Powers Pet Emergency & Specialty

Reviews 3

JU

Julie Davis

Dont expect to be kept in the loop, especially if theyre busy (and especially if they already have your credit card number).  State of the art equipment & professionally trained medical staff are key in emergency care. Powers Pet Emergency may have that. But something else I as a pet owner believe to be equally important is being kept apprised of the status. For me, my pets are my family. When a trip to the emergency room is necessary, it is never a good thing. I know it will be expensive & Im well aware it can get hectic.  But theres no excuse for not letting a client know how their pet is progressing - & most certainly when they are given more than 24 hours to do so. I feel I was more than patient with PPER - waiting more than an hour just to have my cats temp taken & then another 5 hours for any news after paying a 75% upfront deposit & leaving my cat in their care. I was told they were busy many times. In fact, I think I may have heard that more than I heard actual information about my cats condition. When 18 hours pass & still no word (even after being told I would be called), I lose patience. I dont think thats unreasonable. So, I called them & was connected with someone who had no idea but he would, and I quote, "try to make sense of the chart." When he couldnt make sense of it he said the doctor would call me back. This was around 11 am (nearly 24 hours after I dropped my animal off). When 3pm came & went & I still had not heard anything, I called back. I was put on hold and there I sat for literally 20 minutes. I reached my limit. I hung up & drove in. Apparently the only way to get a status from these people was to put myself physically in front of them & make a scene.  On a side note, its interesting that they charge by the hour for their hospitalization. Could it be the longer they can string you along, the more they can charge? The only excuse I received for the lack of communication was that they were "busy". I was made to feel as if my requesting the status of my pet after waiting for 24 hours was completely outrageous.  It was about that time I offered to help lighten their load & take my cat somewhere else seeing they were so darn busy. I was told they would be happy to discharge him but there is only one other ER clinic in town & PPER could guarantee the wait would be just as long & the bill twice as much. I guess when you know you have a monopoly on the market you dont have to worry yourself with customer service & you dont have to be afraid to flaunt it either. Im sure my cat was in some way medically treated during his stay (which is why I gave 2 stars instead of 1). He was more alert & active upon pickup than when I dropped him off. However, the extent of the attention he received during their "busy" time  I will never know for sure.  I wanted him to stay until he was 100%. I was willing to commit to whatever expense was necessary. But the trust just wasnt there. In the end I made the decision to take my chances elsewhere.  I went in approximately 11:30 a.m. Monday morning, received a total of one phone call Monday night & self discharged Tuesday evening around 6 p.m. - all for the low cost of only $1,000. The lack of a diagnosis, hours of frustration, infuriation and feeling powerless were free. Something I noticed both when I dropped my cat off & as I picked him up was one of the staff was vacuuming.  No time for status updates on critical patients but plenty of time & manpower for vacuuming.  What do you consider more important? Note for the suggestion box, less payroll spent on vacuuming and more on status update calls.  A bit less arrogance would be nice too. Just an FYI, we went to that other ER we were told would render the same results (Animal Emergency Care Center on North Nevada just off I25). The wait was about 10 minutes, the doctor and staff couldnt have been more accommodating, a diagnosis was reached & a treatment plan put together within 30 minutes & the cost was half. Skip to the end and my kitty pulled through.

KA

Kayla Reeves

As a veterinary technician by trade, I have extremely high expectations in regards to my pets care when visiting another practice. Our clinic has been referring our patients to Powers for years from anything to post surgical care, to a specialty consultation, to emergency situations we were unable to assist with. My own dog recently had a rock removed from her small intestine, and needed to be transferred to a 24-hour care facility for post-op care. I chose Powers not only because of the working relationship I had with them, but also because of the convenience (short transportation from my clinic). They were always available to answer any questions I had when I called (I may have been on hold awhile, but working the field, this is pretty common - were hands on all the time). I do feel however that they seem short staffed. I had to call in the morning between discharge hours to speak to a DVM in regards to whether or not my pet needed to be hospitalized for the day (she did) - I was told a doctor would be calling me. I understand that they are an ER clinic, and people will come there regardless of their customer service mainly due to convenience and location, however I waited far too long in an exam room just to speak with a technician in regards to my estimate. I understand that my case was not an emergency, and my pet was stable - it just would have been nice for someone to come in and acknowledge that they were working on it and would be back in as soon as possible. Anytime one of our clients is going to wait longer than normal we always make sure to go in and speak with them about it. I think with ER clinics, their main focus has to be saving the patient - this is their day to day, and unfortunately because of the hastiness of the situations that many cases present, customer service tends to go out the window. Their prices were more than fair for the care my pet received, and she was definitely well cared for. One of the problems that ER clinics also encounter is the inability to create a bond with their patients - its pretty rare to see the same dog more than once frequent enough to build a relationship with the client and pet. If youre looking for the one on one, bonding, chit chat experience, then I recommend taking your pet to your regular veterinarian where theyve already developed that relationship with you. Most small animal practices have the time and staff to create a more personalized experience. There are many practices that are open into evening hours, and have weekend hours as well so youre not resorted to only taking your pet to the ER. The care my pet received here was exceptional - the staff was friendly with me (probably more so because of our employment commonplace), and treated my dog well. I have and will continue to bring my pets here when their care calls for a more specialized/emergency care.

AA

Aaron Powell

My (former) primary vet ignored my concerns of my dog developing an infection from a dental extraction. I asked about antibiotics the day of the extraction they told me if they felt it was necessary they would have given him some. I feel that the antibiotics would have prevented the whole situation because the vet told me his teeth were so bad she didnt charge me for the ones that were removed, the roots had become exposed so she didnt have to do much to remove them. I dont know about you but that screams infection to me. When I went in for a follow up and let them know he wasnt eating, was breathing faster than normal and wasnt as active as normal they told me wait 24 hrs and 36 hrs and come back in if hes not better. 3 hrs after we saw the primary he was having such a hard time breathing we decided he needed to go to Powers Emergency and Specialty. When the doctors saw him they immediately took him to the back room to give him oxygen. The staff at Powers Emergency were really supportive and comforting. They had me go home for the night and would call me with updates. When the doctor called she informed me that she needed to perform a pericardial tap to release the pressure and test the built up fluid in his chest. When she did this they discovered his pericardium was filled with puss (pyothoracosis) and he had become septic. The doctor informed us of our options (humane euthanasia, or surgery to insert chest tubes to drain the fluid). We chose to have the surgery, she let us know that the surgery would be pricey and helps us get information about payment options. The vet was also very straight forward in letting us know he was so weak he might not survive the surgery which we appreciated. The vet let us know that she removed almost 20 ml of puss from the pericardium of our 6 lbs dog. For the first three days our little guy has to be constantly on oxygen and monitored. We were notified that he was no longer considered septic on the forth day and fifth day they were able to remove the chest tubes, the sixth day he was monitored to make sure the infection did not return and we were able to take him home on the 7th day they provided us with multiple antibiotics and pain management medication for us to administer at home. During the whole week the amazing staff encouraged us to visit our Yorkie and bring him food to see if we could coax him to eat. The staff let us come two times a day and the days he was on oxygen we were allowed to go to the back room and spend time with him while he was in the oxygen chamber. We have no doubt that Powers Emergency and Specialty saved his life. The doctors called at least once every day with an update and the front desk would give us daily invoice updates when asked. The invoices were also broken down to item by item, no obscure charges for "daily treatment $200.00" that over vets provide.