LOOKING BACK AND LOOKING AHEAD IN 2011…

From all of us at Knollwood, best wishes for a healthy year to you and your furry family members and friends!  Last year - 2010 - represented several new forward steps for us.  We explored new ways to stay in touch with all of you, new ways to help you better care for your animal friends, and new ways to make sure that we are more available for you when you need us.  

What did we do? We took the big step of going paperless; installed computers in all four exam rooms plus updated those in the treatment area, pharmacy, and work areas; initiated our e-mail reminder system; added another hospital day by opening on Wednesdays; expanded our staff training programs; installed new anesthetic monitoring equipment; updated our dental care equipment and installed a digital dental x-ray system; and for 99% of active clients, have now scanned all of your old paper records into our computer system.

We reached out to our community by continuing our KPR program, to help provide care for the homeless pets in our community.  And, through an initiative developed by Nurse Assistant Ashley J., we began participating in local pet-related events from races and walks to Halloween parties for community pets.  And we'll do more of all of these this year.  We’ve already started with our support for the “Tatts for Cats” campaign - two Knollwood staffers actually got tattoos during this event, as publicized on Knollwood’s Facebook site. 

We are redoubling our efforts to make sure that those who support us are rewarded by our availability when you have a worrisome situation that you feel needs to be evaluated same day or soonest availability, whether it is an appointment that is needed or a consultation with a Nurse. We have scheduled extra "immediate/same day care" slots in each day’s schedule, and we charge accordingly for such care.  Our Receptionists and Nurses are receiving ongoing training, so that they are able to take your telephone questions to one of our Doctors as soon as she is out of an exam room.  In this way, the Nurse can get you answers and return your calls sooner. (We know that you understand that our Doctors see patients all day and can’t come to the phone when they are examining a patient or doing surgery.)

In an effort to reach more of you in new ways, we initiated our Facebook and Twitter sites.  Supervisor Chani manages the Twitter site, and I manage the Facebook site.  Former Knollwood Nurse and current Webmistress Kelly  continues to manage our website since her move to central Illinois, and has stepped up to present, on the site, information gathered from our Facebook and Twitter sites.

Our staff worked really hard all last year for all of you and for the hospital.  Long term receptionist and Front Office Supervisor Chani is training with me to eventually assume my old Practice Manager responsibilities.  She's working hard with me and with our accountant to learn the zillion-and-one things that a practice manager needs to know.  (And I will be thrilled to one day be able to go back to practicing medicine all of the time, once Chani takes over management duties in a few years!)  Chani is joined at the reception desk by Veterinary Assistant Yadi, who just achieved this certification from Harper College and who completed her Receptionist training with Chani in record time!  Also at the front desk is Nurse Assistant Lea, who also works in the treatment area, assisting our Nurses.  Lea also spends part of one day each week reviewing all invoices for each day, to make sure that you got good value for the dollars you spend with us.  She's also training as a hospital Surgical Nurse.  

Our Nurses and our other Nurse Assistants have developed some new skills, too.  Nurse Jill assumed training responsibilities for all other Nurses and Nurse Assistants late last year after Nurse Nikki elected to concentrate her efforts this year on her studies and work only part-time.  Jill is coming up with some wonderful ways to help our Nursing team work more closely with you and to be able to answer your questions more fully.  She's also assumed responsibility for ordering pet food, including the yummy raw and freeze-dried diets that we now carry.   Nurse Nikki hopes to complete her studies early next year, at which point she'd like to return to full time status with Knollwood.  (In the meantime, if Nikki is your favorite Nurse, you can still ask to see her on Monday mornings, all day Thursdays, and alternate Saturdays).  Both Nikki and Jill have completed their initial training as Veterinary Dental Nurses and will continue this training this year.

Nurse Ashley L. has been gunning hard for vet school, even after she learned last year that she had been selected for the University of Illinois' College of Veterinary Medicine Early Acceptance program, offered only to those few students with exceptional grades and interviews.  This fall, Ashley will begin her studies there and while we'll miss her, we know that she's going to be one GREAT vet!  And, last year, Nurse Leslie joined our staff on a part-time basis, after stepping down from full-time employment with a corporate veterinary group, so that she could enjoy her new baby daughter.  Leslie works with us Monday afternoons and alternate Saturdays.

