August 5th, 2020

Dear Client,
The vets and team at Chimney Hills Animal Hospital wanted to take a moment to reach out to you during these tumultuous times to offer our hand in partnership and ask for your help as we work together to care for your animal family. As essential service providers, we are happy to be here for you and your pet. Like most practices around the country, we are also experiencing phenomenally high demand. Home-bound people are adopting new pets and have time to pay close attention to the ones they have. They are catching problems early which makes us happy. However, this phenomenon has caused our schedule to be filled to over-capacity and our team to be spread thin as we try to help the most pets possible. It has also caused delays in being able to get pets seen as fast as normal. We just wanted you to know what it is like on our side of the exam table to help you plan accordingly.
First and most importantly, we understand! The constant disruption of our routine is taking a toll on us all and like everyone we are feeling the pain. It seems the news is all negative and the rules change daily. The world is being shaken to the core. We are mentally and quite often, physically exhausted. We are supposing you feel the same.
Sometimes we want to cry and other times shout in anger. Sometimes we want to go hide in the corner in fear for our family, our team, and our clients. 2020 so far has been a very hard year.
In the face of this pressure, at times individuals aren’t their normal pleasant selves. If you have experienced folks being more easily infuriated in your life perhaps you can relate.
The vast majority of our clients, like you, are wonderful, thoughtful, grateful and patient as we work through new COVID protocols and seemingly daily changes in workflow. For those, we are eternally thankful. If we could hug you, we would! A few others are enraged with the changes and restrictions on our availability and team safety protocols. Please know these changes and limitations frustrate us too.
We want to see you. We want to not wear masks. We want to shake your hand. We want our normal back too.

In recent days, exasperated clients have lost their tempers and accused us of not caring because we can’t get them in as fast as they desire. They have shouted at, demeaned, and threatened us in their annoyance with world circumstances we can neither control nor fix. Even though we are performing care the best we can, we have been verbally attacked and even threatened with physical harm. As COVID19 wears on this is becoming progressively worse and more frequent. Fear and frustration are driving this behavior but understanding that does not make it hurt us less.
Because of this, we are reaching out to you for support. When you visit our practice, we ask that you come knowing that we are doing our best and give us grace.

• The forms we ask you to fill out are for your benefit.  These forms help to expedite the appointments so that you are not waiting in your car as long.  Without these forms, your appointments will take approximately an extra 15 minutes, which means we have to limit our appointments even further, and it reduces our capability to see approximately 7 appointments a day.  By reducing the number of appointments we see in a day, this means we book further out, and may not be able to get you in for up to a week.  This is why having these forms filled out prior to your appointment is so important.  It lessens your wait time and allows us to see more patients.
• PLEASE remember to bring your mobile phone as it is the only way we will know you have arrived and how we will communicate with you in the parking lot.
• Bring something to do.  The typical visit will take a little bit longer than normal.
• Put our number in your phone so you won’t think we are spam when we call to ask questions.
• Follow the instructions we share when you call so that your visit is as seamless as possible.

When we all work together, we can help you best.
When you have a positive experience, it would mean so much if you would share kudos with our team and in reviews. Kind words and helping our patients are what keeps us going in these crazy days. The generous souls who send us cards or bring us food are our heroes. Thank you, a million times!
If you are unhappy, we do want to know so we can learn and improve, but please share your views in a calm and professional manner so we may address it and solve it if possible. We promise to listen.
Times are hard, but people don’t have to be. All we need to do is look at our pets to see
how love, kindness, and empathy makes the world better and model their behavior.
We really are in this together.
Thank you for your time and if you, like us, are considered an essential worker, we appreciate your service to our community.
Sincerely,
The team at Chimney Hills Animal Hospital

 

 

Updated April 28th, 2020

Our latest update:

As we continue to receive updates from both the Oklahoma Veterinary Medical Board and the Governor, we are changing and adapting our protocols.

We have been given the okay to resume performing all surgeries.  This means we can now schedule those dental cleanings, spays, neuters, and mass removals that we were previously having to postpone.  If you would like to schedule a surgery for your pet, please give us a call.

We will also be reopening our grooming soon.  We will add a post about it as soon as you can start calling to schedule those appointments.

While we rework our staffing schedule to adapt to the new changes, we will start scheduling nail trim and anal gland appointments as well.  We will have a limited number of spots daily for these appointments, and we will not be accepting these as “walk-ins”, so please make sure you call to schedule your pet if you need to get them in.

We are also asking at this time, that if you need to get in to be seen for anything that you call and schedule an appointment.  Having scheduled appointments allows us to properly sanitize between each patient.  If you show up without an appointment, if we are able to work you in, we will, but you may be asked to either schedule a time to come back or drop your pet off so we can work them in between appointments as soon as the Veterinarian has time.

At this time, with the risk still being present, we will continue to keep our lobby closed to clients until we feel it is safe to allow people back into the building.  We appreciate your continued patience and understanding as we operate in such a way that we can keep not only our staff, but our clients safe as well.  Please make sure when you visit, you have your phone with you as this is how we are communicating with our clients.  When you arrive for your appointment, we ask that you stay in your car and either call or text us, and we will let you know when we are ready to meet you in our entryway to bring your pet in.

If you would like to schedule an appointment, please call us at 918-481-1693.  Thank you for being so patient with us!

