COVID-19 Coronavirus: ARLINGTON HEIGHTS VETERINARY HOSPITAL’s Commitment to You

To our customers/clients,

Thank you for entrusting your business to ARLINGTON HEIGHTS VETERINARY HOSPITAL. There is no higher priority to ARLINGTON HEIGHTS VETERINARY HOSPITAL, than the health and safety of our customers and employees.

Despite the uncertainty of the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak, we at ARLINGTON HEIGHTS VETERINARY HOSPITAL are committed to delivering the same level of service excellence to our customers.

In response to the potential impacts of the coronavirus, we would like to share the steps we are taking to prepare and respond to this virus.

• Ensuring our team’s support: 
  • In order to support our team as well as our clients during this time we have asked high risk team members or team members who live with high risk people to stay home.  
  • As of now we realize your pet will have needs that are essential, therefore in order to support them during this time we are outlining how we will protect our team and you during this time.  In order to minimize the length of this letter non-essential procedures are listed below.
  • Spays
  • Neuters
  • Routine Dental procedures
  • Call in for vaccine protocols as some such as puppy and kitten vaccines as well as rabies vaccines are essential and should be scheduled.
  • Nail trims
     

    Ensuring quality of operations: 

     
  • If you have an emergency/appointment or question please call in, and a team member will walk you through our process to take care of your pet.

  An employee will come out and retrieve your pet and take them to the doctor.  At that time if you have questions for the doctor, we will set up a phone call in order to accommodate those questions.  We will also ask for payment during that phone call over the phone or we can bring out our mobile card reader to you in order to process payments.  We are also in the process of setting up a solution for clients that we have a Veterinary Client Patient Relationship (VCPR) with to talk with doctors via telemedicine, which is a platform where you can talk with a doctor directly through an app on your phone or desktop.             This solution will have multiple options to either set up a call, video conference, text message etc.  Through this platform the doctor will be able to help with many needs such as triaging an emergency, rechecks, non-threatening health issues, among other appointment options.  

 

Ensuring access to our products: 

 Medication Pickup: If your pet is on a medication or you need heartworm/flea and tick medications, we have multiple options to receive this medication. When you come to pick up the medication call and a team member will bring it out to you in the parking lot to limit exposure. At this time, we can also take payment through our mobile solution or we will ask you to give that information over the phone. If possible, we also have an online store where we can help you order the medications needed.  Please go to www.arlingtonheightsveterinaryhospital.com where we have a link to our online store.  

 

Ensuring workplace cleanliness and health:

 Cleaning Protocols: Exam Rooms: We will use a cleaning solution called KennelSol HC which the EPA has stated kills human coronaviruses.  See attached site: https://www.epa.gov/pesticide-registration/list-n-disinfectants-use-against-sars-cov-2  After each visit we now need to wipe down the table the chairs, counters, and the door handles on each side of the door.  Then we spray down that room with KennelSol and leave it vacant for 15 minutes so that the disinfectant can do it’s job.  Treatment area: Daily we should wipe down all surfaces using KennelSol Clean computers as this will be a major area where we will transmit any virus. Bathrooms:        We need to clean the bathrooms daily currently, wipe down all surfaces. Employees must wash their hands every time they use the restroom.   The entire facility will receive a deep cleaning as often as possible; this is to ensure the health and safety of those clients that do need to enter the facility as well as the health of our team.  

 

Ensuring best practices:  Centers for Disease Control’s (CDC)

 Our entire team is working on staying up to date with the most recent recommendations from multiple resources but first and foremost we monitor the CDC’s website daily. We also have continued to work with our veterinary partners such as the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) to remain aware of any changes that occur in regard to COVID-19 and your pet.  

 

We are grateful for your support during this time. Our goal is to provide a safe and welcoming environment for our patients, clients and the Arlington Heights Team.  We will follow these procedures for the next 2 weeks and on March 31, 2020 we will decide if we need to continue these measures.  Communication is imperative right now so please let us know if you have any questions, see contact information below.

 

Sincerely,

 

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS VETERINARY HOSPITAL