March 18, 2020
In the wake of COVID-19, we recognize each of you may be feeling concerned about the changes veterinary hospitals are implementing to services for the treatment and care of your beloved pets. We want to assure you that we are taking measures to slow the spread of COVID-19, while doing our best to support the needs of our clients and patients, and keep everyone safe during this outbreak.
At this time, we have put increased safety measures in place for the welfare of our staff, clients and the general public. We have increased our sanitation efforts in the clinic and are continuing to be diligent about disinfection of contact points. We are working to improve social distancing by implementing measures to reduce the need for in person contact, while still providing care for our valued clients and patients
We want to inform you that both of our regular doctors and several staff members are away due to self-quarantine related to travel, illness in close family members or some mild symptoms in ourselves that we feel warrant precautionary self-isolation measures.
What does this mean for you and your pets? For the next 1-2 weeks we will be short staffed, but thankfully we do have Dr. Ivan helping this week to see urgent cases.
Going forward to help improve social distancing in the clinic:
- We will be limiting access to the clinic to staff and medical appointments. We are closing our waiting rooms such that appointments will be admitted right from your vehicle. When you arrive for your appointment, please call the front desk at 519-203-2000 to notify us of your arrival.
- We will see sick patients and emergencies as staffing permits. Please call ahead to discuss your concerns with a staff member. An appointment time can then be booked and a team member will go over appointment details with you.
- Vaccination visits will be screened for timing and booked in accordance.
- We will ask you questions about your health status or previous history of out of country travel, screening each person that has an appointment to help keep sick people or people with travel risk factors out of the clinic. We will come up with individualized solutions for people that do not pass the screening so that we can still provide appropriate care for their pets, our beloved patients.
- We will be working towards providing some appointments through telemedicine, where applicable.
- We require 24 hours notice via telephone to fill any food or medication purchases. Please contact us by 11:00 am. At this time, we cannot guarantee a time for fulfillment. We will have you prepay on the phone and will notify you as soon as your purchase is ready for pick up or delivery.
- We request that all payments are made electronically to decrease the handling of cash.
- If you need to pick anything up (prescriptions, food, over the counter products), we ask that you call ahead so that we can get it ready for you and deliver it to your car, if needed. Please be advised that while our couriers and postal service are running, there are delays and we cannot guarantee timely delivery of orders.
- We have a greeter at our door who will bring you any food or medication you may need for your pet.
- With heartworm testing season looming, we will be working on protocols to ensure that we can test everyone in a timely fashion, while still working on maintaining increased social distancing for as long as is needed. More information on this topic will follow.
Our goal during this challenging time is to help look after the safety of our human population and decrease the risk to the vulnerable populations in our communities, while also staying true to our mission to provide loving health care for our furry family members.
Sincerely,
The Main Street Vet Services Team
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March 16, 2020
To our valued clients,
With the recent escalation of the COVID-19 virus, we want to assure you that we are taking measures to do our part to slow the spread of this virus. We are rigorously following infection prevention, control and associate hygiene best practices in our hospital, increasing both the frequency and scope of hospital cleaning and disinfecting to help ensure both clients and associates are kept safe. As well, any team member who is not feeling well understands that we fully support them staying home.
As of today, we will be limiting appointments over the next two weeks but will attempt to see pets in need of care where possible. We are available by phone and email during our regular business hours for telemedicine services, and we will attempt to fill medication requests and URGENT food/supply orders where possible. We will keep you updated on any changes to these current decisions, should they arise.
If you have travelled in the last 2 weeks outside of Canada and have respiratory symptoms or anyone in your household is feeling unwell with a cough, fever, runny nose, etc. please call ahead and we will arrange how best to deal with each situation on a case by case basis.
If your pet is in immediate distress, or if you have an urgent health concern, please contact the London Regional Veterinary Emergency Clinic at 519-432-3300.
We appreciate everyone’s help during this uncertain time and are sorry for any inconvenience that this may cause. We are hoping to be back to our regularly scheduled services soon however, we must do our part to protect both our team and client’s health by ensuring we minimize chances of virus spread.
If you have any questions or concerns that you wish to discuss, please contact our office during regular business hours at 519-203-2000 or [email protected].
Sincerely,
The Main Street Vet Services Team
