Dear petition signers,
Our petition is having an impact! I have received two important responses from petition recipients: one from the Kelly Andrews, the Executive Director of the Minnesota Veterinary Medical Association (MVMA; our state's veterinary professional society), and one from Dr. Chris Anderson, MVMA board member and employee of Mission Veterinary Partners, the corporation that owns Bemidji Veterinary Hospital.
Full text of their e-mail messages are below. Here are three key points:
- Bemidji Veterinary Hospital is working to hire another veterinarian to increase emergency service capacity. They are in negotiations with a candidate. Their goal is to offer urgent care service from 8:00am-8:00pm on Saturdays and Sundays by 10/01/2024. This would be a great step!!
- In response to our petition, MVMA is creating a task force on after-hours urgent veterinary care. We have started a statewide conversation! The task force will discuss further steps that MVMA can take to facilitate solutions. Bemidji veterinarian Dr. Tom Rietveld of Headwaters Veterinary Clinic also met with me to share a petition response verbally. He is a member of the new emergency task force, which will help ensure that our area's needs are heard.
- MVMA has expertise and will facilitate education about successful models for emergency service rotations for veterinary practices/areas that want to learn. It is good to know that our local veterinary practices have this resource if they choose to form a rotation.
A big thank you to Bemidji Veterinary Hospital for working toward daytime/evening services on the weekend!! Now, what can we do to facilitate night hours?
Dr. Anderson says that recruiting to Bemidji is difficult due to our rural location in this competitive economic climate - see below. They need to recruit and retain more staff to cover night hours. Our community can help by creating financial incentives. I'll re-share our message with Headwaters Regional Development Commission and the City Council. If you have other ideas for organizations who can help create local financial incentives, or if you have any experience in this area, please share information on our Working Group for After-Hours Emergency Veterinary Care Facebook group! https://www.facebook.com/groups/3379241468991123
Message from Kelly Andrews, Executive Director of MVMA:
Hi Megan,
Thank you for sending your letter and petition to "Bring night and weekend emergency veterinary (vet) care to Bemidji, MN" to the MVMA. The mailed letter was timely for our MVMA board of directors met late last week and had an opportunity to discuss. Our board is in agreement that this is a problem that is unfortunately not only located in your specific area of MN.
In 2023 we had the topic of "Establishing an Emergency Call Group" on our convention program agenda and the MVMA will work to facilitate education of a successful model with those areas that want to learn. We have a task force established working to address the shortage of rural food animal veterinary services through legislative initiatives. The MVMA has been actively working to pass a veterinary technician licensure bill in the state and it is very hopeful that it will pass this year. We will be establishing a task force on emergency, after hours urgent veterinary care to further discussion on steps that the MVMA can take to work on solutions. Retaining our valuable professionals is very important and licensure is a key step.
Our board is fortunate to have Dr. Chris Anderson as a board member who is knowledgeable about the Bemidji area, works for Mission Veterinary Partners who own Bemidji Veterinary Hospital and is working to recruit doctors to your area. I have attached a promising letter from him that also addresses your letter and this petition.
Kelly Andrews
Kelly Andrews, CAE
Executive Director
Minnesota Veterinary Medical Association
Minnesota Veterinary Medical Foundation
Message from Dr. Chris Anderson, employee at Mission Veterinary Partners (corporation that owns Bemidji Veterinary Hospital):
Good evening,
Thank you for sharing the petition from the community of Bemidji and the surrounding area. Unfortunately, this is an all-too-common scenario in many communities today. The shortage of veterinarians and skilled veterinary staff especially in more rural areas is impacting the care pets receive. The good news is we are aware of the issue and we are actively working with one of your local veterinary hospitals to help with the situation. The goal is to have that hospital open for urgent care hours from 8:00am-8:00pm on Saturdays and Sundays in an urgent care manner but recruiting has been the biggest barrier. In some locations veterinarians are receiving signing bonuses in excess of $100,000 which makes for a very competitive environment. The hospital is in negotiations with a veterinarian right now in hopes they can open urgent care by 10/01/2024. Please keep us posted on what the Headwaters Regional Development Commission responds with regarding financial incentives. These may be best targeted at recruiting and retaining current veterinarians AND veterinary staff. Our other ask would be if there is anyone that is willing to help staff the hospital during the urgent care hours. There is a need for skilled veterinary staff but also customer service positions that don’t require formal veterinary training.
Regards,
Chris Anderson, DVM
MVMA Board of Directors