Around the clock care returns to DoveLewis Animal Hospital

PORTLAND Ore. (KPTV) - DoveLewis Animal Hospital has been a part of the Portland community for 50 years and was running a 24/7 clinic for three decades up until late last year when the service was stopped due to a staffing issue.

However, Tess Payne, who works for the hospital, says they’ve started their overnight walk-in services once again.

“We didn’t want to be letting our community down,” Payne said. “We didn’t want to be leaving animals without care overnight.”

She said it was a difficult decision to temporarily shut down the service back in fall, because “that’s hard. We never want to turn any animal, or person, away when they need care for an animal.”

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She said the reason behind the change is because nationwide there are not enough veterinarians or technicians to fill the demand, “and so that just makes hiring really competitive. It’s something that we are managing and dealing with.”

However, being a local business and nonprofit, Payne said they had to hone in on what resources they do have. Especially, she said they had to focus on hiring more vets and being as efficient as possible with what staff they have on hand.

“Even though we are not quite up to the level we’d want to be,” Payne explained, “we are at a place now where we can be open 24/7. We couldn’t be happier. It was our staff who actually brought up the idea first, saying they’re ready. We trust them.”

DoveLewis is intending to remain open 24/7 into the foreseeable future and is always looking for staff.

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