How Healthcare Professionals Can Transition into Veterinary & Animal Health Roles

Healthcare Has More Lanes Than We Think

One of the biggest career mistakes healthcare professionals make isn’t a lack of skill—it’s a lack of awareness.

We get tunnel vision on hospitals, clinics, and traditional human-centered roles and forget that healthcare is much bigger than that.

Inside this ecosystem lives an entire subsector hiding in plain sight: animal healthcare.

And yes—some of us have furry coworkers barking at landscapers while we’re trying to work (which is exactly what my dog Cujo is doing right now 🐕).

I Might Be Aging Myself… But Pet Insurance Was NOT a Thing

I might be aging myself here, but I grew up with dogs—and I do not remember my parents having insurance for them.

That said, pet insurance actually dates back further than many realize. The first pet insurance policy in the U.S. was issued in 1982 for the famous TV collie Lassie. If you’re an ’80s baby or older, you know exactly who Lassie is 😄.

Fast forward to today, and pet insurance isn’t just common—it’s becoming expected. Some employers even include pet insurance as part of their benefits packages.

When I first saw that, I said: Wow.

So What Does That Mean for Career Professionals?

BOOM 💥 — job opportunities.

Because where insurance goes, administrative healthcare roles follow.

Pet insurance growth has created demand for:

• Veterinary medical billing
• Veterinary medical coding
• Revenue cycle management
• Claims review and processing
• Compliance and documentation support

Sound familiar? It should—because it mirrors what already exists in human healthcare.

If you’re curious what these roles look like in real time, you can explore healthcare-adjacent and animal health roles on the Blossom job board.

Animal Healthcare Is Still Healthcare

If you’ve ever reviewed your pet’s medical records and thought, “This looks familiar,” that’s because it is.

Veterinary hospitals use:

• Electronic medical records (EMRs)
• Medical terminology shared with human healthcare
• Documentation for diagnoses, labs, medications, and procedures
• Scheduling, compliance, and operational workflows

The biggest difference? Veterinary medicine doesn’t rely on ICD-10 and CPT in the same way.

But that does not mean your skills don’t transfer.

Who Sets Standards in Veterinary Health Information?

Unlike human healthcare—where organizations like AHIMA define national standards—veterinary healthcare relies on a network of professional organizations rather than a single governing body.

• Association for Veterinary Informatics (AVI) — Guides the profession in veterinary informatics, focusing on data standards, interoperability, AI, and information exchange to benefit both animal and human health.
• Veterinary Healthcare Management Association (VHMA) — Offers education, certification (CVPM), and resources for veterinary practice managers with a strong emphasis on operations and workforce strategy.
• American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) — Provides professional guidance for veterinary medicine, including expectations for medical records and documentation.
• American Animal Hospital Association (AAHA) — Accredits veterinary hospitals and includes standards related to documentation, compliance, and quality of care.

This decentralized structure is exactly why veterinary healthcare is innovating quickly—and why experienced healthcare professionals are in demand.

“Do I Need Animal Anatomy Training?”

This is one of the most common questions I get. The short answer is no.

Veterinary records rely on the same medical terminology you already understand. Labs are labs. Preventive care is preventive care.

If you can navigate a human EMR, you can learn a veterinary one.

Where the Hidden Opportunities Are

• 💫 Pet insurance companies
• 💫 Veterinary emergency and specialty hospitals
• 💫 Animal urgent care centers
• 💫 Diagnostic imaging and referral networks

Major Veterinary Hospital Groups Hiring Nationwide

• Banfield Pet Hospital (~1,000+ hospitals)
• VCA Animal Hospitals (~1,000+ hospitals)
• National Veterinary Associates (NVA) (~1,400+ hospitals worldwide)
• Ethos Veterinary Health (~140+ specialty & emergency hospitals)
• VetCor (~400+ hospitals)
• PetVet Care Centers (~420+ hospitals)
• Thrive Pet Healthcare (~360+ hospitals)
• Southern Veterinary Partners (SVP) (~300+ hospitals)
• Pathway Vet Alliance (~270+ hospitals)
• Mission Veterinary Partners (MVP) (~300+ hospitals)
• BluePearl Specialty & Emergency (~100+ hospitals)
• Plus dozens of additional regional groups

Veterinary Medical Coding: What You Should Know

Veterinary medical coding exists—but it looks different than human healthcare coding.

• Focused on data standardization, research, and quality improvement
• Uses SNOMED CT veterinary extensions and VeNom codes
• Relies heavily on AI, NLP, and free-text record analysis

As animal healthcare continues to scale, these roles will increasingly resemble data, analytics, and informatics positions found in human healthcare.

Other Roles Healthcare Professionals Can Pivot Into

• Medical record management
• Scheduling and care coordination
• Compliance and auditing
• Revenue cycle management
• Pet insurance operations
• Surgical coordination

If you’re positioning yourself for these roles, your resume needs to clearly translate your experience. Blossom helps professionals do exactly that: blossom-careers.com/resume

The Bigger Picture

Animal healthcare isn’t a side industry—it’s a rapidly expanding extension of healthcare as we know it.

Helping Cujo and his fur friends is meaningful. But so is helping yourself by expanding how you see your skills—and where they belong.

Career pivots don’t happen by accident. Inside your Blossom dashboard, you can map strategy, explore opportunities, and build a career that grows with the industry.