New Client and Missed Appointment Policy Updated March 15, 2023

We continue to experience an increase in pet owners missing scheduled appointments.

Therefore:

All NEW clients will be asked to provide a credit card when making an appointment. A deposit is required to schedule an appointment. The non-refundable deposit charged to your card will be equal to the EXAM fee for each pet to be seen. The policy also applies to existing clients with a history of missing appointments. The deposit will be credited to charges generated during the appointment.

A missed appointment is when you fail to attend an appointment without notification of at least 48 hours of BUSINESS DAY notice. Canceling over the weekend via email, PetDesk, or voice mail is not sufficient notice for a Monday or Tuesday appointment. You will not be refunded if you fail to attend your pet’s appointments. 

A veterinary/client relationship is built on mutual trust and respect. House Paws’ goal is to provide quality, individualized medical care in a timely manner. As such, we strive to be on time for your scheduled appointments and ask the same of you. As a courtesy to you, we provide reminders via email, PetDesk, or a phone call before your appointment. However, you are responsible for remembering your appointment regardless.

Other pet owners cannot obtain routine or urgent care for their pets when scheduled appointments are missed without sufficient notification.

You will be charged (25% of your estimated fee) if you have a missed surgery appointment. We allocate a fixed number of time slots depending on the type of surgeries scheduled and are unable to re-book a missed surgery appointment (for whatever reason) at short notice due to the prerequisites for surgery.

We hope this allows us to serve you and your pets better.

How to Cancel/Change Your Appointment: To cancel or ask to change your appointment, you may do so on our Petdesk app or call/email the hospital where your appointment is scheduled. If you do not reach the receptionist upon calling, please leave a detailed message on our voicemail. 48 hours business hour notice applies. If you cancel or need to reschedule before the 48 hours limit, your deposit remains on your account until the appointment is rescheduled.

New modified Curbside Service Policy

When making your appointment, please let us know if you wish to come into the exam room with your pet or remain in your car while your pet is being seen. This affects our scheduling as we minimize the number of people in the building and also the number of pet interactions that would occur in our waiting room.
One pet parent will be accommodated.

1. Upon arrival, please call into the hospital to check-in. If we are not quite ready for you at that time, we will call you back and ask you to bring your pet into the building. From there, one of our technicians will escort you to an exam room, or go back and wait in your car.

2. Technician and re-check appointments will remain curbside while you wait in your car.

3. When you are waiting in your car, we will call you when your pet’s appointment is finished and review the appointment with you. We will then ask you to come into the building for checkout while the technician gets your pet (and any meds that might be going home) ready for discharge.

4. For surgery or other drop-off procedures and other day-long drop-offs, a technician will come out to your car with the surgical authorization paperwork that you will need to sign and obtain all related medical history. We will call when your pet is ready to be picked up.