Pictured is the surgical suite in Metropolitan Veterinary Associates & Emergency Services in Lower Providence. Photo by Gene Walsh

Julie Banyacski, practice manager, and James F. Dougherty, VMD, pose in the lobby of Metropolitan Veterinary Associates & Emergency Services in Lower Providence. The practice is celebrating 25 years of animal care. Photo by Gene Walsh

LOWER PROVIDENCE — When Jim Dougherty hung out his shingle with three other doctors 25 years ago, he had no idea that Metropolitan Veterinary Associates & Emergency Services would one day grow into a facility with 24 doctors practicing 10 different specialties.

“There weren’t any other practices in the Philadelphia area at that time, besides the University of Pennsylvania,” Dougherty recalled. “We all did training and residencies there and were looking for a place to open a practice when we found some real estate on Trooper Road.”

Easy highway access to its original 915 Trooper Road address was an important factor in choosing the location. “There was no Internet, and we wanted to be able to give real quick directions on the phone,” Dougherty said.

A few years later a dermatologist and an ophthalmologist were added to the staff. The practice went 24 hours in the mid ’90s, and five years ago moved to a larger building within the same business park, Valley Forge Corporate Center.

In addition to emergency and critical care for dogs and cats, Metropolitan now offers cardiology, dental and oral surgery, dermatology, surgery, internal medicine, radiology, neurology, ophthalmology and behavior training. An MRI center is currently under construction, and in-house physical therapy will most likely become a reality at some point.

Practice manager Julie Banyacski, a veterinary technician specialist and emergency critical care nurse, remembers the hospital employing just three nurses when she started there 11 years ago.

“Now emergency service alone has 17 nurses and assistants, and probably 15 nurses during the day for specialty,” she said. “Outside of university, this was the only place to go if you needed specialized or emergency treatment.”

In 25 years, the competition has indeed grown, she noted.

“Other hospitals have cropped up over the years. We’re the original though,” Banyacski said.

Many of those emergency practices limit their hours, she pointed out.

“A lot are only in operation from around 8 at night to 8 the next morning, and all of those animals have to either go home or back to their referring veterinarian because they have no one to care for them during the day, whereas we can care for them 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year for emergencies,” Banyacski said.

Dougherty nodded in agreement.

“That was always the case in the suburbs with the couple of emergency practices that were around,” he said. “At 8 a.m. you’d get kicked out and you’d have to take your pet somewhere and people would frantically call around. So it was a real convenience for people when we opened because people could continue to leave their pets here.”

When Dougherty decided to relocate the practice within the business park, there was no shortage of available real estate beyond Trooper Road, but he wasn’t interested in moving too far away.

“We didn’t want to take the emergency practice away from this immediate area,” he said.

Juggling the needs of critical care animals with those waiting to see specialists sometimes makes the hospital seem like a setting for reality show drama, Banyacski said.

“If people are coming in through the emergency service they can be in a crisis situation, and we’re constantly scheduling appointments with specialists for pets that have been diagnosed with potentially different disease processes. Some days emergency isn’t busy at all — it’s more appointment-based until after hours. And some days we’re seeing as many emergencies as we are appointments.”

Metropolitan works with several animal rescue groups, including Main Line Animal Rescue, which not only finds homes for hundreds of unwanted animal companions every year, but is leading the fight to improve conditions for thousands of dogs in Pennsylvania’s puppy mills by educating the public to the horrors of our state’s puppy factories.

“They get animals from everywhere and we see a lot of them on a regular basis, and a lot of abuse cases as well,” Banyacski noted.

Acknowledging recent criticism that Metropolitan withstood for its surgical fee involving a rescued dog, Dougherty said, “I wish all of the stuff we do for rescues could be for free. But the plates we use for broken legs are human plates, not puppy dog plates, and they have to be bought from human orthopedic surgery suppliers. The anesthesia machines are human machines, not puppy dog machines. So there’s a minimum cost that is indirectly human related. And we have doctors and technicians that expect a paycheck. They can’t give away everything they do or they’d be unemployed, especially with the volume of cases we do.”

The staff at Metropolitan does “a ton of good things every day,” Banyacski added.

“We have a large staff of very experienced, reliable people and it’s not like we’re patting ourselves on the back because we helped 10 animals from Main Line Animal Rescue. We do it because we love animals and that’s why we’re in this profession to begin with.”

