The clinic held the ceremony last Friday, but they actually moved into the new facility in late June. The new space on Mill Bay Road is much bigger than Kodiak Veterinary Clinic’s previous hospital.
Staff had been waiting to move for about a year and a half. Nicole Sassin is the vet clinic’s hospital manager. She said it’s great to finally celebrate with the public.
“We had three days to move the entire clinic and get out of the old clinic before our lease was up so we were kind of just constrained on time,” she said. “We also had some staff out, so I just wanted to make sure that everyone could be present for it as well.”
Kodiak Veterinary Clinic is the only facility on the island that provides veterinary care. And the new building is a major step for improving care for Kodiak pets.
The clinic only has one full time vet, but now, they have two more exam rooms for when other doctors visit the island through their parent company, National Veterinary Associates, which helps with staffing.
“It’s just Dr. Emily Iacobucci and she’s been the doctor here for the last I believe five years,” said Sassin. “Some of them are within the NVA company and they just are traveling around.”
It’s taken a bit of time to adjust to the new building, but Sassin said the staff is overall happy for the move.
“We can’t just like yell at one another from a room, we have to like get up and kind of walk around and play Marco Polo sometimes,” she said. “But it’s really great because it’s just everything being updated and clean and beautiful, super nice.”
The new facility also has more room for their retail store and space for patients to walk around the reception area. But Sassin said one of the biggest changes for the clinic is a side area of the waiting room that’s just for cats.
“You just go in there with your little kitten and you don’t have to worry about dogs stressing them out,” said Sassin. “It has a door that you can close all the way or (keep) the top of it open so you can still see out.”
The cat room also provides relief for owners who might be allergic to dogs, or vice versa. The new building also has space for a comfort room vets can use for laser treatments or animal acupuncture.
