WVH is making plans to once again offer face-to-face appointments! We will also continue to provide curbside care appointments for those clients that prefer curbside. Our goal is to accommodate everyone's preferences and safety concerns as we navigate through COVID-19 variants and the end of this pandemic.
We envision a hybrid system where clients have the choice to be in person for wellness appointments, sick pet appointments and new patient appointments. In addition, we will continue to offer curbside care for those clients that prefer.
Curbside care will continue for ALL technician appointments, surgery check-in, surgery discharge, drop-off appointments, specimen drop-offs, and medication and food pick up. We have designated parking for curbside appointments so check in is more efficient and those appointments will be separate from our in person appointments.
ALL appointments will continue to call in for check-in from their cars versus clients coming in to the reception area. For those clients coming in for appointments, staff will escort you and your pet in for your visit. For those clients doing curbside, we will be using our back entrance to escort your pet in for their appointment.
Reception will remind you of our new options and protocols when you call to make your appointment. We are using the CDC guidelines for vaccination rates of 70% in Washtenaw County for guide us on when we are able to start our hybrid system. We will announce our start date via a clinic wide email as soon as we have it determined. When coming into the clinic, masks will not be mandated for those that are vaccinated. We encourage clients to wear a mask if you are not vaccinated in order to protect yourself and our staff. We also ask that you limit your in person visits to one person per appointment. Euthanasia appointments will be except from the one person per appointment policy.
During the pandemic, it has been very challenging to navigate seeing all of our patients in a timely manner and without extensive need to send patients to the emergency services. We have had an increased demand in appointments with shortages in staffing and time. I want to personally thank all of your for your patience, understanding and continued patronage during a very difficult year. We have been very blessed to be one of the few veterinary hospitals that continued to work throughout the pandemic without quarantines or forced closures.
