UC Davis vet school will open new ER, ICU in May; units are twice the size of current space
The School of Veterinary Medicine at the University of California, Davis, will open a new emergency room and intensive care unit on May 3, doubling in size to accommodate rapid growth in admissions since early 2020.
“Our ER’s caseload has increased tremendously since the pandemic,” said Dr. Mark Stetter, dean of the School of Veterinary Medicine. “This new space and expanded care teams will better allow us to meet our patients’ needs, as well as the profession’s need for more specialists. We’ll be able to see that all animals are treated in a timely and compassionate manner.”
Stetter said the caseload for the UC Davis Veterinary Medical Center has doubled since immediately before the pandemic and is up tenfold since 2013. Faculty and students treated an average of more than 900 animals a month in 2022, reaching highs of more than 1,200 patients in some months.
The new facilities are part of a $500 million modernization project for the Veterinary Medical Center, and construction crews are continuing to work on an animal dentistry and oral surgery center inside the hospital, a free-standing advanced surgery center and an imaging center for all species.
An anonymous donor gave $2.1 million to help fund the expansion of the ER and ICU, UC Davis officials said in a news release, a gift that allowed the first expansion in the physical ER/ICU space since the building opened in 1970. The growth will allow the new facility to optimize patient care and increase training opportunities for both visiting veterinarians and residents. The school plans to increase the number of ER/ICU residents to 8 from seven over this next year.
The faculty, staff and students have carefully coordinated the move to ensure they will be able to continue offering services as they transfer equipment and supplies to the new space.
UCD already has completed a number of projects as part of its $500 million overhaul, including an exotics examination room, a feline treatment and housing suite, a cardiology service suite and exam rooms, a translational cardiology clinical research center, and equine stalls for the large animal clinic.
The work will continue well into this decade with construction on a small animal hospital, an equine isolation unit, an equine surgery and critical care center, an equine performance and rehabilitation center and more.
UCD’s veterinary medicine school ranked No. 1 in the nation in new rankings of professional and graduate schools released this week by US News & World Report magazine. The publication evaluates veterinary medicine every four years, and it’s the third consecutive time that UC Davis has come out on top in that field.
The school, now celebrating its 75th anniversary, has been ranked as the first or second best in the world by QS World University Rankings since the subject was added to that evaluation in 2015.
Stetter said the veterinary school will celebrate the new construction and its accomplishments with events that include an alumni reunion this weekend, a gala in April 2024 and other events.
“I look forward to the expansion of our first-class veterinary instruction, research, and clinical care, as we continue to position UC Davis at the top of veterinary education,” Stetter said.
