Anne Dixon picks up Ginger at Cherrydale Veterinary Clinic curbside service on April 24. Photo by Shirley Ruhe.
Dr. Farid Boughanem says Cherrydale Veterinary Clinic now has established curbside service for your pet. He says the customer waits outside with their pet and their cell phone by their side until the pet’s appointment time.
The customer calls and tells the clinic who they are, what kind of car, and the technician comes and picks up the pet. This eliminates contact with the staff inside, protecting both the customer and the staff. When the appointment is over, the staff communicates the recommendations to the pet’s owner.
Boughanem adds it is also easier for the animals since Cherrydale acquired the building next door. There is no waiting period for anxious animals to sniff the new smells around the waiting room, checking out the the other unfamiliar pets nearby. Now there is no interaction among animals. The kennels and waiting room are in the new space, and there have been more examination rooms added to the original space.
Before the pandemic was announced they had discussed a contingency plan, Boughanem says, and it was put in place when the pandemic was announced on March 13. Their biggest fear was if a team member got sick, it would be a challenge to shut down the clinic for two weeks for self quarantine of everyone. So he divided the staff into three separate independent teams or clusters that would not enable them to interact. Each team has doctors and staff to run the clinic. Each of these clusters has about ten people including the vets and support staff.
Then “we crossed our fingers for the next two weeks. If one got sick, it would affect everyone.” Once they passed that time and were fortunate to have the clinic safe, they could use the new rotating staff system.
He says that the transition wasn’t as difficult for the clinic as for other businesses.
“Any medical facility by default sanitizes. So we did this routinely, and the changes we have made are not great. … Masks are mandatory. We wear gloves but they aren’t mandatory. We have medical-grade scrub that we use before surgery and it is now installed in every corner.”
Boughanem explains if you look at revenue “obviously by running with 30 percent of the staff at one time, it puts a lot of limitations so business has declined. Actually it’s interesting that what has surged is pet adoption.”
He says a common thought from clients is that everybody is at home; kids are home from college, and they feel it is the best time to adopt a puppy.
He adds for every five pets adopted three are puppies and two are cats.
He muses people are still coming to the vet in these interesting times. They do ask questions about the transfer of coronavirus from pets to humans. He says fortunately people around here are well educated.
“There is no evidence that coronavirus can be transmitted from pets to humans. The few cases [of pets] that have come back positive are all in households where the owners were sick.” He adds, “We suspect transmission goes from humans to pets so advise people who are infected to stay away from their pets.”
Boughanmen speculates that the employees are doing well like any group which has clear directions. They are limiting contact with the outside world and wear masks to enhance safety among each other. “We have a system that seems to be working.”
The clinic door opens and Ginger is returned by the technician to Clive Davies and Anne Dixon who have been waiting in the car.
“Did she squeal at the vaccination?”
“Not much.”