About 25 minutes to set up · claude.ai only

Write discharge instructions the owner can follow

Today

The tech goes over aftercare at the front desk while the dog is pulling toward the door and the owner is digging for a credit card. That night the emergency line rings, because nobody heard the part about the cone staying on to sleep.

With Claude

You keep one clean page per procedure, written as things the owner physically does at home, with a call us right now list and a call us at our next opening list. The tech hands it over instead of reciting it over a barking waiting room.

The prompt

Paste this into claude.ai and replace anything in brackets.

You are writing take-home discharge instructions for a veterinary practice. These are general instructions for a procedure type, not advice for any individual patient, and a licensed veterinarian will review and approve them before they are used.

Procedure:
[name it, for example feline spay, canine neuter, mass removal with sutures, dental cleaning with extractions, cystotomy, laceration repair, orthopedic repair]

Species and typical patient:
[for example young adult cats, large breed dogs, brachycephalic dogs, senior dogs. Note any temperament reality that matters, such as animals that will not tolerate handling by the owner]

How we actually do it and what we tell every owner out loud:
[incision closure type and whether sutures dissolve or need removal, cone or surgical suit expectations, activity restriction and for how long, bathing and swimming restrictions, feeding and water on the first night, litter or bedding changes, separation from other pets, what normal looks like in the first 24 to 48 hours, what we consider abnormal]

Our clinic details:
[clinic name, phone, hours, after hours or emergency referral instructions]

Write a one page sheet at a sixth to eighth grade reading level with these sections:
1. What we did today, in everyday words
2. What is normal in the first day or two
3. What you need to do at home, as a numbered step list, written for an animal that does not want you to do it
4. How to keep them from undoing the surgery, covering the cone, confinement, and leash only trips outside
5. Food, water, and medication, with a short note on how to physically give medication to this species
6. Call us right away if you see any of these
7. Call us at our next opening if you see any of these
8. Your recheck and suture removal timing

Rules you must follow. Do not name any drug, dose, frequency, or duration. Wherever a medication, dose, or number belongs, write a clearly bracketed blank for us to fill in, like [medication name] and [amount] and [how often]. Do not diagnose, do not describe complications as likely or unlikely, and do not invent recovery timelines, percentages, or statistics. Use only what I gave you above. At the end, under a heading called Needs the veterinarian, list anything an owner would obviously ask that I did not give you an answer for.

What to skip in veterinary practices

Clinical diagnosis, drug dosing, and anesthesia protocols. This one is not negotiable. Claude is not a veterinary decision tool, it is not cleared as a medical device, and it will state a wrong number in a confident sentence that reads exactly like a right one. Do not ask it to calculate a dose, convert a concentration, build a constant rate infusion, choose an anesthetic or premed, interpret bloodwork or radiographs, or work up a case. Dosing and anesthesia errors are lethal. Use your formulary, your references, and your own arithmetic, every time.
Client and patient records in a consumer chat window. HIPAA generally does not apply to veterinary practices, because a clinic is not a HIPAA covered entity, so the rule you are actually following is your state veterinary practice act plus the AVMA Principles of Veterinary Medical Ethics, which treat record information as confidential and released only with client consent or a court order. Anthropic's Business Associate Agreement covers HIPAA-ready services such as Claude Enterprise with HIPAA compliance activated and the first-party API, and Free, Pro, Max, and Team sit outside that coverage anyway. Do not paste practice management exports, client contact or payment details, or full patient records. Work from de-identified summaries and reusable templates.
Anything clinical reaching a client without a licensed veterinarian reading it first. Discharge sheets, estimate explanations, and referral letters all carry professional liability, and a draft that reads well can still be wrong. Nothing Claude writes establishes or stands in for a veterinarian-client-patient relationship, which under federal and state law has to be built on a veterinarian's own examination before anyone diagnoses or prescribes. Claude never answers a client's medical question directly. The veterinarian approves every word that leaves the building.

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Before you try it

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