New vet hospital to help meet growing demands

By: VIVIAN GIANG

Posted: 4/29/09

Hallways are used as storage rooms, board rooms are used as classrooms and ladies settle on unisex bathrooms and forget about trying to find a private one - that luxury has been traded in for an office here and there.

Take a walk down the corridors of the University's veterinary teaching hospital and the frenzy of commotion approaches as a baby-like wail echoes from one end, a dog brushes past on his way to the pre-operation room and carts loaded with equipment line up along the hallways.

An $80 million plan for a new veterinary teaching hospital has been in the works for years, but execution has yet to be determined.

"It really depends on the funding - trying to raise money and [waiting for] state appropriation," said Tracy Giese, director of public relations for the College of Veterinary Medicine. "We've had children decide not to have birthday presents and instead asked their friends to bring in small gifts [for the hospital] … we've had gifts of that small to gifts of more than a million dollars."

Because there are only 28 veterinary schools in the country, the University's hospital has patients come from as far as Virginia, Giese said.

With a wide range of specialized care and expert physicians, the University's teaching hospital is a referral hospital for pet owners throughout the state and region. For those who live within 30 miles, the hospital is their veterinary clinic, but veterinaries from all over the Southeast refer clients to the teaching hospital when cases get too complicated.

Framed photos of graduates line the hallways, showing soaring enrollment since the college was founded in 1946. The school admits 96 students each fall, yet there are approximately 550 applicants per year - one student is accepted for every four turned away.

"There's a dire need for vets, but unfortunately, we can only handle 96 [per class] right now because we're on top of each other," said Karen Aiken, client advocate and development officer for the teaching hospital. "We're limited as to how many we can take - it's like a human hospital."

In 1979, the University's teaching hospital opened and has increased its annual case loads by 37 percent, enrollment by 20 percent and full-time staff by 337 percent. But the square footage of the hospital has grown by 4 percent.

"Look at how many people are in here," Kathy Bangle, director of development for the college, said in an operation room. "This is internal medicine - there's people trying to diagnose, do research, look up things. It's just insane - there are way too many people in too small of space."

Compared to surrounding teaching hospitals, the University's hospital is approximately 150,000 square feet smaller - in other words, each University vet student has roughly 1,700 fewer square feet compared to students from other institutions.

It is common to have physicians, fourth-year students, technicians, interns and residents all in the same area to treat the estimated 13,000 large animals and 7,000 small animals the hospital cares for annually.

The new hospital would be built on College Station Road and expand square footage nearly three times the original hospital's size.

The new facility would also increase enrollment to 130 students per classroom and allow opportunities for medical advances, further research and future expansions, Bangle said.

"It's been great so far really, but sometimes - especially when the juniors and seniors are down here - it can be busy in the hallways," said Amanda Rainey, a veterinary student from Anderson, S.C. "It would be nice if we had more computers and workspace ... sometimes we may have a lot of patients come in at the same time … it's kind of loud with a lot of people in a small space."

Next to the hospital, "get well" signs are taped to barn stalls filled to capacity with horses, goats and alpacas.

Bangle said the current hospital offers limited outdoor recreational space for animals' recovery.

"Having the new teaching hospital will provide us the wonderful opportunity that we can actually turn out some of the horses so that they can be outside," she said.

The new hospital would be built on a 100-acre site. Plans also include a private oncology entrance for patients going through chemotherapy or radiation, which allows for a more personal experience for the animals that visit daily.

"There's a shortage of vets across the country …the case loads are pushing the demands for vets," Giese said. "We see more than 18,000 cases a year, so it's vital we have more space so we can educate more students."