Harvested: A Max Boucher Mystery (Max Boucher Mysteries Book 1) by Troy Lambert

Author:Troy Lambert [Lambert, Troy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Unbound Media, LLC
Published: 2019-03-14T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fourteen

Not averse to technology, Max jumped right in. Or tried to.

He rapidly discovered he had a lot to learn about the medical field, even in the world of veterinary medicine.

He also learned that people were more serious about their dogs than he ever had been, maybe to his detriment.

People had insurance for their dogs, very similar to the health insurance they had for themselves. It not only covered major medical, but covered wellness visits, teeth cleaning, and other routine exams, in some cases even included grooming.

There were pet chiropractors, specialty surgeons, DNA labs, breeding consultants, and more.

The business was huge.

Not only that, but there had been major strides in pet medicine directly related to progress in human medicine. Hip and knee replacements were common, and an up and coming trend was organ transplants.

Max was amazed, yet strangely pleased. Even growing up, he’d always thought of pets like family.

Hell, sometimes they were even better than family.

The EMR system was elaborate and filled with details. Even though not every vet had adopted it, if Dr. Gamble was to be believed, there were over 7500 dogs listed in Seattle alone. The records from her office contained nearly 400 animals, over half of them dogs.

He was investigating a couple dozen missing from Queen Anne.

The doctor’s notes were often extensive. Pet diet, habits, where they walked, and even where they lived.

He found they were not that easy to navigate. You almost had to know the system to find the relevant information.

The data was not available online, and local copies would be the only way to get it. Vets were not yet harvesting the power of cloud computing, but according to Jerri it might be just around the corner. Because of her back up, she could warn the owners of her patients. She could let other vets know about the theft and tell them to be vigilant about their records.

Max learned all this, and more, in a few short hours.

The most significant find was how inefficient the national database was.

Placing chips in animals and adding the data to a national list helped vets find dogs and return them to their owners. But there was no way to search the database for dogs reported missing. Numbers were solid for dogs found, and some information could be assumed from that, but nothing definitive.

“Not all owners report dogs missing to vets and local clinics. Many just check local shelters and dog catchers. Essentially law enforcement. When a vet reunites a dog and its owner, it is often luck more than anything else,” Dr. Gamble explained.

“Hell, I didn’t even know this system existed.” Max said.

“Public education has been poor,” she said. “Because the system is ineffective. Of course, a big reason it is ineffective is because the public doesn’t know about it. Even when a dog is reported missing to a vet, they don’t always input the data right away. Runaways and hit and run situations are all too common. It is kind of like the electronic medical records system.

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