The center's Anniston location, first accredited in 2004, passed the American Animal Hospital Association's re-accreditation process in June. The Jacksonville location received initial accreditation at the same time.

The initial AAHA accreditation, which took Animal Medical Center one year from application to finalization, is a stringent voluntary evaluation process. Animal hospitals are checked against more than 900 medical services standards, including urgent care, examination facilities, surgery, infection control, patient care, medical records and client service.

AAHA's mission, according to its Web site, is to raise the bar of veterinary excellence.

Meeting the standards has resulted in noticeable changes in client care, said Brooke Nelson, administrative assistant for the facility.

“We have grown tremendously,” Nelson said, and credits the goal of AAHA accreditation with that growth. Under AAHA guidelines the staff monitors pets constantly when waking up from anesthesia. They monitor pain medication levels more closely, she said.

Many animal hospitals do not follow such standards, which seem to approach those of human patient care.

Nelson said not having the accreditation does not mean a veterinarian is not good. “We've just chosen to purposely raise our standards,” she said.

Just 12 percent of all small animal practices in the U.S. have been granted accreditation. Initial accreditation is valid for a two-year period. After that, each term lasts three years before re-evaluation is necessary.

Dr. William Russ Simpkins, whose Cheaha Animal Hospital in Oxford is not AAHA accredited, agrees the standards benefit hospitals and ultimately pets and owners because they are held to a higher level of care.

“An AAHA hospital has lots of responsibility,” he said. “In the 1970s there were many mixed animal practices (those serving both large and companion animals) that AAHA would have said no to.”

Would he consider pursuing accreditation? His clients don't ask about it, he said.

“Really no one in the general public knows what the standards of care are with animals,” he said. “They treat it like a restaurant. Is it clean? Does it smell OK? Are the people nice?

“But AAHA accreditation is well within our reach. I don't know why I haven't thought of doing it. There's nothing I would not be very proud of in our clinic. Maybe now I will.”

Nelson said clients have noticed the changes in the care of their companions.

“They see the veterinary hospital raising the quality of medicine so their pet will live longer,” she said. “Clients appreciate that.”

Dr. Joe Ford of Hokes Bluff Veterinary Hospital calls AAHA an “elite” association, the true standard setter.

“If you travel Calhoun County and visit all the animal clinics, you would see an obvious difference,” Ford said. “AAHA sets the standards, from medical care to customer service to facility appearance.

“An AAHA-accredited facility would be obviously visible as a clinic that is above the others.”

Ford said he won't try for the accreditation, though. He said his building in Jacksonville never would qualify. “I'd have to tear it down and rebuild to meet the requirements,” he said.

He did have one word for Animal Medical Center: