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Our Hospital

Our mission is to be Your Pet's Second Best Friend. We know your pet is a member of your family. We will treat you and your pet as we would wish to be treated. We will provide you with kind, courteous, informative care for your furry friend. All members of our hospital staff will treat you and your pet with respect and kindness at all times.

 

Our mission is to provide the very best medical care for your pet, using modern equipment and advanced techniques with a personal, caring touch. Dr. Steve Zucker, Dr. Karin Patterson and our other hospital veterinarians are committed to providing the very best primary veterinary care possible, but we are glad to refer to specialists when needed. 

Modern veterinary medicine offers many choices. We pledge to spend sufficient time to educate you so you can understand your pet's medical condition and make informed decisions about your pet's medical care. Each family is different and each pet is unique. We will get to know you and your pet so we can provide the best care for your family. 

We work hard to keep our hospital welcoming, comfortable, meticulously clean and functional. We are proud of our facility and we are always happy to provide interested clients a hospital tour (so long as surgeries are not in progress) including a tour of the "behind the double doors" areas that are generally off-limits to non-staff.  

 

Grounds

 

Animal Medical Center is nestled on over 4 acres of peaceful grounds right in the heart of Morgantown. Our small slice of heaven is just down the hill from the airport and moments from the Mileground. Feel free to take your dog on a walk on the grounds before or after your appointment! Our lovely shade trees and lots of grass allow for leisurely walks. Hospitalized and boarding dogs enjoy relaxing walks on our quiet grounds.  A shaded picnic table offers a nice lunch spot for staff members on pretty days and a resting spot for many clients as well. Getting in and out of your car feels safe and secure, as our parking lot is at the end of our long private driveway and so you are many yards away from the nearest road when you and your pet get out of the car.

 

Reception

 

The reception area is spacious and welcoming, allowing clients and their pets a comfortable environment to complete paperwork and await their appointment. Our professional health-care grade reception furniture is not only very comfy and sturdy enough for those pets who love to hop up to sit with their owners, but it is also very easily cleaned and sanitized to keep our patients and clients comfortable and safe from contagions and pet hair.  We schedule appointments carefully to minimize wait times. The vast majority of our appointments are seen within five minutes of the scheduled time and check-out rarely takes more than a couple minutes. We do our best to ensure clients are not kept waiting longer than absolutely necessary. Of course, it is the nature of veterinary medicine that an occasional emergency or unexpected medical complication might delay appointments, but we do our very best to make this a rare exception and will communicate with you when this is the case. While you are in the reception area, we hope that you will enjoy visiting with our wonderful receptionists and our chatty greeter, Fido, an African grey parrot.

 

Exam Rooms

 

Animal Medical Center has three exam rooms, with comfortable benches that provide enough room for both you and your pet to sit comfortably. Each exam room has a computer workstation. Our electronic medical records system allows us immediate access to your pet's entire medical record with just a few clicks and we enter medical records directly into the electronic medical record, so records are current and complete. Your children are always welcome at Animal Medical Center! We know how important is for you that they be comfortable and welcome when you need or want to bring them along to your pet's appointment. We offer visiting children a Kid's Kit with various activities and small gifts.

 

Pharmacy

 

Our pharmacy is fully stocked with appropriate medications for your pets and appropriate equipment for dispensing and compounding custom medications as needed. We also have separate storage space for the range of medical and related supplies that we stock.

 

Laboratory 

 

Excellent microscopes, centrifuges, blood analysis machines (hematology and chemistry analyzers) and dozens of other pieces of analytical equipment allow us to perform a wide range of important laboratory analyses in our own facility.

 

Radiology

 

Our x-ray machine, automatic film processor, dental x-ray and ultrasound equipment permit our doctors to perform a wide range of diagnostic imaging at AMC. The large x-ray machine and the processor are in an enclosed x-ray room to contain x-ray radiation.

 

Treatment

 

Our treatment room is often the busiest area of the hospital. In this large open working area, our medical team complete many procedures such preparing patients for surgery (placing catheters, clipping and cleaning surgery sites, etc.), drawing blood, clipping toenails, cleaning and suturing wounds, etc. Our main treatment table is a "wet" table which means it is essentially a large flat sink with a grate over the surface and a faucet with a sprayer (much like your kitchen sink sprayer). The wet table is handy for allows us to use the water to clean areas without soaking the patient (because the excess water immediately drains through the grate). When the wet function of the table isn't in use, a cover turns it into a normal exam table. Several "ICU" cages are in the treatment room for patients who need intensive monitoring. When not occupied with ICU patients, these cages are often used for pre-operative patients. Patients also recover from anesthesia under constant supervision in treatment until they are awake and stable enough to be moved to a cage or run in a regular ward.

