Everyone’s heard of animal hospitals, but most people aren’t sure what exactly that means. More accurately, many aren’t sure what the difference is between a veterinary clinic and an animal hospital. They often assume it to simply refer to the size of the facility. While this is often true, there is a lot more that separates an animal hospital from a veterinary clinic than simply size. Just like the divide between the doctor’s office and the hospital, the difference is significant.
Employ Multiple Veterinary Specialists
Most veterinary clinics are run by an individual veterinarian or a group of veterinarians with similar specialties. Animal hospitals, on the other hand, make sure to employ a large number of veterinarians with a wide variety of specializations, in order to deal with the higher volume and urgent care needed by the different patients. This is to prevent someone with an avian specialty being forced to work on a canine patient.
Open More Often
Having more staff, animal hospitals are able to stay open longer and have people available more often than a regular vet can. In fact, some animal hospitals are even open 24/7, although that is not true in every instance.
Wider Variety of Procedures
Animal hospitals have state of the art technology at their facilities and are able to provide a larger variety of medical services, such as:
- intensive care
- radiology
- laboratory tests
- electrocardiograms
- surgery
- ultrasounds
- dental services
- pharmacy services
By no means should the disparate differences between animal hospitals and veterinary clinics discourage you from using the clinics. Clinics are still absolutely vital to your pet’s health, and you won’t want to be bringing them into the hospital every single time you need to see a vet. Clinics are good for regular check-ups and scheduled vaccinations, all the sorts of routine elements of animal medical care. A simple rule is that veterinary clinics are for preventative care, whereas animal hospitals are for treatment. Knowing the difference could be vitally important for the health of your pet. Contact Portage Park Animal Hospital & Dental Clinic for more detail or visit www.web.com.
