An effort to bring overnight emergency veterinary care back to the Rochester area will get underway early next year, but organizers of the new operation said Wednesday that it will take some time to be able to meet the needs of local pet owners.
The veterinarians behind the new facility plan to open on Feb. 1, using space at an existing veterinary practice, the Animal Hospital of Rochester on University Avenue. The new practice is called Rochester Emergency Veterinary Services, or REVS for short.
The three local vets are trying to fill a gap caused by last month’s closing of the area’s only 24/7 animal hospital, Veterinary Specialists and Emergency Services in Brighton.
The new operation will be a nonprofit practice, and it is getting help with startup costs from the county’s industrial development agency, COMIDA, which has approved $100,000 in funding.
Dr. Bruce Ingersoll is one of the founding veterinarians. He is a professor in Genesee Community College’s Veterinary Technology program and also a part-time veterinarian at York Animal Hospital.
The other two vets are Dr. Isadora Marion, founder of Doorbell Vet, and Dr. Brenda Buck, the owner of Animal Hospital of Rochester.
Ingersoll said that besides the $100,000 from COMIDA, they’ve raised about $75,000 so far in donations. He said they could still use another $75,000 to help start up the practice.
Ingersoll urged patience in terms of the initial services that REVS will be able to provide. He said the new practice will need two to three years to be able to fill the gap created by the last veterinary emergency practice’s closure.
“We are going to be taking the most critical, the most in-need patients,” Ingersoll said. “Some of those patients, we may be turning away and saying you have to go to an urgent care tomorrow, or you’re going to have to go to one of the other facilities, but we’re going to try and take care of (the neediest) patients.”
When the new emergency practice starts up in February, it will be open from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. Monday through Thursday, and then it will be open from Friday night through Monday morning.
Monroe County Executive Adam Bello said the new practice will be important for families with pets and said it’s an important service to help attract new residents and retain those already living here.
“We’re looking to attract workers, we're looking to keep people here, there's a quality-of-life issue, too, when people are looking about where they want to raise their family, and where they're going to have a good quality of life,” Bello said.
Bello also said REVS will create about 20 jobs for veterinarians, veterinary technicians and other support staff.
