Why Emergencies are Longer

WHY IS MY PET’S EMERGENCY VISIT TAKING SO LONG?

Due to the pandemic, all of our NorthStar VETS locations have seen huge patient surges due to family veterinarians with limited hours or other emergency hospitals diverting patients. As in human medicine, our facilities triage patients according to an assigned degree of urgency based on wound, illness, or trauma. The higher degree of urgency, the quicker a patient is admitted. While this can be frustrating, it helps our ER staff assist those requiring immediate treatment faster and even saves lives.

Reasons Why You May Be Experiencing a Long Wait Time:

• Large volume of cases overall increases client wait times.
• Socially distanced appointments take longer to navigate. These challenging precautions keep all of our staff, clients, and pets safe.
• Critical patients take priority and require immediate refocused attention of staff.
• A major influx of phone calls causes longer hold times. We apologize for any inconvenience.
• Diagnostic work-ups and tests (blood work, X-rays, and ultrasounds) take time to process.
• Backlogs in our Pharmacy Department also cause discharge delays.

Behind-the-Scenes Challenges Require More Time To:

• Check-in/check-out patients
• Review test results
• Discuss pet exam findings to the pet parent
• Explain/demonstrate patient discharge instructions
• Traffic and schedule follow-up appointments
• Fill or refill patient prescription(s)
• Process payments

What Hasn’t Changed Is Our Absolute Commitment To You And Your Pet. We Are Doing Our Best To Serve You 24/7, But We Need Your Help!

• One masked family member per pet may enter our facility.
• Please adhere to our corporate policies and COVID social distancing protocols for trouble-free service.
• Please bring patience, kindness and good energy to your conversations with our: Customer Service Representatives, technicians, and emergency doctors.
• Allow ample wait times for physical exams, patient work-ups, prescriptions, discharge instructions and follow-up paperwork.

Read the flyer: Why are ER Visits Taking so Long?