All of us have very much enjoyed working with Nurse Assistant Ashley J. since her return from her Army training last summer, and we plan to utilize her skills and organization until she is deployed again this summer.  We'll keep you posted so that everyone can use their intention to help keep her safe during her deployment. Nurse Assistant Anney is closing in on completion of her B.A., and has taken over responsibility for ordering all of the fabulous pet treats you see in our front office.  If you have a specific request, tell Anney and she'll make it happen!  She's also training to assume Consultation Coordinator duties from Chani, and will soon be the person to call whenever anyone wants to schedule an integrative consultation for their pet.

It would be hard to do all of the things we do, and to get the necessary continuing education that veterinarians and their staff need, without the assistance of several long-time Knollwood clients who prefer to not be named but who have contributed significant funding to our efforts.  These “Knollwood Angels,” several of who have contributed hundreds to thousands of dollars to our hospital in support of our KPR and other programs, are crucial to our success and to our continuity, especially in these challenging financial times.  Our hospital struggles to make ends meet sometimes, just as we know that some of you do.  It is always a cause for celebration at the hospitals when an Angel steps forward and allows us to continue to support our hospital, our programs, our continuing education, or our KPR program.

Our Pawprints Program, developed by Nurse Jill (who is also the artist), continues to enjoy support from many of you - we’ve already filled up all the Pawprints in our Nurse room and are now extending more Pawprints across our reception area!  Donating a Pawprint  is a wonderful way to celebrate a pet, to memorialize a deceased pet or person, or to show your support for a special Knollwood Nurse or Doctor.

I ended the year 2010 by doing something that I do every year: giving a great deal of thought to how the year went, from start to finish.  Did I do my best to make sure that all of us who work here are fulfilling our vision for Knollwood?  I sure tried!  You know that our goal has always been for our hospital to be a place where you could feel comfortable that your animal friends would receive the best possible level of care from committed, dedicated medical professionals. A place where we could bring you the best of what we have learned, through diligent study, about advances in traditional and alternative veterinary medicine. A place where you would never have to feel foolish about displaying or talking about the level of commitment and devotion you have for your special animal friends.

I also look at how well I achieved my personal short and long-term goals for the hospital.  One of the most important has always been to be not just a good vet, but a great vet - the kind who is able to give you and your pets the kind of care that allows me to tell you, year after year, that your pet is still healthy. And I try to instill that in all of our staff at Knollwood.   One of the reasons I study and lecture on integrative medicine is to bring you and our staff (as well as veterinarians across the country) new information about how to incorporate preventative health care routines into the day-to-day care of your pet. Focusing on preventative care - looking at how to keep your pet healthy rather than waiting to "fix what’s broke" – can allow your pet to achieve a healthy and longer than standard life span. What we teach you to do for your pet, at home on a day-to-day basis, has tremendous impact on your pet’s health and longevity.

We’ll keep this focus going in 2011.  I’m fortunate to be joined by a colleague who also has a strong commitment to client education. Last year, we hired Dr. Priya Bhatt as a relief vet, strictly to give me a much-needed break after Dr. Liv Kismartoni elected to take an extended leave of absence from her duties, in early summer.   As the days went by, we realized that we liked Dr. Bhatt as much as our clients did - so we hired her as our newest associate veterinarian.  Dr. Priya Bhatt works with us on Mondays, Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays.  She welcomes all Knollwood clients to stop by when you're in the neighborhood to say hi and to get a chance to know her.    

Dr. Bhatt hopes to initiate her own column on our website this year, and has already spent a significant amount of her own time educating our staff and clients about the need to track blood pressure in senior pets, as well as any pet with kidney disease, diabetes, thyroid disease, and adrenal disease.  Like me, she’s worked extensively with her own very senior pets, devoting much of her time to their care and well-being before they passed on.  Consequently, she’s accumulated a wealth of information on the care of these very special - and always dear to our hearts – “senior” companions.  Her remaining canine companion Chicu, a rescue Chihuahua mix, joins her at work most days.  (Rani the cat prefers to remain at home.)

As we move into the new year, I hope to share with you some of our ongoing new programs and plans through my columns.  I now work Mondays through Thursdays and am also continuing my duties as Practice Manager, as well as working on our new outreach and education programs.  I’m joined by rescue Cairns Hebert and Bettina (our newest Facebook commentator) and occasionally by Emmett, my rescue Persian, who sometimes gets annoyed by my long days and insists on coming to work, too.  I look forward to renewing contact with all of you this year!

So, from all of us to all of you – we wish for you a healthy and blessed year full of all the things that please you and your family, including your dear furry ones, the most.

Dr. Mitchell