Director of Veterinary Services

Director of Veterinary Services

Requirements

• Doctorate: Veterinary Medicine (Required)
• 3+ years in GP, specialty, and/or shelter setting, DVM degree (or equivalent) with NY State veterinary license.
• Fear Free Shelter certification within 6 months of hire date.

Responsibilities

• Ensure CARE provides high quality individualized care, considering the medical and behavioral needs of our patients while maintaining overall population medicine using shelter best practices to a wide range of cruelty, neglect, and at-risk patients.
• Serve on a panel with medical, behavior, and operations leaders to review cases and make weekly pathway planning decisions, including humane euthanasia decisions, taking into consideration animals’ physical and behavioral well-being, using organizationally aligned tools developed to assess quality of life and readiness for adoption.
• Perform humane euthanasia for animals deemed unsuitable for placement, working closely with the behavior and medical teams to ensure a compassionate, low-stress procedure.
• Perform medical intakes on all new NYPD and CE cases admitted to CARE and in collaboration with partner departments for animals admitted to veterinary partner hospitals, AAH, ARC, and Adoption Center as needed.
• Provide medical support for large scale NYPD and CE cases.
• Perform exams, diagnostic tests, and medical treatments with full utilization of Fear Free medical handling. Ensure all staff are practicing Fear Free handing.
• Develop skilled and efficient diagnosis and treatment plans following ARC/CARE/AAH medical parameters and guidelines.
• Provide medical care for outpatients of owned, fostered out and/or animals in transition to the Adoption Center and placement partners.
• Maintain thorough, high quality medical records, documenting all exam findings, test results, and treatments.
• Work with partner hospitals as needed, including referral for advanced care, and assessing medical stability of new cases at partner hospitals.
• Respond to after-hours medical concerns.
• Oversee and maintain the CARE animal census.
• Oversee the daily medical care and case flow of the animals housed in CARE.
• Lead the Daily CARE rounds meeting.
• Lead monthly CARE LVT meeting.
• Develop, disseminate, and keep current the CARE Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and ensure their implementation.
• Model a standard of continued commitment to improve and expand upon all aspects of CARE including, medical, behavior, housing, safety, and animal flow.
• Set expectations and goals and provide consistent, high-quality feedback to direct reports, including regular 1:1s and quarterly feedback sessions to build strong relationships, provide clear direction, and encourage opportunities for development. Complete annual performance evaluations.
• Practice and espouse positive, people-centric management approaches that are in line with team and organizational core values.
• Recommend internal and external training opportunities as needed for direct reports in identified areas.
• Respond to concerns from direct reports and selected administrative staff, addressing them promptly and accordingly.
• Handle employee-relations issues with confidentiality and care, ensuring compliance with any applicable collective-bargaining agreements.
• Conduct corrective actions related to performance.
• Maintain proactive communication with the Senior Director as to any critical situations or issues.
• Support the Senior Director of Veterinary Services in handling any adverse client or patient events appropriately and professionally.
• Model a standard of continual commitment to improvement in all aspects of CARE animal care and handling of dogs and cats.
• Serve as a champion in times of change management and proactively partner with the ARC and CARE Leadership team in identifying ways to improve people policies and medical protocols.
• Collaborate with the AAH Office Manager and Direct of Veterinary Services to ensure CARE has appropriate DVM coverage 7 days per week.
• In collaboration with the AAH management team, ensure the CARE veterinary team is scheduled for all required training, meetings, and lectures.
• Collaborate and support the work of partner departments, particularly the Humane Law Enforcement, Community Engagement, and the Adoption Center departments.
• Maintain strict confidentiality when dealing with criminal cases.
• Attend staff meetings, doctor meetings and other requested meetings.
• Provide medical information and represent CARE to the public and to media when requested.
• Provide a high level of customer service to external and internal clients.
• Create, model, and follow written and verbally communicated ASPCA and CARE Standard Operating Procedures.
• Assist with special projects, presentations and data collection as requested.
• Other duties as assigned.

Preferred Qualifications

• Previous experience in shelters preferred but not required.