Business continuity planning for veterinary practices

The clinic is intact, but it cannot open

At 6.40 on a Monday morning, a veterinary practice owner receives a message from the alarm company. A fault in the local electricity network has left the clinic without power. The distributor cannot give a firm restoration time. The building is undamaged, yet the refrigerators, phones, computers, lighting and much of the clinical equipment cannot operate normally.

The first appointments begin in less than two hours. An animal is due for surgery, several patients need refrigerated medicines and an overnight patient remains under observation. Staff begin calling one another, but nobody is certain who can cancel appointments, where urgent cases should be referred or how long the clinic can safely continue on emergency power.

A continuity plan is designed for this gap between an incident occurring and normal operations returning. It does not need to predict every emergency. It needs to identify the work that matters most, the resources it depends on and the decisions people must make when those resources are unavailable.

Begin with essential patient and business functions

List the activities the practice must protect or restore first. These may include caring for animals already on the premises, triaging incoming cases, maintaining temperature-sensitive stock, accessing clinical records, communicating with clients, paying staff and suppliers, and meeting any notification obligations.

For each activity, decide how long it can be interrupted before the consequences become unacceptable. The answer will not be the same for every function. A planned social-media post can wait; monitoring a hospital patient cannot. This gives the practice a recovery order based on patient welfare and business need rather than whichever problem is making the most noise.

Continuity planning starts with the service that must continue—not with a list of disasters that might happen.

Trace the dependencies behind each service

A consultation depends on premises, people, records, communications and basic utilities. Surgery adds sterile equipment, anaesthetic systems, monitoring, medicines and recovery space. Dispensing may depend on stock, refrigeration and access to the practice-management system.

Map these dependencies and identify the weakest point. A generator may support lights and selected refrigeration but not every piece of equipment. Cloud-based records may remain available, but only if staff have charged devices and an alternative internet connection. A written supplier list is useful only if it is available when the practice network is down.

Test assumptions with the people responsible. Confirm what emergency power actually supports, how long fuel or battery capacity lasts, which equipment has safe shutdown requirements and whether key suppliers offer an emergency service. Record the answer in plain language that a manager can use under pressure.

Set clear operating thresholds

The plan should state who decides whether the practice remains open, reduces services, redirects patients or closes temporarily. Define the information they need and the triggers that change the response. Examples may include the expected outage length, internal temperature, remaining medicine-storage capacity, access to patient records, staffing levels or loss of essential equipment.

Prepare referral and relocation options before they are needed. Agree how urgent cases will be directed, how clients will be contacted and how animals already in care could be moved if appropriate. A neighbouring practice may be able to help, but an informal assumption is not a reliable arrangement during a widespread event.

Plan for loss of premises and suppliers as well as power

A burst pipe, fire, storm damage or access restriction can make safe premises unavailable even when equipment survives. Identify which services could be provided from an alternative location and which must stop. Consider records, medicines, specialist equipment, security, transport and client communication—not just access to a spare room.

Supplier disruption can be slower and less visible. Choose the products and services that have no easy substitute, note normal lead times and identify approved alternatives. Avoid treating excess stock as the only solution: it creates cost, storage and expiry problems. The aim is to understand where a shortage would interrupt care and act early.

Make the first-hour plan usable

Keep a short action sheet separate from the full continuity plan. It should name the incident lead, welfare priorities, emergency contacts, communication owner, decision thresholds and where essential records are kept. Store a protected copy away from the premises and make sure authorised staff can reach it without the normal network.

Run a brief exercise twice a year. Give the team a realistic scenario and ask what they would do during the first 15 minutes, first hour and first day. The exercise will usually expose missing phone numbers, uncertain authority or backup arrangements that exist on paper but have never been tested.

Connect continuity planning with insurance

Business interruption cover, property cover, equipment breakdown and other sections can operate differently between policies. Waiting until an incident to understand the information required can make an already difficult situation harder.

Give the broker a current picture of the practice: locations, revenue, payroll, equipment values, key dependencies, planned backup arrangements and the time it may take to restore operations. Ask how the applicable policy defines an insured interruption, what waiting periods or limits apply, what records may be needed and when an incident should be notified. Petcover Business Insurance is the broker, not the insurer, and cover depends on the relevant policy and circumstances.

Review how your practice would recover

Every pet business is different, and the right insurance depends on the services you provide and the risks you face. Contact Petcover Business Insurance to discuss your needs with a broker who specialises in pet businesses.

Continuity review

Five questions to answer

1. Priorities
Which patient and business functions must continue first?

2. Dependencies
What people, premises, utilities, systems and suppliers do they need?

3. Thresholds
Who decides when services reduce, relocate or stop?

4. Workarounds
Which backups are practical, documented and tested?

5. Insurance
What events, limits, records and notification rules apply?

Plan across three horizons

Write down the decisions required in the first 15 minutes, the first hour and the first day. Different interruptions may change the detail, but the decision structure should remain clear.