What To Consider When Building Or Renovating A Veterinary Teaching Hospital
Veterinary teaching hospitals (VTH) occupy a unique place in animal care. While the local veterinary clinic or hospital can handle most standard health issues, there are times when these entities – be they brick-and-mortar or mobile – may not have the equipment, staff or specialists to provide a higher level of care. That’s where a teaching hospital, with its state-of-the-art equipment and breadth of veterinary knowledge, comes into play. But for these hospitals to truly function as the vital centers of care they must be built with an eye to the future.
Today’s veterinary teaching hospitals include features that emphasize and enable connectedness among animals, people and environment. This emphasis on “one health†is an important trend that will continue to evolve and push the envelope for many years to come. As a result, there are countless considerations when building and/or renovating a veterinary teaching hospital. Some of these mirror the concerns encountered when working on a similar project for a traditional veterinary practice and still others call to mind the issues that arise when virtually building any type of healthcare facility – animal or human.
As VTH facilities look to upgrade, enhance, retrofit or outright build, it is important to remember that these structures are being constructed to serve our communities for decades. That means the utmost consideration must be given to anticipating new technologies and teaching methods, and predicting modern techniques for delivering high quality care. My design firm, along with the construction partners we work with like McCarthy Building Companies, knows that this degree of forward thinking – planning for the here and now as well as what is to come – is critical for success.
