PWAH COVID-19 UPDATES (01/06/2021)
Dear Pine Woods Animal Hospital Clients and Friends:
Due to COVID-19 and the need to keep our clients and staff safe and healthy, we are currently limiting our practice to curbside veterinary services. With this, we continue to:
- Restrict client access to the animal hospital by utilizing “curb-side” service.
- We are limiting one client per patient for those animals that require their human present (in consideration of euthanasia).
- For all appointments, we ask that you call us when you arrive at our parking lot, or if you do not have a cell phone, before you leave home. When you have arrived- we will take a triage over the phone and meet you in our vestibule entry to the hospital where we will take the patient inside for an examination. We will be able to discuss what we are seeing, diagnosing, recommending and prescribing, as well as any estimates over the phone with you as we are conducting the exam.
– In case of an ongoing crisis or emergency with your pet (respiratory distress, active seizure, trauma etc), please come in immediately with the patient.
-If you are expecting a phone call from us, it may come from a cell phone number that may be blocked as we anticipate using multiple cell phones for our increased communication needs.
-We encourage medication requests to be processed through our online pharmacy- Vetsource which will be shipped directly to you. Alternatively, you can pay a $9 shipping fee to have medications shipped from Pine Woods.
-If you are sick with a fever or cough, or if you or an immediate family member have tested positive for COVID-19; or if you have traveled out of state or to a CDC high-risk zone in the last 3 weeks, please have someone else bring your pet in if he/she needs to be seen. Please let us know if this is not possible and your pet needs to be seen urgently – we will further advise.
-Thus far, there is no clear evidence that pets can be infected or transmit the virus. However, we do recommend that pet-owners who have documented COVID-19 infections check the AVMA and CDC websites for up-to-date recommendations about interacting with pets.
-These are unprecedented and constantly changing times, please be patient with us as we are navigating through this uncharted territory together. Please stay tuned for updates as everything evolves. We are truly sorry for any inconvenience this may cause.
The doctors and staff at Pine Woods Animal Hospital
Stay safe, healthy, and wash your paws
New York State Veterinary Medical Society: Why Can’t I Come In With My Pet? Curbside Check-in During COVID-19.
We understand that you would like to be with your pet in the examination room
We enjoy having you there too. It’s much easier for us to talk to you directly about your pet’s health.
However right now we are required to follow guidelines issued by New York State that state “Curbside intake and pickup of animals should be used, wherever practical, to minimize the number of clients in waiting areas and exam rooms.” Although that creates a lot of extra work for our staff, we are committed to complying with the NY State safety guidelines during the COVID-19 crisis, and to protect our clients’ health and safety.
Why does NY State have such restrictive guidelines for animal hospitals?
The NY State government has put detailed guidelines in place for all businesses, not just veterinarians. For example, medical facilities are required to screen patients before admitting them into the facility.
Are these still necessary? Restrictions are lifted on other things.
By July 2020, restrictions like curbside check-in have helped reduce the number of people diagnosed with COVID-19 in New York State down from over 10,000 a day to below 1,000. At the same time we have seen infections rise dramatically in other states who had fewer restrictions. The government has lifted restrictions where it is essential to get other parts of the economy restarted, but we don’t expect to see change for a while on safety measures like curbside check-in that have been seen to be effective.
Let’s make this work together
Curbside check-in is inconvenient for you and creates a lot of extra work for our staff. It’s hard on all of us. We don’t get to see you like we used to. But let’s work together to make your visit as easy as possible, using our curbside visit protocols.
