Challenges Mount for SF Vet Care

Commissioner Dr. Brian Van Horn and his pal Fergus at Ocean Beach. photo: Jennifer Sawyer

Last month, the Animal Commission left the chairs empty on the dais in Hearing 

Room 408 of San Francisco City Hall and went on spring break. No luxury island getaways for us, though. Instead, we simply redistributed our commission volunteer hours to work, family, pets, friends, community, and all the other demands of daily life. Even so, it felt like a holiday.

The person most in need of that break was our fellow commissioner Dr. Brian VanHorn - DVM and serial volunteer - a man who works 36 hours a day, 13 days a week, 429 days a year. For Dr. VanHorn, there is no weekend, no 5 o’clock quitting bell, no sleep-in-and-come-in-late-day. Why? 

First of all, he’s the owner and operator of a small, local veterinary practice in San Francisco. Second, he can’t stop raising his hand to help the community. There’s an easy fix for the second issue (if only he’d take it), but no such easy fix for the first. 

The state of veterinary care in our city has been touched on at multiple commission meetings, though it has yet to become an official agenda item. With so many underlying causes, unraveling an issue this big will take longer than a typical commission meeting or single Bay Woof article. It will also require much  more input from the veterinary community, those selfless professionals who are on the front lines every day. 

But we need to start somewhere so, as a first step, I asked Dr. VanHorn and the San Francisco Animal Care and Control veterinary staff to weigh in on some of the challenges they’re facing. The summary below isn't the whole picture, of course, but it’s a start to understanding why San Francisco veterinarians like Dr. VanHorn and the San Francisco Animal Care and Control veterinarian staff are so pressed for time and resources. 

SF’s Changing Economics 

Dr. VanHorn has been practicing veterinary medicine in San Francisco for 14 years. In that time, he has seen changes in his profession that reflect economic realities unique to San Francisco. Metaphorically speaking, San Francisco’s economic distribution is like a tripod with only two legs. Our middle leg, a.k.a. the middle class,  has moved to Fresno. As a city, we are teetering. This instability has impacted veterinary businesses in San Francisco and animal-loving guardians at all income levels. 

Businesses of all sizes struggle to remain afloat in these uncertain times, but opening and operating a small, local veterinary practice has challenges exacerbated by San Francisco’s frustrating roadblocks. These obstacles may include zoning, permitting, licensing, staffing, equipment costs, and other hurdles. 

Take staffing, for example. One of the hottest unfilled jobs in the market right now is Registered Veterinary Technician (RVT). RVTs are state-credentialed healthcare professionals working under a veterinarian’s supervision to perform clinical and laboratory procedures. It’s very hands-on work, but San Francisco doesn’t have enough of these hands (with more of these skilled hands, more spay/neuter surgeries could help keep animal populations from exploding). Unfortunately, even with 401K benefits, health insurance, and an average hourly rate of $45, this still isn’t a living wage in San Francisco. Have you seen apartment rents here? 

The Pandemic Breaking Point

Enter 2020 and the start of a global pandemic. At home and bored with only a bucket of Purell and Netflix to keep us company, many of us responded to our  loneliness by adding a pet to the household. Increased adoptions were great news for animal shelters and rescue groups, but they brought a breaking point for many small veterinary practices. Keeping up was simply unsustainable for some. The hours were crushing. Staff quit or moved. Commission attendees voiced concerns about the rising cost of veterinary care and long appointment waits. 

For some independent veterinary practices, selling to a larger corporate care provider offered a way out - and who could blame them? But is this yet another indicator of San Francisco’s changing economy? And will this new corporate model contribute to rising costs of care? I’m no economist, but even I know that when companies don’t have to compete for business, prices rise. Plus a corporate-owned business has to make enough profit to send a good slice back to the corporate mothership and its shareholders, meaning increased demand for higher profits.

After-Hours Care? Good Luck!

I have a document I leave with our pet sitter when we go out of town. It includes the contact information for our regular veterinarian and an after-hours emergency care veterinarian. The emergency veterinarian practice has changed ownership and names so often that I pray that if my pet suffers a health issue, it’s during regular business hours. Just walking through the emergency care door is a wallet drainer.  

The staff at SF Animal Care and Control (SFACC) experiences this dilemma every day and at a much larger scale. Due to the lack of after-hours care, SFACC has had to have veterinarians on call seven days a week from 6 a.m. to midnight since September 2021. To date, the city does not currently have an after-hours emergency veterinary contract. Just like the RVT classified ads, no one wants this job. So like me, SFACC hopes all emergencies only happen during regular business hours. 

The Takeaways

San Francisco is a hard place to operate a small business, even if the demand for services is high, as is the case with veterinary care. The process of opening a business is like the most challenging, time-sucking video game you’ve ever played. Every level presents more obstacles, waiting, and additional fees. Once you open your business, you can’t hire the staff to keep it running because the cost of living here is prohibitive. There is no winner in this game. 

Now What?

The fixes aren’t quick - but they are worthy of an investment if we want to keep our city livable for animals and the people who love them. 

For starters, we need to invest in making San Francisco a place where a teacher, firefighter, or RVT can afford to live. As a city, we need to encourage and incentivize small business owners by making the process of opening and operating a business in San Francisco easier. As consumers, all of us need to make a conscious effort to support our local businesses, including our local veterinary practices. 

In the meantime, stay tuned. We’ll explore this topic at future Animal Commission meetings - hope to see you there!

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The next meeting of the Commission of Animal Control and Welfare will be held at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, May 11. Meetings are held in Room 408 at City Hall (1 Carlton B Goodlett Place, San Francisco, CA 94102). Information concerning remote access to our commission meetings will be forthcoming. Please check the commission’s website for updates.

For additional information about the Commission of Animal Control and Welfare, please visit our website. Meeting agendas, minutes, and supporting documents can also be found on our website (agendas for upcoming meetings are published 72 hours before that meeting).