Welcome to Lincolnshire Animal Hospital Proactive and Compassionate Veterinary Care

Happy New Year from Lincolnshire Animal Hospital!

Happy New Year to all our Lincolnshire Animal Hospital friends. Everyone here at the clinic wishes you and your little ones a Happy and Healthy Holiday. This letter is to provide you with Lincolnshire Animal Hospital news, where we are currently, and our hopes for 2022.

The best news for us in 2021 was the addition of Dr. Lindsay Miller and Dr. Stephanie Fitzgerald to our family. If you have not met them yet, let us tell you they are amazing and continue our tradition of great patient care and preventative medicine. We can’t wait for you to meet them!

And to benefit our amazing doctors and clients, we have now incorporated doctor assistants in the exam room to aid the doctors with your pet’s care allowing our doctors to have more quality time with you ensuring excellent health care for your pet.

As we head into the new year our mission to provide your pet with the best care possible while keeping you and our staff safe remains unchanged. It’s hard to believe it was 18 months ago when we ended our split staffing and 6 months since we could start letting some clients back in the clinic with their pets. We are very grateful for your patience and understanding over the last two years as we worked through these difficult times. The support and kindness expressed to our staff throughout lifted their spirits each day more than you will ever know. As we move forward, as always do not hesitate to reach out with any concerns or questions that you might have for us.

If you haven’t visited us since July, here is a quick update.

1. Regularly scheduled veterinary medical and surgical appointments are asked to text and let us know that you have arrived. Your doctor’s assistant will call or text you back once your exam room is available and have you come in at that time.
2. If you are bringing your pet for an Acute Care Visit where we are seeing you as an emergency we ask that you text when you arrive and this appointment will remain curbside.
3. Technician appointments for bandage changes, fluid therapy, lab work etc. please walk into the clinic at your assigned time and let our front desk CSRs know you are here.
4. Lastly if coming in to pick up food or medications please walk in approach one of our CSRs sitting on your left and they will take care of you.

Please be aware that anyone entering the building must be properly masked and remain masked even if you are alone in your exam room. If you have the slightest symptom or have been exposed to Covid please let us know and we will gladly still see you but keeping your appointment curbside. This is for the protection of our staff and clients.

Lincolnshire Animal Hospital, as many other businesses, realize the possibility of being short staffed after these holidays. As people come back from gatherings with friends and family combined with the high transmission rate of Omicron it is inevitable that there will be illnesses. Employees exposed or those symptomatic will quarantine per CDC guidelines and be able to return per those same guidelines. We take these actions to allow our doors to remain open and keep everyone healthy. If staffing issues do arise, we may be forced to call and ask for routine appointments and surgeries to be postponed. Our hope is no disruption of routine services, but we wish to prepare you for that possibility.

It’s unfortunate that Covid takes up so much of this letter, but we will finish on a happier note. This year our goal is to perform a long-awaited internal remodel now that the new parking lot is completed. We will add two additional exam rooms, a small procedures room and expand our surgical prep and recovery area. A start date has not been set but we are very excited to have this completed in 2022. We are also in the process of adding new communication services. One you will notice almost immediately is Televet, which will enhance our notifications and reminders for your upcoming appointments. We also have a new phone system arriving soon that will decrease hold time and get you to your destination faster, whether ordering food and medication, scheduling an appointment or leaving a message for a doctor. Keep your eyes and ears open for these improvements and feel free to let us know your thoughts as we work to enhance our communication and accessibility. And our happiest news for 2022 is that Dr. Sutkay is expecting in a couple of months and will be away on maternity leave but back soon in May. Dr. S will be missed but she will be in all of our thoughts.

Thank you for taking the time to read our letter. One we hope to continue as an annual tradition. We are so grateful for all of you. Your patience and support over the last two years showed no bounds and we are lucky to have you as part of our hospital family. We look forward in 2022 to continue our high level of care, just as we have for over 50 years. Lincolnshire Animal Hospital is a proudly independent veterinary clinic. Being independent gives our veterinarians the freedom to practice a standard of medicine and surgery deserving of our clients. This means no restrictions or corporate oversight on the diagnostics we provide, the medications we prescribe and most of all, the time we dedicate to our patients. Our philosophy sets us apart and will continue unaffected by the changing world around us.

We wish you the best in 2022 and look forward to seeing you soon.

Sincerely,

Patrick Emmelot, DVM

Jennifer Sutkay, DVM

Kelly Marquardt, Hospital Manager