As full-service specialty and emergency care becomes a staple in veterinary medicine, jobs in four-legged care are expanding.
Since opening 13 months ago, Pittsburgh Veterinary Specialty and Emergency Care has nearly doubled its staff to 150 employees and has recently acquired five more acres of land in Ohio Township, Allegheny County.
“We are seeing 600 to 800 patients a week,” reports CEO Kenneth Spokane of the center, previously located in Shaler Township. “We have 26 vets in fifteen specialties, with 57 staffers working 24/7 in our ER.”
Spokane notes that although veterinary medicine lags behind human medicine, “people are willing to go to specialists and spend if needed,” though pet health care insurance covers fewer than two percent of pets treated at PVSEC. Technologies like MRIs–often purchased second-hand from human treatment centers–are fueling diagnosis and treatment, he says.
Source: Kenneth Spokane
Writer: Chris O’Toole
