Keystone Veterinary Emergency and Referral

Reviews 3

MI

Miriam E

Of course if youre in need of emergency services, this may be the only place open. I had to take my dog in for rodenticide poisoning on a Saturday, and while my dog got what was needed, I was completely not impressed. 1) Upon arrival, I was asked to call the pet poison hotline for recommendations as the rodenticide component was unusual. I expected that an emergency clinic would be familiar with handling rodenticide poisoning (common), and the component itself is not uncommon. Just tell me the info from Poison Control would be helpful and not some excuse that the drug is unusual. 2) Even before getting the recommenations from Poison Control, I was given an estimate, that inluded a hospital stay + fluids in order to monitor as the rodenticide is one that could have effects on the neurological system. This is when complete annoyance kicked in. I practice in the medical field (didnt tell them that until the very end), and I knew something about how this particular rodenticide worked, and the effect on the neurological system was just BS. So either it was incompetence, or it was another excuse to try and justify a hospitalization. I saw the vet (who mind you I saw for a total of 30 seconds), who started telling me this potential neurogical effect. I immediately got agitated and told him its an anticoagulant and there should be no such immediate neurologic effect. He ran off and mumbled something about checking some labs. What?! 3) For better or for worse, I asked multiple times to decline the hospitalization, as their initial justification for it was bogus and I could not help feeling pushed into it. A tech came back giving me other reasons for needing the hospitalization, which still annoyed me and admittedly were justifiable, but I was already off put and to me the cost-benefit ratio did not sit well with me. But I was told he no I cant decline, he really NEEDS it. Finally a nurse came and finally entertained the possibility of not hospitalizing him, and informed me about the things my dog would not recieve in that case. Every client should be able to make an informed decision about the alternate possibilities and any risks. These treatments are costly, and nothing disgusted me more than the feel I got that I was being pushed into treatments for reasons that changed every time I asked to decline the service. In summary, I felt that 1) knowledge of the staff was embarassingly limited, and 2) a hospital stay was predecided, without solid medical justification, as a fanatastic money making source, 3) the resistance I got from the staff in discussing alternatives further justified #2, 4) my 30 second encounter with the vet was a little disatisfying, and 5) if you need emergency services, theyll get the job done but just dont be afraid to ask about alternatives to keep your costs down.

TE

Terry May

I hate this place but its the only 24/7 emergency vet in the area that I know of. Ive read the positive reviews from 4 or 5 years ago. Thats when the place was owned by Dr. Hodges who was commuting from his other practice in Allentown. When he (Dr. Hodges) ran the place I was over-the-moon happy too. Now its owned by Dr. Kim Russell and (I think Dr. Kelly Collins). To be fair, Ive had experience with Dr. Collins before and found him to be very compassionate and not as money hungry when I brought in a stray cat I picked up off the street that had been run over by a car. The cat was dying and Dr. Collins euthanized it for free. Im involved in animal rescue and I have a regular vet but he isnt open 24/7. On Friday, 3/18/16, I rescued a stray mom and her 4 newborn kittens from someones backyard. Everything went well that week until the mom started vomiting on Saturday night of the following week, 3/26/16. The mom positioned herself so the kittens couldnt nurse. I rushed her and the kittens to Keystone and the vet on duty took X-Rays, did blood work, examined the mom and couldnt figure out what was wrong. The following morning, Sunday, 3/27/16 a different vet came on duty and he couldnt figure it out either. I had to take the kittens home with me to bottle feed them. On Monday, 3/28/16, I paid the bill totaling $1448.03 (less a 20% discount because were a small non-profit - a financially struggling non-profit - but a non-profit all the same) and I took the cat immediately to my vet where shes been since Monday. The diagnosis: abscessed mammary glands. Why didnt they detect this at Keystone? A thorough examination of the mammary glands would have revealed the hard, swollen abscess below the skin. Since Dr. Hodges left, its all about the money there. Oh, one more thing speaking of money. when I was about to leave to go home that first night at Keystone, the girl came to me and said before you leave, wed like to get a deposit. They had given me a low end estimate of $1100 and high end estimate of $1300 before admitting the cat to which I agreed in writing. When I asked how much of a deposit they needed, she said $1100. I said, "Thats not a deposit. Thats payment in full. You should use the right terminology when you ask people for money. Dont call it a deposit when in reality youre asking them to pay the bill up front." Boy, I was ticked off. Do yourself a favor and find another emergency vet. Thats what I plan to do.

NI

Nicole McQuade

If I could give zero stars I would as this was by far the worst vet experience weve had. We brought our 2 year old Boston Terrier here after she was vomiting all night and the vet on duty took x-rays and said they saw something in her stomach and had to do exploratory stomach surgery to remove the foreign object. After seeing the estimate ($2500!) we were obviously concerned and said "And you wouldnt do this unless it was absolutely necessary, correct?" The nurse tells us "Right, we wouldnt waste your money". Well 3 hours later we get a call saying the surgery was done, they didnt find anything and it could have been X, Y or Z. We understand the surgery wasnt guaranteed to find something, but it seems as though the X,Y, Z options should have been discussed BEFORE paying $2500 to perform unnecessary surgery. I wish thats where the bad service ended, but it was far from over. We were told shed be ready to go home in the AM, so we called in the AM and they said they couldnt send her home yet until she eats and that our dog wouldnt eat for them. Our dog has a food allergy, which we filled out on the form they provided us during check-in and they choose not to read their own form and tried feeding our dog some random food. God forbid her food allergy was life threatening she could have died. Then we go and feed her ourselves and were told that she needs to stay overnight again and that of course will cost an extra $500. When we asked "Why? Nothing changed in her procedure, shes doing normal, why is the stay extended" THey said "Well someone was supposed to call you last night and tell you your estimate was wrong and we needed to add $500". Well, 1. you cant just call someone after they signed an estimate and tell them its actually $500 more for no good reason, 2. no one did call us. When we brought up all these questions, the vet on duty that day kept passing the blame to others and then stormed out. "Well Im just a weekend vet" "Im not the owner" "I dont know why they did surgery, I wasnt here yesterday" "Id be upset if this was my dog too" "Its the radiologists fault, he said he saw something" The mis-management of everyone in this practice was beyond unprofessional and our dog underwent invasive surgery for no reason. The communication and blame game that went on was unacceptable, cost us a ton of money, and caused us a ton of stress.