospital patient files, supplied by individuals whose pets were seen at the hospital in the last year, reveals systemic, substandard practices.
In every file we reviewed, the record keeping practices exhibited were well below industry standard. Significant gaps in both time and medical management were evident, and these failures were common across all files reviewed.
To confirm whether these problems were isolated to just a few patient records or common across most files, we spoke to current and recently former staff, all of whom confirmed that the problem was widespread.
"You could probably pull every file we have and most of them are that way," shared one respondent with personal knowledge of the Teaching Hospital's record-keeping practices.
We also spoke to local veterinarians in the Stillwater region, whose patients are sometimes seen at the Teaching Hospital, to gain understanding of the quality of records they receive from CVM. In each instance, incomplete records were sited as a reason that these veterinarians have ceased referring patients to the Teaching Hospital.
“The worst record-keeping I have ever seen in my career,” is how one veterinarian put it. “We don’t get them on time. They’re never complete.”
A common concern that many shared is that students are being taught poor standards of record-keeping, which risks their careers. “Every practicing veterinarian will be accused of something by someone at some point, and the quality of your record keeping is your lifeline,” said one veterinarian. “When students see faculty and staff paying so little attention to patient records, we’re setting the worst of all possible examples and, God, it could get someone in real trouble some day.”
We previously reviewed a curious Teaching Hospital case that was sent to the OK Vet Board, where the medical notes were incomplete and substandard. Yet the case was dismissed because the Teaching Hospital sent a letter to the OK Vet Board months after the patient had died, filling in all the blanks in the record.
"I know about that case, I was there for it. Those records were terrible," said one staffer. "I told those owners to tell the Board that all of our records are that way."
Notably, we have reviewed medical records with several people inside and outside the CVM, and have spoken to dozens of people ranging from veterinarians to experienced veterinary nurses, and no one has defended the Teaching Hospital's record-keeping practices.