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Small Animal Teaching Hospital Closings and Appointment Limitations

The Small Animal Veterinary Teaching Hospital strives to offer the best possible care for all existing and new patients. Unfortunately, in order to achieve this goal, we must occasionally limit the number of cases admitted, resulting in extended wait times for regular appointments. Less frequently, we must also temporarily close a service’s receiving schedule completely for short periods of time. In the event of a closing or extended wait, alternate referral institutions may be obtained from the Small Animal Referral Coordinators as well as telephone consultations with our specialists.

There can be a variety of reasons for closing receiving for a particular service including facility limitations such as limited number of oxygen cages, overly full case loads, and faculty attendance at national specialty meetings, which is considered important to ensure that our faculty stay at the cutting edge of their disciplines. As you may know, some of the services offered at the UGA Veterinary Teaching Hospital are staffed by 2 or fewer faculty members. Larger services have the ability to rotate out to ensure coverage while their colleagues attend functions away from campus, making a complete shutdown less likely.

While we do make every effort to accept all critical care cases to our facility, we are limited by staffing, teaching obligations, board certification examinations, and routine and emergency caseloads. Again, our primary concern is to provide optimum care for patients presenting to our facility. In the event that a service reaches its caseload capacity, we must, unfortunately, temporarily close emergency receiving for that service until the caseload returns to a manageable number. This does not usually exceed 1-2 days. We appreciate being your first choice in these situations and our referral coordinators will happily assist you in determining the receiving status. Our referral coordinators will also offer you alternate referral options or telephone consultations with our specialists if we are unable to provide the critical care your patient requires.

We appreciate your dedication to the Veterinary Teaching Hospital and welcome your input on our policies and procedures. Please direct comments to the chiefs of staff; Dr. Karen Cornell for surgery services and Dr. Stephen Hernandez-Divers for medical services. These individuals may be reached through the Small Animal Hospital Referral Coordinators at 800.861.7456 or through the Small Animal Medicine & Surgery Department at 706.542.9384.