Veterinary Urgent Care is currently evolving and is being modeled after human urgent care. It is intended to bridge the gap between primary care and emergency or specialty care. It typically serves the needs of pet owners when the primary veterinarian may be unavailable or the pet has no primary veterinarian.. For many, the pet does not appear to be experiencing a life-threatening emergency. However, the urgent care facility should be prepared and equipped to stabilize any pet presenting for care if they are the closest initial care available. Once stable the pet can be referred for further treatment if needed
As the field evolves, some confusion is inevitable, especially when the term Urgent Care is used by many to describe services they are already providing within their existing practice. This is compounded by the fact that Urgent Care has been used interchangeably with Emergency Care in the past. Veterinary Urgent Care is much different from Emergency Veterinary Care. Emergency Facilities typically hospitalize overnight and perform major surgery. Hospitalized patients and surgery, as well as a higher caseload of life-threatening emergencies tends to drive up costs. Care is less focused on the less serious and wait times are increased as the more serious are triaged to the front of the line.
Currently, PriorityVet is the only stand alone, independently owned veterinary practice in the nation that provides exclusively urgent care services . PriorityVet is proud to be the only bonafide Veterinary Urgent Care facility; that is, we do not provide routine or preventative care nor are we affiliated with any practices that do. Similar to others we do not hospitalize overnight or perform major surgery. This means that we focus on the urgent care needs of pets without distraction or delay. For you, this expedites your pets care, keeps our fees down and ensures that world class urgent care is provided. For your veterinarian, this means that PriorityVet has no regular clientele, though many people return for urgent care services. This gives your veterinarian the full confidence that your pet will only receive the necessary care for its illness. Essentially, PriorityVet becomes an extension of your veterinarian’s hours and services.