Great ideas that fell flat in veterinary design

When you're all starry-eyed and designing a new hospital, certain aspects of the plan might not meet with reality, and best intentions can go astray when put into practice. Donald Ostwald, DVM, DABVP, owner of the 2018 HospitalDesign360 Specialty Hospital of the Year award winning Wheat Ridge Animal Hospital, humbly shared some of his less than stellar moments.

Take the emergency room in that current building. It's conveniently located right off the waiting room, but Dr. Ostwald admits there's a flaw.

"What I didn't think of is that's one our largest, busiest practices and yet we didn't design the triage center large enough for the work that's going on in there," he says.

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And then there was Dr. Ostwald's idea of putting holding cages at the front desk for use by clients checking out at a previous clinic. Sounds good, right? The results?

"In twenty years in that building I don't think I saw those cages get used once," he says.

So, make sure you've thought everything through ... with the understanding that some things still might not work.

Watch the video to hear more from Dr. Ostwald.

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