Clients prefer collaborative decision-making with veterinarians regardless of appointment type

Objective: To determine clients' preferences for veterinarians' communication during decision-making in relation to 3 clinical contexts: preventive care, general problem (eg, illness or injury), and urgent appointments.

Methods: A cross-sectional online questionnaire was distributed by use of snowball sampling to veterinary clients owning a pet. Demographic information was collected, and participants were then randomly assigned to a scenario reflecting one of the following clinical contexts (appointment types): preventive, general problem, or urgent. Discrete choice exercises were used to solicit client preferences for 5 aspects of veterinarians' communication approach to decision-making with clients in clinical contexts: amount of information, presentation of plan (options or a recommendation), communication of value, nature of client involvement, and communication of financial cost. Relative-preference scores were calculated using hierarchical bayesian modeling.

Results: Responses for 1,614 participants were included in the final analysis. The majority were female, lived in Canada, and were financially stable. Across clinical decision-making contexts, participants preferred to collaborate with the veterinarian, be offered options with a clear recommendation, be informed of present and future costs, and have benefits of any action regarding their pet's health explained to them. For the general-problem context, participants preferred veterinarians' communication to focus solely on concerns; in contrast, in preventive care and urgent contexts, participants preferred that communication include both normal findings and concerns.

Conclusions: Irrespective of clinical decision-making context, participants preferred collaborative decision-making with a veterinarian.

Clinical relevance: Veterinary professionals should consider, when possible, communication that supports a collaborative approach to decision-making with clients.