A 1-year-old North Carolina general practice will more than double its office hours and staffing when it evolves into a 24-hour-a-day emergency hospital.
Oak Heart Veterinary Hospital at South Saunders, part of the Vets Pets network, expects to unveil the transformation in the summer of 2021.
“Our flagship hospital at South Saunders has become a landmark for this area,” said Oak Heart veterinarian George Ghneim, DVM, MPVM, Ph.D. “We want to provide really high-quality veterinary care and customer service to the area. Adding 24-hour emergency services gives the local community something that wasn’t readily available.”
The South Saunders hospital is one of three Oak Heart practices in Raleigh. Vets Pets’ other clinics, nearly two dozen of them, are spread across eastern North Carolina and the Triangle region.
Opening the emergency hospital won’t require a building expansion.
“We planned for this possibility and left approximately 1,700 square feet of unused space, so we will not need to add to the footprint of the existing facility,” a Vets Pets spokesperson said. “[We] will need to fit up some of the vacant space and potentially reconfigure a small portion of the existing space.”
Also requiring time is the need to hire twice as many team members — the head count now stands at 17 — and the purchase and installation of more medical equipment.
Oak Heart Veterinary Hospital at South Saunders, which debuted in October 2019, is currently open 55 hours a week, from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday and 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday.
The practice also offers boarding, day care and grooming services.
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