Marina Animal Clinic has been a walk-in clinic serving the Tulsa area since 1979. Extended wait times are not unusual for a walk-in clinic.
Unfortunately, one more complication of the COVID-19 pandemic has been an escalation to these wait times. There are multiple factors to explain this situation:
- There is a national shortage of veterinarians, veterinary technicians, and overall veterinary staff. We have been trying our best with recruiting all of the above.
- Closure of a nearby animal emergency hospital during the week which is a result of the shortage of veterinarians. Due to this, we are seeing an increase in emergency visits on the days they are closed.
- Other hospitals in the area see patients by appointment only. Some of those hospitals are unable to see as many patients, again due to the veterinary shortage. We are seeing a lot of patients that are unable to get into their veterinarians.
- An increase in pet ownership during the pandemic.
We have spoken to veterinarians all across the US and these extended wait times are common everywhere. We have heard some emergency hospitals having wait times up to 8 hours. We didn’t close our doors even for one day during the pandemic. Yes, we were worried about getting sick or bringing COVID-19 home to our families just like everyone else and we still have that concern. However, our employees care about our patients and we knew it was important to be here for them. We appreciate people trusting us with the care of their pet family members. We will see everyone that walks through our door, but we ask that you extend courtesy to all of us as your experience wait times.
The negativity that we have received regarding wait times has had a negative impact on our staff. Compassion fatigue and burnout are real. When interacting with our staff we ask that you please be kind. Please keep all of this in mind before going on social media and posting negatively about our wait times.
Thank you,
The doctors and staff of Marina Animal Clinic
