It’s hard to drive anywhere in the Upstate without seeing the effects of growth in the area. When you think about the population boom in the upstate of South Carolina, you probably think of new jobs, the need for additional education facilities, or even improvements to the infrastructure…but what about the pet population that has relocated to the area with their families? With the growing pet population comes not only the need for additional general veterinary care but also the increased need for after hours and emergency care. Dr. Atticus Mabry, who along with his wife, Dr. Kristen Mabry, owns Oasis Animal Hospital in Mauldin, and Dr. Teresa Willis, owner of Emerald City Animal Hospital in Greenwood, have recognized this need. They began working on plans to open an additional emergency veterinary care facility last year.
As of right now, the population of their proposed service area is roughly 1.2 million people according to online population surveys. When you factor in the statistics that approximately 67% of the general population are pet owners, you can begin to see the need for an additional emergency clinic in the area.
and Atticus Mabry
Currently, there is only one fully staffed emergency clinic that is open after hours and on weekends in the greater Greenville area. Though the level of care from this emergency and specialty care clinic is second to none, they can be quite busy. Dr. Mabry was quick to point out how fortunate we are to have a such a high-quality clinic in the area to handle both emergency and specialty cases and also mentioned that he has colleagues in other parts of the country that are forced to refer clients up to 6 hours away for these services.
Because of the sheer volume of cases, some experiences with the clinic have shown that while the quality of care is excellent wait times can be excessive. It has been reported that clients have had to wait 4 to 6 hours due to the high volume of emergency cases at the time. Dr. Mabry and Dr. Willis are implementing a solution intended to help alleviate some of the pressure from this facility.
Dr. Mabry and Dr. Willis, with a combined 30 years of experience, have partnered together to introduce Veterinary Emergency Center which will be a fully staffed, afterhours emergency clinic opening in Mauldin. This entity is separate from both of their individual practices and will be operating out of the state-of-the-art Oasis Animal Hospital facility in Mauldin. Their mission will be to provide top notch emergency care for clients when their primary care veterinarian is not available. While Oasis Animal Hospital does operate as a general care practice during normal business hours, Veterinary Emergency Center will be referring clients back to their primary care veterinarians for follow up after emergency treatment has been provided. Cases that require further workup may still be referred to the specialty clinic in Greenville, but the most common emergency situations will be efficiently handled by the highly trained team of doctors and staff at Veterinary Emergency Center.
The clinic will officially open on November 4, 2019 and the operating hours will be as follows: Monday-Friday 5:30pm-12:00am, Saturday and Sunday from 8:00am-12:00am. The doctors and staff will stop intake at 12:00am so that they may focus on providing next level care for hospitalized patients and performing surgical procedures. Any emergencies after 12:00am will be referred on to the clinic in Greenville.
Veterinary Emergency Center will be located at 11 West Point Blvd in Mauldin and can be reached at 864-626-6125. For more information on their services, please utilize their website at www.vec.vet.
By Courtney Riddle♦