 

Dental Center

 

Our dental equipment is centralized in the treatment area so that we are able to perform the entire dentistry procedure including dental x-rays in one location, without moving the patient. Since anesthetized animals can't "swish and spit", veterinary dentistry can be a wet and sometimes messy process. To contain the mess, we use our wet table in treatment as our dental table on surgery mornings. The wet table's grate and drain allow the excess water produced by our water-cooled equipment to drain out of their mouths without wetting (and cooling) the patient. A circulating hot water blanket under the patient, along with thick fleece blankets over the patient helps keep the patient warm during the procedure. Our dental x-ray is mounted in the treatment area adjacent to the wet table and the chairside dental x-ray developer is on an adjacent counter. Our dental x-ray viewer is mounted on another nearby wall. The portable dental cart is wheeled out from storage into the dental area on surgery mornings. A portable anesthesia machine and portable patient monitoring equipment complete the dental center.

 

Surgery

 

Our surgical suite is reserved for surgical procedures that require a sterile environment. Our surgical suite is complete with a fully adjustable v-shaped surgery table, surgery lights, x-ray viewer, patient warming equipment, anesthesia equipment, patient monitors and other needed equipment and supplies. During surgery, an assistant monitors the patient's anesthesia and vital signs while the doctor operates. 

 

Quiet Ward

 

Adjacent to our treatment area, we have a "Quiet Ward". This small ward provides a quiet haven for more fragile patients and for our quiet-loving cats and exotic pets. The Quiet Ward houses hospitalized and boarding cats in a bank of stainless steel cages. Exotic pets and birds in the ward generally stay in their own travel cages. Some of our smaller pre-surgical patients are also often housed here. We are able to control the temperature of this ward independently from the rest of the hospital, so we often make it extra warm for surgical or other fragile patients or for exotic pets who need extra heat.

 

Kennel

 

Our kennel houses boarding and stable hospitalized dogs. We have four spacious "big dog" runs with awesome "Kuranda" dog cots. These "chew-proof" dog beds are comfy cots and completely sanitizable. The kennel also has dozens of excellent stainless steel cages of various sizes to fit all of our smaller guests. All of our cages are fitted with custom grates that keep the patient elevated off the floor of the cage and out of any spilled water or urine if the unfortunate accident has occurred. Patients are also provided with blankets or other bedding to keep them cozy and comfortable. Our basic grooming services are provided in the kennel, using our bathing tub and various dryers and simple grooming equipment.

 

Isolation Ward

 

Protecting the health of patients and boarders in our hospital is of utmost importance. Our Isolation Ward protects patient health by allowing us to separate contagious patients from the rest of the population of the hospital. Isolation is reserved for patients who are, or who are suspected of being, contagious to other patients or people. This ward is designed to house patients with highly contagious illnesses such as parvovirus or leptospirosis. When highly contagious patients are in isolation, we use extreme caution and follow exacting procedures in handling the patient and all of their equipment to ensure that we do not contaminate any other part of the hospital or take the contagion to any other patient or boarder. The Isolation Ward is equipped with everything needed for the patient (laundry bin, trash bin, fluids, needles, syringes, sharps disposal, bedding, cleaning supplies, medications, gloves, etc.) so that items do not travel between Isolation and the rest of the hospital. Even the laundry from Isolation gets very special treatment -- it is always done last at the end of a shift and an empty hot water bleach sterilizing cycle is run through the washer after the load. Then the entire outside of the washing machine is disinfected! Severely soiled items are often simply discarded to reduce the opportunities for cross contamination. If Isolation is not being used for a known highly contagious patient, we may use it to provide a lower level of isolation, which we call quarantine. Quarantine is used to keep patients separate from other patients, either for their own protection or for an "unknown" possibility that this pet has a higher risk for carrying contagious illness because of an incomplete history of veterinary care to date (such as unvaccinated animals). New adoptive pets reside here during their 7 day quarantine period to protect them while their first vaccines take effect and to protect other patients and boarders in case the new adoptive pet is carrying an illness (like kennel cough or an upper respiratory illness) that is not yet symptomatic but could be contagious.

 

Thank you for coming along on our virtual tour! If you'd like a real tour of Animal Medical Center, please contact us to schedule a visit! 

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