Well, last week sure was a long year! But we got through it and it will serve as a good practice run for the next few weeks (months?!) of our new version of normal. Things are likely to worsen significantly in the coming days, and y’all should try to stay vigilant with your hygiene, stay physically distant (but not socially so) and make sure to pay close attention to your body to recognize if and when you start to become ill to protect those around you. No matter who you are or what your story is, we hope that you are truly taking this pandemic stuff seriously and playing your part to “flatten the curve.”
We made bold moves last Monday that were eventually echoed by most other veterinary facilities by the end of the week. We hope that as we go along, we can continue to be an example for other practices around us of how to provide our essential care to our community in a safe and effective way. So, this week will see some small changes to our workflow that we put into place a week ago. By the way, Alicia Pet Care Center is not only a pillar of the community but is considered an essential business as we are an important branch of the public health apparatus in our area. We will remain open for you and your pets!
We will be continuing to see cases at Alicia Pet Care Center. Our #physicaldistancing compliant workflow basically means that our clients wait in their vehicles while all the heavy lifting happens in the animal hospital with our team (who is also practicing distancing as much as feasible). We will communicate with our clients via phone or FaceTime and will process payment without the need for you to touch anything. The client response to this move has been excellent and we actually think that the efficiency of this workflow is moderately higher than the previous in-person style we have all become used to over the years.
We continue to offer our new telemedicine service which has been rated excellent by the clients that have taken advantage of it. This kind of appointment allows for you to not leave your home and to get valuable advice and planning to resolve the issue at hand. We really want to encourage the early embracing of this type of appointment as we would love to have the caseload to allow for one of our doctors to work on a regular basis to be able to offer this type of service. Again, if testing or treatments are recommended, you will be instructed to go to APCC to have staff enable these steps via our low-touch care outlined above.
We have included in this update a coupon that can be used for discounted wellness screenings that we mentioned last week. While we are encouraging appointments to be prioritized to patients that have an illness, we can perform many more technician appointments than doctor appointments. That means that you can still support your favorite, independently-owned, local animal hospital and all of the team that relies on the continued flow of business. To that end, we are also happy to offer gift certificates for future care that so many of you have asked about or suggested. We are even gonna offer an incentive with it: each $100 invested will turn into $110 worth of credit with no limit on your investment. See the details below on these incentives.
Lastly, I want to share some of my thoughts and observations of our previous economic downturns. This is gonna suck for a lot of us. We will probably all be affected by this in some way, and we should have an understanding that we are not alone in this. We should have empathy for others and assume the best intent from our fellow humans during this stressful time. We should also prepare now for what might be coming for us. This is one of those times that you should really self-reflect and make sure that you have considered getting pet insurance. We saw many clients struggle with this during the so-called Great Recession and the negative effect it had on their pets. Get your insurance now, knowing that it will save you from making horribly difficult decisions with your pet’s future care when the inevitable issue arises. We suggest this plan in particular: https://www.petinsurance.com/bestpetinsuranceever_fb.aspx
We are with you in this. We plan to be one of the few safety nets locally that remain intact for your family. These times are not what we wanted but it is what our career paths and training have led us to and we will do our best with our increased role in taking care of your babies. We feel your appreciation and have loved the notes of encouragement we got last week! Keep it coming because these are challenging times for us and we crave your gratitude. In fact, since you are so bored at home, why not post a positive review on Google or Yelp that you have procrastinated about all this time? If there is anything that you need, please make sure to communicate with us and we will do our best to accommodate your special needs.
Find your zen and wash your hands,
Matthew Wheaton D.V.M
Owner, Chief of Staff
About The Author
Dr. Matthew Wheaton, Owner & Chief of Staff | I was born in Newport Beach and raised in Laguna Beach with 7 brothers and sisters and a constant crew of pets. My Dad owned Corona Del Mar Animal Hospital for about 25 years then took a break of about 5 years before opening Aliso Beach Animal Clinic in South Laguna. I ended up following my father’s footsteps in more ways than one. After just 3 years of undergraduate work, at my Dad’s alma mater, UC Davis, my application for veterinary school was accepted, making me one of the 5 youngest members of my class.
Learn more about Dr. Wheaton on the “Meet Our Doctors” page.