As soon as Fear Free certification became available, all of our doctors became certified. In the last year, we have embraced Fear Free in every aspect of our practice and have not only seen our client base increase, but our repeat customers, overall satisfaction rate, and maybe most importantly, our staff satisfaction rate are all higher than they were a year ago. If anyone asked me what one thing they could do right now to improve their practice, it would absolutely be starting down the road towards Fear Free Practice Certification.
Natalie Marks, DVM
The Fear Free Certification Program provides professionals with the tools, protocols and knowledge to reduce fear, anxiety and stress in patients, and to implement Fear Free into their practices. Practice Certification takes Fear Free to the next level – from an individual to a joint effort that requires the entire practice team to work together to achieve certification. Fear Free Certified Practices will represent the pinnacle of care in the industry and will be highly sought after by pet owners who are realizing the importance of emotional wellness for their pets. Clear differentiators in the market, Fear Free certified practices will be able to market themselves in their community to attract not only pet owners, but also veterinary talent.
Certification is only the beginning of the Fear Free journey for a practice. Once certified, practices will have unlimited access to Fear Free CE for their entire staff, as well as the opportunity to receive guidance and advice from Fear Free’s 200+ advisory group members, including boarded experts in such fields as behavior, anesthesiology, internal medicine, and dentistry as well as icons such as Dr. Stephen Ettinger. Fear Free is always focused on continued learning, and we strongly believe that certified practices need to be given that opportunity to prosper and grow.
Fear Free certified practices will have successfully implemented Fear Free into all aspects of their business: culture and leadership, to client education, staff training, facility, and patient visits. To meet this level of commitment and implementation, practices must measure up to Fear Free standards. Mandatory standards are pass/fail for overall certification; optional standards are weighted, and the practice must achieve a minimum score to pass each section. To view the list of standards, Fear Free members can log into their account and click here.
Once a practice is confident about passing all or a sufficient number of standards, an in-person visit will be scheduled. The in-person visit will be conducted by a Fear Free consultant, and results will be submitted to Fear Free for review and final determination of pass or fail.
Note: At this point, Practice Certification will be available only in the US and Canada. Fear Free is considering introducing this program in other countries at a later point. We encourage our international professionals to seek individual certification and keeping their certification status active by renewing and continuing to take advantage of our ongoing CE offerings.
Note: Only Group Leaders have access to the practice certification process.
After logging in to your account, access the Practice Certification Application via the veterinary professionals section in the about tab. Verify your pre-populated information and download the csv file. Enter your entire employee roster into the csv file, noting the instructions at the top left. When completed, upload the file, acknowledge the Terms & Conditions, and submit. Your application will be reviewed by Fear Free within 2 business days and you will be notified via email of its acceptance or if any changes are needed.
When your application is accepted, you will receive an email with a link to register for practice certification. When you register, you will pay the $500 deposit that will be applied to your total practice certification cost. Registering gives you access to the online self-assessment via the Practice Certification Dashboard.
Practices will have a 90-day grace period between the time of registration and the submission of the online self-assessment (Step 3) in that, if during those 90 days any of the 25% of certified staff’s membership(s) required to be eligible for practice certification expire, it will not affect the eligibility for practice certification.
If a practice submits a self-assessment more than 90-days after registering and any of the aforementioned 25% of certified staff’s membership(s) have expired, the membership(s) must be renewed. Additionally, if any of the aforementioned 25% staff have left the practice, they must be replaced by another certified and active team member.
The Dashboard houses the standards and supporting examples for practice certification. When you have completed your self-assessment, as indicated by your progress bars turning green, submit it for review.
Fear Free will review your self-assessment within 3 business days. You will be notified if any clarifications need to be made via email and a call with the Practice Certification Manager will be scheduled. Self-assessments must be approved by Fear Free before an onsite visit can be scheduled.
On the first Friday after your self-assessment has been approved, you will receive email notification with at least 3 days to choose from to schedule your onsite visit. You have until the following Tuesday to select a date. You will receive a call from your Practice Certification Veterinarian (PCV) within 7 business days following your selection. The visit should take 2-4 hours.
Your PCV will need someone to accompany him/her throughout the visit, will observe at least 2 patient visits, review at least 3 patient medical records and may take photos to help support scoring of your standards. After your onsite visit, you will be notified within 2 business days if you can now call yourself a Fear Free Certified Practice!
To apply and qualify for Practice Certification, the following prerequisites are required:
Practice certification will provide all practice team members (not only certified professionals, but 100% of all practice staff) with unlimited access to:
Other benefits:
Annual renewal is required in order to keep a practice’s certification status active. Renewal will include:
Overview of StandardsStandards are divided into various categories. Some categories include mandatory as well as optional standards; while others include only optional or only mandatory standards.
Categories
Open to the public
Learn more about practice certification, how to interpret specific standards, and best practices on achieving this coveted certification from our resident expert, Dr. Rachel Abrams.
Certified Practice Members Only
Take advantage of this exclusive benefit and get access to leading Fear Free experts, learn how to maximize your Fear Free experience, and get your questions answered.
Plus $200 per FTE veterinarian
Includes base rate
Fees are due annually; proof of % of staff certified plus number of FTE veterinarians on staff are required at time of renewal.
Costs include the on-site visit of a Fear Free consultant. An on-site visit will be required at the time of initial certification, and every three years thereafter.
You cannot. In order to apply and be considered for practice certification, a minimum of 25% of your staff needs to have completed the Fear Free certification program and be an active member.
Yes, you certainly can! Practices that are ready to apply for certification will be able to do so starting April 1, 2018. You do not need to wait for your existing membership to expire in order to move forward with practice certification.
The duration of the process will depend on how much work your practice needs to put forward in order to pass practice certification standards. When a practice signs up, the group leader will have access to the standards in his/her account and will be able to self-assess their performance on each standard. Only once a practice feels comfortable with all standards, will the on-site visit be scheduled.
On-site visits will be performed within 60 days of scheduling.
Yes, there is. The annual renewal fee will depend on the number of FTE veterinarians employed at the time of renewal.
Yes, practice certification will replace your individual renewal. If you are up for renewal prior to April 2018, or prior to being ready to apply for practice certification, you will need to renew your team at $99/person.
To keep calculations consistent, Fear Free will round up any non-whole numbers. For a practice with 5 FTE veterinarians it would be: 5/2= 2.5 +1= 3.5, round up to 4.
To keep calculations consistent, Fear Free will round up any non-whole numbers. For a practice with 15 team members, it would be: 15/4= 3.75, therefore rounded up to 4. For a practice with a large leadership team (e.g. multiple owners, multiple managers, multiple heads of departments etc.) you could end up with more than 25% total people needing to be certified to be eligible for practice certification.
Your Fear Free membership has expired but there is still time to renew and continue with your Fear Free continued education.
If you are a group member, please let your group leader know your account needs to be renewed.
If you'd like assistance, please contact our customer experience team at wags@fearfreepets.com or call us at 303.952.0585 and we will be happy to assist!