The Pandemic Pet Problem
Kiplinger's Personal Finance|October 2021
This vet used telemedicine and other creative ways to handle a surge of new cat and dog patients.
EMMA PATCH
The Pandemic Pet Problem

PROFILE

WHO: Lisa Mariko Gretebeck, age 33

WHAT: Veterinarian at animal hospital

WHERE: Alexandria, Va.

The pandemic pushed pet adoptions to new records. How has that impacted your work?

The good side is that we’ve been very busy with a lot of pet owners. The bad side is that if the caseload goes up, sometimes it can compromise the quality of care we can provide. Quite a few times the caseload was just too high, and we went into something called limited admission status (L.A.S.) in the veterinary world. I would call other hospitals to see if they could take patients from us, but usually by then all the other clinics were also overwhelmed.

How did that affect the care you gave?

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