Why have an emergency clinic at all?

We hope you never have an emergency with your pet. However, if you do, we want to ensure you have reliable 24-hour access to medical care. Since it's impossible for us to be available all the time, we'll be using the emergency clinic to help you when we can't.

What if I have an emergency?

If you're not sure whether our office is open, call us first. If the office is closed, our answering machine will give you the phone number for the emergency clinic, as well as other options for getting a message to us. If you know our clinic is closed, you can call the emergency clinic directly. You could even go to the emergency clinic immediately, but it's best if you can contact them first.

I can get to my regular vet's clinic in 5 minutes. Why drive farther to go to an emergency clinic?

Most veterinarians don't live that close to their clinics. In order to get help from them after hours, you have to go through a process of several steps which often includes: 1)calling the office; 2)leaving a message there or with an answering service; 3)waiting while the doctor is paged or contacted by the answering service; 4)waiting for the doctor to call you back; 5)describing your problem to the doctor and deciding on a course of action; 6)driving to the clinic and possibly waiting until the doctor can get there. In many cases it can take 30-40 minutes to go through all of these steps and get help for your pet. If your doctor is busy handling another emergency or isn't able to get to a phone right away, it can take longer. With the emergency clinic, a doctor and staff are in the building when the clinic is open, and you can have much quicker access to assistance.

Will we be able to reach you at all?

Yes. We'll make ourselves available as much as possible for questions, situations involving a recent illness or surgery, and issues involving ongoing cases. We just can't guarantee we'll always be available after the clinic is closed. If you have something you know needs treatment, your best course is to contact the emergency clinic.

Isn't an emergency clinic expensive?

A visit to the emergency clinic will cost more than a "typical" visit to our clinic, but you won't be going to the emergency clinic for "typical" things. You'll be more likely to require more extensive procedures, which would cost more regardless of where they're done. But the end result isn't as bad as many people think. A common belief is that a visit to the emergency clinic will cost several hundred dollars. It can, but a recent study of fees at the Animal Emergency Clinic in Portland showed the average cost for an emergency visit was about $150.

Shouldn't the vets at the emergency clinic know my pet's history?

That's a common concern. In many cases the goal of an emergency clinic will be to address any immediately life-threatening conditions so that your pet can receive further treatment from your regular vet during regular hours. Intimate knowledge of your pet's history is seldom necessary in this case. From 1998 to 1999 we handled over 50 emergency cases from clients of other veterinarians, and were able to provide effective emergency care without knowing the entire history of any of these pets.

What's wrong with the old way of doing things?

Plenty. For most clinics, emergency care is an added service, without staff or doctors specifically dedicated to covering emergencies. These are some of the problems that result:
 
No recovery time: Our doctors work a full week and are responsible for all of our regular patients during the day, in addition to handling emergency calls after hours. These emergencies can come any time, day or night, and since each of our doctors is needed every day, they're often forced to work with little rest and their everyday care can suffer. The emergency clinic will have a staff whose day starts when the emergency clinic opens, and they'll be able to sleep and recuperate afterwards. On occasion there will be some doctors working who have regular day jobs, but they'll work one night at a time rather than having long periods without rest.
 
No support staff after hours: Our technical staff and assistants also work a busy schedule already, and would be overloaded if they had to assist with emergencies as well; as a result, what we're able to do on an emergency basis can be limited by lack of help. The emergency clinic will have a veterinarian and support personnel present whenever the clinic is open.
 
No way to monitor your pet after leaving: In the case of emergencies with critically ill or injured pets, the last thing we want to do is leave them unattended; but since we can't have someone at the hospital around the clock we often have to leave a critical patient sooner than we'd like. The emergency clinic will have staff members continually available to monitor your patient during any treatment or recovery period. It will also offer an alternative for overnight monitoring if your pet hospitalized during regular hours requires intensive care.
 
Unpredictable response time: We never know when an emergency will occur, so we can't guarantee we'll be right next to a phone when someone pages us. And, in turn, you have no way of knowing how long it will take for us to call you back. Calls often come when we're buying groceries, in the car on the way home, or handling another emergency. In any of these cases, there may be a significant delay before we can call you back. When you call the emergency clinic, you'll be able to speak to a staff member directly and with little or no delay. No more waiting for a doctor to return your call.
 
Technology can be twitchy: It's uncommon, but there have been times when our answering machine didn't transfer a call (often because 2 calls came in too close together), or the page simply didn't reach us for some reason. As long as the phone lines are working, you can contact the emergency clinic.

Where do I learn more?

The clinic has a website at www.aec-midmaine.com, and we have brochures at our office.