Thursday, March 6, 2008
Animal hospital moves into high-tech facility
Web cams let owners monitor their pets from afar
by Elahe Izadi | Staff Writer
Christopher Anderson⁄The Gazette Technician Stacey Surrette (left) helps Dr. Karen Farnan care for a cat at the Rocky Gorge Animal Hospital’s new facility.
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For 58 years, the Rocky Gorge Animal Hospital has operated from a small, four-bedroom house that was converted into a medical facility. The waiting room sometimes got so full that clients had to wait outside on lawn chairs.
But on Monday, owner and veterinarian Steve Wolchinsky sat in the front lobby and gazed around his brand-new hospital, more than five times larger than the old building, with ample seating, Plasma TVs on the walls and non-cage kennels equipped with Web cameras.
‘‘It’s surreal because I’ve been planning this for five years and it’s sitting here in front of me,” he said. ‘‘It’s just neat... that little old Laurel, Maryland has the most technologically advanced hospital in the world.”
The new Rocky Gorge Animal Hospital — located on the same property as the old building, at 7515 Brooklyn Bridge Road — has added more than just square footage. It now has Bluetooth monitoring, two ICU units, surgical suites, an isolation ward and a CT scanner.
Most hospitals with equipment like CT Scanners aren’t usually general practice, like Rocky Gorge is, but rather specialty hospitals, with veterinarians who are all specialists in a particular field, like cardiology or oncology, said Laura Downes, executive director of the Maryland State Board of Veterinary Medical Examiners.
‘‘Animals are like children. You want them taken care of; you don’t want to see them in pain,” said Ted Heazlit of Odenton, who has been bringing his dog Spanky to Rocky Gorge for about five years. ‘‘When he’s not feeling well, I’m not feeling well.”
Rocky Gorge was founded by Leeland Morely and continued by his son, Bruce Morely. Wolchinsky has worked at Rocky Gorge for 20 years and took over the practice in 2005.
Wolchinsky has seen clientele increase tenfold in his time at Rocky Gorge, and said a bigger facility was necessary to accommodate patient growth.
‘‘We [were] busting at the seams,” he said of the old facility.
Cindy Sweger, a Rocky Gorge employee from 1997 to 2000, remembers how busy the old hospital was, especially on federal holidays, when clients had to wait up to three hours before a veterinarian saw their pets.
The new facility also has boarding, doggie day care and a spa where pets can be groomed. The old hospital had cages, but the new one has rooms, some equipped with flat screen TVs that show nature images, windows and Web cams that owners can access to monitor their pets from afar.
‘‘For many of our pet owners, these are their children, not just their pets. So they want to provide them with the most comfortable space and environment they can,” said Cherie Dodgson, manager of guest services.
The old building will be demolished in the coming weeks to make way for parking, said Jennifer Trujillo, hospital spokesperson and director of operations.
Just like when the hospital was in the old building, clients still are parking their cars along the street.
But even with all of the new additions to the hospital, Wolchinsky said he doesn’t want to lose sight of Rocky Gorge’s roots.
‘‘We’re trying to keep it like an old-fashioned feel to a hospital,” he said. ‘‘People went to the old building for 50 years because they trusted us.”
