Most area veterinarians are still only offering curbside care. Are we not aware of what the rest of the businesses are doing? Are we being unreasonable? We can now enter shops at the mall, eat inside a restaurant, or pick up a cup of coffee or sandwich while purchasing gasoline for our car. But we cannot yet be with our pets inside the veterinary hospital. Pet owners still need to wait in their cars. It does not matter if the pet is coming in for routine care, emergency care, or even for that final goodbye.
How Curbside Care Came of Age
In Pennsylvania, the list of essential service providers included veterinarians, by a special exception in the original Covid-19 shut down orders. Like everyone else, we were very concerned about risk of exposure to this awful disease. We donned what protective gear we had left in the hospital. We began conserving our limited and, to this date, non-replenishable supplies. To reduce our close contact with an increasing stream of pet owners, we began to offer curbside veterinary service.
When owners arrive in our parking lot, we ask them to telephone us. Over the telephone, we take a medical history on your pet. We get a telephone number and get a description of the car you are driving. One of our staff members comes to your vehicle and collects your pet. Then off they go into the hospital while you wait. Pet owners and doctors rarely, if ever, speak face to face. Support staff members “social distance” and minimize time conversing by your car.
Even With Curbside Care, Pet Owners Still Potentially Put Us at Risk
Each client is a potential risk of exposure of our staff to Covid 19. We cannot control what our clients do in their personal lives. Any client could be an asymptomatic carrier, or worse yet, denying their own health concerns in order to have their ill or injured pet receive veterinary attention. Such is the love of a pet – While we certainly don’t condone it, we get that.
Not all pet owners wear masks or wear them properly when talking with our staff. Some need our staff to help them remove a pet from inside their vehicle. Several pet owners have forgotten or do not own cell phones, requiring doctors to step outside to converse with them about their pet’s health. Carrying on conversations outside often requires distances less than 6 feet so all parties can adequately hear each other.
Unfortunately, it only takes one exposure of one staff member to potentially infect our entire staff. The inability to always social distance inside the hospital means we need to be extra cautious. One key to minimizing our potential exposures to Covid19 is continuing curbside care.
Social Distancing Inside a Veterinary Hospital Is Often Not Possible.
In many businesses, social distancing can be readily practiced. One person simply steps back while the other completes a task. However, because our patients are often very wiggly and over enthusiastic, it may take one or two assistants to help a veterinarian examine a patient. One trained staff member often needs to hold a patient while another administers a vaccine or medical treatment. Keeping in mind that our patients range in size from a 3″ long kitten to a 3′ long Great Dane, there is little room for social distancing. We try to minimize the time we are in close proximity, but a 6 foot distance is often impossible.
Surgery has its own unique set of limitations. The surgeon and board certified technician must remain in relatively close proximity throughout the procedure. The technician is monitoring and regulating the anesthesia, taking patient vitals throughout the procedure, and assisting the surgeon as needed. During the pre- and post-operative periods, the veterinary assistants are also hands on with patient preparation and recovery, helping the technician and surgeon in multiple patient handling tasks. In surgery, the exposure time to each other is longer than CDC recommendations, as well as the distances between people being necessarily too short.
Combine the limited ability to social distance inside the veterinary hospital with the limited availability of personal protective equipment. To this date, we have not been able to replenish our supplies of protective masks. “Disposable” is now often the new “reuseable”.
Why Are Veterinary Hospital Employees Uniquely Irreplaceable?
Most businesses require employees to be trained to a certain level of skill prior to turning them loose on the general public. Veterinarians and certified veterinary technicians are licensed professionals. They are in finite supply. In our hospital, even an unlicensed veterinary assistant trains for 6 months. Each person is uniquely capable and uniquely essential.
Unlike in many business, if our hospital loses just one employee to illness, the entire hospital is affected. With such long training requirements, we cannot readily replace even one lost employee. Unlike a store at the mall, a manufacturing facility, or food service provider, the potential pool of employees, especially those with experience in veterinary medicine, is very limited. It’s not that veterinary personnel are more important, it is just that we are a small community of uniquely trained individuals.
If one of our doctors becomes ill, the entire hospital would possibly come to a halt. Our doctors share support staff and alternate tasks throughout the day. If one doctor falls ill, it is likely the entire staff would need to quarantine and we would temporarily shut down. The impact on our ability to care for our patients would be devastating.
How Long Will We Remain Curbside?
Good question – and one not readily answerable. Curbside care will continue at our veterinary hospital until our doctors and staff feel it is safe to allow clients in the building. Better diagnostics, treatments and preventative vaccines for Covid-19 are on the horizon. We truly want you back inside with your pets. We miss all your smiling faces.