April 2020
CVCA Response to COVID-19 - Essential Service with Compassion, Excellence, and Integrity
What does it mean to be an essential service?
Veterinarians take an oath to protect the health of the public and to promote animal wellness. Because caring for pets is crucial to the well-being of humans, we are listed as an essential service and continue to treat pets with heart disease.
When should I make an appointment with CVCA?
If your veterinarian has recommended a cardiac evaluation, he or she is concerned your pet may have a significant heart problem. Sadly, pets show very few signs of heart disease prior to congestive heart failure so that is why we are still working. If your pet is already a patient of CVCA and has been diagnosed with significant heart disease, it is important that we continue to see your pet. That being said, we recommend you stay home as much as possible and closely follow state and federal guidelines. CDC Guidelines Maryland Guidelines Virginia Guidelines Kentucky Guidelines Texas Guidelines
Who should postpone their CVCA appointment?
Any clients who are sick and showing signs of COVID-19 or have been exposed to a person with COVID-19, we ask you to stay home and reschedule your appointments. Clients seeing us to clear pets for breeding, we ask you to postpone that evaluation so we can limit our services to essential cases only.
What hours are we open?
Our hours may vary by location in the coming weeks, so please check our website and Facebook page for regular updates. In the event one of our team becomes ill, we may close an individual office to appropriately sanitize and quarantine based on current state, and federal guidelines.
What is "Curbside Service"?
In keeping with the veterinarian oath to protect the health of the public and to promote animal wellness, we have implemented “curbside” service. Here’s how it works:
- Owners fill out the online Schedule An Appointment form prior to their appointment.
- Upon arrival, owners call the office to provide the parking spot and vehicle info.
- A CVCA team member will come and receive the patient keeping social distance.
- We will gently bring the patient in and carefully evaluate their heart condition.
- Let us know if the patient has food allergies because treats are usually involved.
- The patient is returned to the owner.
- The cardiologist calls the owner to discuss the results.
- We send an email to the owner and the primary care veterinarian that same day that includes a complete description of the results.
- Check out the complete CVCA Client COVID-19 Protocols Infographic
Do I really have to wait in my car during my pet’s CVCA visit?
Yes! No exceptions due to the safety of everyone until the CDC and other regulations change.
What else are we doing to keep our team safe and healthy?
- We only come to work if we are feeling healthy.
- We follow CDC and FDA sanitary guidelines including thorough cleaning of surfaces as well as washing/sanitizing our hands after every patient.
- We wear DIY masks (as available) in the echo room to minimize our ability to infect each other.
- We try to maintain our mental health with a sense of humor and gratitude for the little things as we all struggle to remain calm during this stressful time.