Our Practice
Keeping Our Business Green
Part of our mission statement at Capitola Veterinary Hospital is to practice our profession with respect for Life and Earth and to be as environmentally low-impact as possible. We continue to find ways to make our office as “green” as we can.
We use top-of-the-line digital X-ray processing units for dental and full-body x-rays, meaning a huge reduction in chemical usage and hazardous material waste. Digital x-rays require significantly lower radiation to produce which provides additional safety for our patients and staff. Not to mention the obvious tremendous increase in the quality of digital images compared to X-ray film.
All of our lab work results, both in-house and sent-out samples, are now being received digitally, just like our faxes. The results are posted directly into computerized patient records without ever having to be printed on paper.
Our patient records are digital. This not only saves paper but allows us to provide better service to our clients and patients because these records can be easily shared between specialty hospitals and are available to more than one staff member at a time. No more ever-expanding charts to keep track of or decipher handwritten entries!
Clients receive their invoices via email, rather than having them printed.
We have eliminated the vast majority of brochures and “handouts” when communicating with our clients. Instead, we have developed an extensive library of digital client education documents that we can email to clients.
We have added more recycling stations around the hospital and we strive to reuse as much paper as we can by printing on both sides before sending it out for recycling.
We have developed a paperless in-hospital communication system. We no longer use paper to communicate with each other, but rather a collection of reusable laminated cards and wet-erase pens. What this boils down to is a significant reduction in paper waste, which we are all very proud of!
We have reduced our water usage considerably by having water-saving features installed on hospital sinks, our toilet is low flush volume and we use only organic and biodegradable soaps throughout the hospital for regular hand washing wherever possible. This means that we are using less water in general and that our waste water is less harmful to the environment. Along with making our office and workspaces as environmentally low-impact as we can, we have also focused on developing partnerships with community groups, other local businesses, and vendors who support our mission to practice with respect for life and Earth.