Can you call your practice an animal hospital?

Why is hospital a regulated word?

Because in veterinary practice it describes a licence or an accreditation rather than a building, and several regulators have written that into law.

New South Wales is the bluntest. Section 66(1) of the Veterinary Practice Act 2003 provides that the owner or occupier of premises must not represent the premises to be a veterinary hospital unless the premises are a veterinary hospital, with a maximum penalty of 50 penalty units for an individual and 100 for a corporation. The section extends to any title or description using those words.

The Australian government's own licensing service removes any doubt about whether this reaches marketing. Its entry for the NSW veterinary hospital licence states you need the licence to perform major surgery at any location, or if you intend to advertise any premises as an animal or veterinary hospital. The licence exists partly to govern the word.

The United Kingdom reaches the same place through accreditation. RCVS guidance states it is contrary to Practice Standards Scheme rules to use hospital, whether alongside the word veterinary or not, unless the practice is accredited at Veterinary Hospital level or is going through that accreditation. A practice already calling itself a hospital may be required to change its name.

Where does Google fit into this?

Uncomfortably. Google Business Profile's veterinary categories include Animal hospital, Veterinarian, Emergency veterinarian service and Veterinary pharmacy. Any of them can be selected by anyone.

The category list is a menu of business types. It is not a check on entitlement, and it carries no warning that three of those four options describe a licensed or accredited status in at least one of the markets a practice might operate in.

Much veterinary marketing advice compounds this by recommending the broadest-sounding category on the grounds that it captures more searches. That reasoning is sound for ranking and wrong for compliance, and the regulator is not persuaded by search volume.

What are the rules on specialist?

Stricter than for most health professions, and in one jurisdiction the penalty includes imprisonment.

Section 13(1) of the NSW Veterinary Practice Act 2003 provides that an individual must not represent themselves to be a specialist in a branch of veterinary science unless they hold specialist registration in that branch. The maximum penalty is 50 penalty units or imprisonment for 12 months, or both. The section extends to any title, description, words or letters capable of being understood as implying specialist status.

Western Australia treats the question at the level of a page heading. Its guidelines note that only vets registered as specialists may be referred to by a title capable of implying specialist status, giving Veterinary Ophthalmologist as the example. A service page headed that way is making the claim.

In California, Business and Professions Code section 4883(s) lists as unprofessional conduct any statement, claim or advertisement that the licensee is a veterinary specialist or board certified unless certified by an AVMA-recognised veterinary specialty organisation.

Does listing a species commit you to anything?

Yes, and this is the consequence of a marketing decision that almost nobody connects to the marketing decision.

RCVS guidance provides that a veterinary surgeon on duty should not unreasonably refuse to provide first aid and pain relief for any animal of a species treated by the practice during normal working hours. For species the practice does not treat, a lesser duty applies: not to unreasonably refuse to facilitate first aid until a more appropriate emergency service accepts responsibility.

So the species list on your website and your profile is not purely promotional. It describes the species you treat during normal hours, and that description sets the boundary of what you cannot reasonably refuse when someone arrives at three in the morning.

Adding reptiles or small mammals to a services list because the search volume looks attractive is therefore a clinical commitment as well as a marketing one. It should be a decision the clinical team makes, not the person editing the website.

What about advertising 24-hour cover?

Permitted, but only with the detail attached, which makes an opening-hours setting more consequential than it looks.

RCVS guidance provides that veterinary surgeons should give clients full details of their 24-hour emergency cover provision and ensure the information is publicly available, whether through the practice website or by other public means. That information should include telephone numbers, location details and information about when the service operates.

A Google Business Profile that shows 24 hours in its opening-hours field, or carries the Emergency veterinarian service category, is a public representation about emergency provision. If the full details are not published somewhere reachable, the representation stands alone without them.

The practical fix is small. Ensure the profile links to a page carrying the full emergency arrangements, and check the hours field actually describes what happens rather than what you would like people to assume.

Are there rules on advertising veterinary medicines?

Substantial ones, and they catch two things practices do routinely without considering them advertising.

The UK Veterinary Medicines Directorate states that sponsored or paid adverts on search engines are by definition advertisements and fall under the advertising restrictions, and that using non-specific terms to advertise prescription veterinary medicines is not acceptable.

The second catches price lists. The VMD position is that price lists are not advertising material as long as all products are listed with equal prominence. To stay outside the definition you must list all products in a category, use the same size text and images for all of them, and keep font size and colour consistent. Styling one product more prominently converts the page into an advertisement for a prescription medicine.

Google maintains its own policy section headed Restricted animal drug terms, covering campaigns targeting Canada and the United States, which restricts prescription animal drug terms. It is rarely cited in veterinary marketing and sits alongside the national rules rather than replacing them.

What is changing in the UK market?

A great deal, on a published timetable, following the Competition and Markets Authority's investigation into veterinary services for household pets.

Two remedies matter for anything published online. Ownership information must be clearly and prominently identified on websites and other online data for groups operating practices, online pharmacies, referral centres, out-of-hours practices, animal hospitals, laboratories or pet crematoria. And a mandatory standard price list is being introduced.

The CMA also intends a comparison website, initially part of the RCVS Find a Vet service, collating this information so owners can compare practices in their area. Notably, practices will not be able to pay for position on it.

The context explains the intervention. The CMA found average prices for vet services rose 63% between 2016 and 2023, and that when it began work only 16% of vet practices had any prices on their websites at all. Less than half of clients at large group practices knew their practice was part of a group.

What should you check on your own listing?

These are the checks most likely to surface a problem, in the order they are most often wrong.

• Open your categories. If Animal hospital is among them, confirm the premises hold the licence or accreditation that word describes in your jurisdiction.
• Search your website and profile for specialist, specialising, consultant and referral surgeon. Replace with practice limited to, having a particular interest in, or experienced in where registration does not support the stronger term.
• Check every service page heading. A heading naming a discipline in the form of a title can read as a specialist claim on its own.
• Review the species listed across your site and profile, and confirm the clinical team is content to accept out-of-hours presentations for each.
• If your hours show 24 hours or you carry an emergency category, make sure the full emergency arrangements are published and reachable from the profile.
• Look at any price list showing veterinary medicines and check every product in the category is presented with equal prominence.
• If you are a UK practice in a group, check whether your ownership is clearly identified online, since that becomes a requirement rather than a courtesy.