The Challenges of Bringing a 24-Hour Veterinary Clinic to Cochise County

Social media across Cochise County has been lighting up for years: we need a 24-hour emergency veterinary clinic here. Why don’t we have one?

The Biggest Hurdle: Finding Veterinarians

The well-planned meeting was presented by Kathryn Honda, Hospital Administrator for New Frontier. She and other stakeholders have been exploring the reality of operating a 24/7 emergency vet clinic in Cochise County for several years.

The presentation made one thing painfully clear: you can’t staff a round-the-clock hospital if you can’t adequately staff clinics throughout a typical day. The shortage of vets is real, and it's growing.

The biggest challenge is attracting and retaining qualified veterinarians to Cochise County. Reps from New Frontier, as well as Coronado Vet Clinic and Sierra Animal Hospital, all echoed the same cry: they’ve tried to recruit doctors, but it’s been an insurmountable challenge. And no doctors means no 24-hour clinic.

Read More: Arizona Veterinarians Warning of a Dangerous Trend with Dogs

Trying to Recruit Veterinarians

It’s not for lack of trying. All the clinics said they’d spent years trying to recruit vets. They’ve searched job fairs, run ads, worked with recruiters, and even tried to bring vets in from other countries—only to watch promising candidates back out at the last minute.

Meanwhile, vets are retiring faster than new doctors are graduating, and staff burnout is pushing people out early. Cochise County is even officially flagged as a high-priority veterinary shortage area by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture. This says a lot about how thin coverage already is.

READ: Arizona Veterinarians Urgent Warning: Vaccinate your dogs now!

Can The County Generate Enough Overnight Cases To Keep It Open?

It’s important to remember that a vet clinic is a business. They’re subject to taxes, regulations, payroll, equipment, maintenance, and myriad other costs. A true emergency hospital runs on volume and referrals to sustain itself, and, unfortunately for Cochise County, rural math is brutal.

According to Ms. Honda, it can take roughly two dozen clinics to support one emergency hospital. In Tucson, for example, they can support the clientele needed to cover staff and overhead costs to effectively run the hospital. Cochise County doesn’t have anywhere close to that many.

Even after-hours demand for local veterinary service can be surprisingly low. Ms. Honda shared that New Frontier counted up the annual calls to their after-hours answering service. On average, it logged about 1.5 calls per day.

Assuming the other area clinics are getting about the same number of calls, it’s not enough to justify a full overnight team, the advanced equipment, and a building that has to be “ready for anything” every hour of the night. Even if the community is willing to pay for the service, which could be quite expensive, banks and investors often see rural 24/7 models as high risk and won’t invest.

What Makes Overnight Coverage So Hard Even If Someone Is “On Call”?

Many people have suggested a “rotating on call” schedule, where area veterinarians take turns staffing the clinic. Unfortunately, it’s not as simple as it sounds.

Nearly all of our local vets live out of town, in Tucson, Douglas, Bisbee, and Green Valley. Depending on who’s covering the emergency shift, it can take at least an hour just to get to a clinic. At that point, a pet parent could be halfway to Civano Emergency Animal Hospital or another emergency vet in Tucson.

In an emergency, you’re not just asking for a vet. They can’t do much alone; they need technicians, assistants, and support staff who also have to show up the next morning for their regular shift and perform at a high level. Add in the fact that vet clinics often stock controlled substances for their patients, and you’re creating late-night security concerns for employees.

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How Do Community Expectations Help Or Hurt The Mission?

Veterinarians and their staff care for animals. It’s not only their main mission, but it’s also the reason they choose the profession. Working with animals is only part of the challenge.

Ms. Honda played a video from social media featuring a veterinarian who explained that one of the toughest parts is the gap between urgency and expectations. He said that sometimes a frustrated owner can make an injurious comment that lingers in the staff's hearts and minds.

It can be even worse on local social media forums where this is being discussed. Comments like “just rotate through staff” and “vets are just greedy” don’t create a very welcoming environment for either local vets or anyone they might hope to attract.

How a Pet Parent Can Be Prepared for a Pet Emergency

The bottom line: we’re unlikely to get a 24/7 emergency vet clinic in Cochise County anytime soon. Until then, they suggest that pet parents:

• Establish a relationship with a local veterinarian well before you need emergency care.
• • Vets can’t see your pet in an emergency unless they’re already established patients.
• Have a plan to pay for pet emergencies.
• • Look into pet insurance, a pet savings plan, Care Credit, Scratch Pay, or another way to cover emergency expenses.
• Keep your pet up to date with regular check-ups and vaccinations.
• • Many conditions can be managed before they become emergencies.
  • Make an appointment when the pet begins to seem unwell. Don’t take a “wait and see” approach, because it could escalate to an emergency that is no longer manageable.

For now, the best we can do is plan ahead and support our local veterinarians—while continuing to hope that, one day, the resources and staffing will finally align for the emergency care our community needs.

See the full meeting from the New Frontier Animal Medical Center Facebook page here.