 

Updated April 14th, 2020

Our Latest Update:

Texting is now available!  You can text our normal business number.  If it is not an emergency situation we will get back to you as soon as possible.  We will also only be replying to text messages during our normal business hours.

We are limiting our Saturday hours to 8:00 am to 12:00 pm.  Due to limited staff, we will also be suspending our Saturday afternoon boarding pickups and drop-offs as well as any Sunday boarding pickups and drop-offs.  We are also suspending our grooming services at this time.  This includes appointments with the groomers, baths with the technician staff, nail trims, and anal gland expressions.

We understand that there may be other vet clinics and groomers that are still performing these services.  Based on the instructions from the Oklahoma Veterinary Medical Board, Governor Stitt, and to ensure the safety and health of not only our staff members but our clients as well, we are doing everything we can to limit contact with individuals by not performing non-emergent procedures.  This means that if it isn’t an emergency situation or something that could affect the overall health and wellbeing of your pet, we urge you to consider postponing these appointments.  Every individual you come in contact with has the potential to spread COVID-19, even if they aren’t exhibiting symptoms.  We love our clients and your pets, and we would hate to risk your safety and health at this time.

Surgical procedures will be assessed on a case by case basis.  We are limiting our surgical procedures to emergent procedures.  If delaying the procedure does not cause any harm or pain to the animal, then we will postpone these as well.  Again, we are doing this based on the instruction of the Oklahoma Veterinary Medical Board as well as Governor Stitt’s recommendation to halt all non-emergency procedures in order to preserve protective equipment for our human healthcare workers.  The majority of the protective equipment that we use is very similar if not the same that Human Healthcare workers are desperately in need of to keep themselves protected from COVID-19 while they are treating people who are sick.  By limiting our non-emergent procedures, we are leaving these items available to our human healthcare counterparts to keep everyone safe.

We are making these changes to try and do the best we can to keep everyone healthy and safe during these difficult times.  We appreciate your understanding and we can’t wait to go back to “normal” business protocols.  But in the meantime, stay safe and stay healthy!  We will see you on the other side!

 

March 24th Update at 3:00 pm

Our Latest Update:

Due to the increase in the number of positive cases, we are moving to a curbside only model for all appointments going forward.  We understand that times are stressful, and we want to do everything we can to help alleviate some of this stress.  We feel like implementing curbside appointments will be in the best interest of our client’s health and safety as well as the health and safety of our staff members.

Our first and foremost priority is to keep everyone safe and healthy.  So if you have experienced any symptoms in the past 24 to 48 hours.  Please call and reschedule your appointment for a minimum of two weeks out.  Symptoms include dry cough, shortness of breath, fever, tiredness.

What does this mean going forward?

When you schedule your appointment, we will ask for an email or text number to send you an online form that you can easily fill out.  Once completed, this form will be emailed to our front desk.  The links to these forms can also be found at the bottom of this page as well as pinned to the top of our Facebook page.

Next, we ask that all dogs are put on a leash, and all cats are in carriers for every appointment.  When you arrive for your appointment, we will have you call the clinic at 918-481-1693.  We are working on getting texting set up and will update when it is available.  We will then have a technician speak with you on the phone to verify any information we need or ask you any further questions we feel are necessary to get a full history on your pet.  We will then ask you to meet us in the vestibule.  At this time, we will put one of our slip leads on your pet and ask that you remove their collar and leash, and then ask that you return to your car.

What happens next?  The veterinarian will review the history form you previously filled out and then perform a full exam on your pet.  Once an exam has been performed, the veterinarian will call you with any recommendations for your pet.  Any diagnostics or treatment will be performed as approved.  When we have finished, the Veterinarian or Registered Veterinary Technician will call you again to go over any discharge instructions for your pet.  You will then speak with a receptionist who will take payment over the phone.  If you are paying with care credit, you will be able to visit the pay my provider link that is listed on our website at www.chimneyhillstulsa.com/payment-options  It will be the first link for care credit on that page, and the icon will say pay my provider.  You will then be emailed an invoice immediately following your visit.

We will then ask you to meet us in the vestibule again.  You will then put the leash and collar back on your pet as we remove the slip leash.  Within a few hours of your visit, you will receive a detailed report of your pet’s visit.

At this time, we will still be doing grooming appointments and boarding appointments.  For the time being, we will no longer be offering Saturday afternoon or Sunday pick up and drop off times for boarders.  These appointments will also be done curbside as well.  The boarding and grooming forms can also be found on our website on the COVID-19 update page, as well as pinned to the top of our Facebook page.

If you are in need of a prescription refill or need to pick up food, please call ahead so we can set aside your items.  When you arrive, please stay in your car and call us at 918-481-1693.  We will take payment over the phone, email you your invoice, and then bring your items to the car for you.  We also ask that you try to give us at least 48 hours’ notice for any refills of medications or food.  Some items are a little harder to get due to the current situation.  If you are able to wait for 4 or 5 days, we urge you to use our online pharmacy.  You can visit our online pharmacy at www.chimneyhillstulsa.vetsfirstchoice.com

We will no longer be scheduling appointments for nail trims or anal glands to help limit as much contact as we can.

We appreciate your understanding and cooperation as we implement these new policies and procedures.  This will go into effect starting Wednesday the 25^th.