As UC Davis leads the way in clinical veterinary care, and envisions a new Veterinary Medical Center (VMC) on the horizon, expansion of existing examination space within the current hospital is already happening. Recently, construction began on the creation of new treatment rooms for exotics care, soon to be followed by several new examination rooms in the Small Animal Clinic (SAC). Divided into three phases, these smaller projects mark the beginning of the larger implementation of the VMC vision for the future of UC Davis veterinary medicine.

The Companion Exotic Animal Medicine and Surgery Service will soon see a much-needed expansion of their workspace. Three new examination rooms are being constructed in existing space adjacent to their current location in the hospital. The project will greatly enhance the service’s capabilities for treating patients and provide dedicated examination space necessary for the best possible quality of exotics care.

The new space is being configured in ways to create positive workflow environments, allowing for various set-ups consistent with the differences in exotic patients. With the service seeing animals that weigh only a few ounces to animals that weigh a few hundred pounds, it’s important for the team to be able to examine those animals in spaces that allow for a variety of configurations. The location of new space will also make for easier transport of larger patients that may need help from the parking lot to examination rooms.

Following the exotics expansion, the hospital will begin the dismantling of the Surgery Observation Room to make space for two new small animal examination rooms. The observation room, originally constructed to allow students to observe surgeries behind glass in a viewing gallery, has ceased to be used for that purpose with students gaining more experience alongside clinicians and using video image capture. With examination space at a premium in the hospital, the observation room proved to be one of the few remaining spaces within the original hospital building to be convertible to examination room space.

Finally, space within the client services area of the SAC has also been identified as an additional area for future examination space. Without reducing the client experience, office space adjacent to the SAC reception area will be converted to examination space to better serve the client population.

#   #   #