To learn more about Metropolitan Veterinary Associates & Emergency Service, 2626 Van Buren Ave., Valley Forge, visit www.metro-vet.com or call 610-666-1050.

Pictured is the surgical suite in Metropolitan Veterinary Associates & Emergency Services in Lower Providence. Photo by Gene Walsh

Julie Banyacski, practice manager, and James F. Dougherty, VMD, pose in the lobby of Metropolitan Veterinary Associates & Emergency Services in Lower Providence. The practice is celebrating 25 years of animal care. Photo by Gene Walsh

LOWER PROVIDENCE — When Jim Dougherty hung out his shingle with three other doctors 25 years ago, he had no idea that Metropolitan Veterinary Associates & Emergency Services would one day grow into a facility with 24 doctors practicing 10 different specialties.

“There weren’t any other practices in the Philadelphia area at that time, besides the University of Pennsylvania,” Dougherty recalled. “We all did training and residencies there and were looking for a place to open a practice when we found some real estate on Trooper Road.”

Easy highway access to its original 915 Trooper Road address was an important factor in choosing the location. “There was no Internet, and we wanted to be able to give real quick directions on the phone,” Dougherty said.

A few years later a dermatologist and an ophthalmologist were added to the staff. The practice went 24 hours in the mid ’90s, and five years ago moved to a larger building within the same business park, Valley Forge Corporate Center.

In addition to emergency and critical care for dogs and cats, Metropolitan now offers cardiology, dental and oral surgery, dermatology, surgery, internal medicine, radiology, neurology, ophthalmology and behavior training. An MRI center is currently under construction, and in-house physical therapy will most likely become a reality at some point.

Practice manager Julie Banyacski, a veterinary technician specialist and emergency critical care nurse, remembers the hospital employing just three nurses when she started there 11 years ago.

“Now emergency service alone has 17 nurses and assistants, and probably 15 nurses during the day for specialty,” she said. “Outside of university, this was the only place to go if you needed specialized or emergency treatment.”

In 25 years, the competition has indeed grown, she noted.

“Other hospitals have cropped up over the years. We’re the original though,” Banyacski said.

Many of those emergency practices limit their hours, she pointed out.

“A lot are only in operation from around 8 at night to 8 the next morning, and all of those animals have to either go home or back to their referring veterinarian because they have no one to care for them during the day, whereas we can care for them 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year for emergencies,” Banyacski said.

Dougherty nodded in agreement.

“That was always the case in the suburbs with the couple of emergency practices that were around,” he said. “At 8 a.m. you’d get kicked out and you’d have to take your pet somewhere and people would frantically call around. So it was a real convenience for people when we opened because people could continue to leave their pets here.”

When Dougherty decided to relocate the practice within the business park, there was no shortage of available real estate beyond Trooper Road, but he wasn’t interested in moving too far away.

“We didn’t want to take the emergency practice away from this immediate area,” he said.

Juggling the needs of critical care animals with those waiting to see specialists sometimes makes the hospital seem like a setting for reality show drama, Banyacski said.

“If people are coming in through the emergency service they can be in a crisis situation, and we’re constantly scheduling appointments with specialists for pets that have been diagnosed with potentially different disease processes. Some days emergency isn’t busy at all — it’s more appointment-based until after hours. And some days we’re seeing as many emergencies as we are appointments.”

Metropolitan works with several animal rescue groups, including Main Line Animal Rescue, which not only finds homes for hundreds of unwanted animal companions every year, but is leading the fight to improve conditions for thousands of dogs in Pennsylvania’s puppy mills by educating the public to the horrors of our state’s puppy factories.

“They get animals from everywhere and we see a lot of them on a regular basis, and a lot of abuse cases as well,” Banyacski noted.

Acknowledging recent criticism that Metropolitan withstood for its surgical fee involving a rescued dog, Dougherty said, “I wish all of the stuff we do for rescues could be for free. But the plates we use for broken legs are human plates, not puppy dog plates, and they have to be bought from human orthopedic surgery suppliers. The anesthesia machines are human machines, not puppy dog machines. So there’s a minimum cost that is indirectly human related. And we have doctors and technicians that expect a paycheck. They can’t give away everything they do or they’d be unemployed, especially with the volume of cases we do.”

The staff at Metropolitan does “a ton of good things every day,” Banyacski added.

“We have a large staff of very experienced, reliable people and it’s not like we’re patting ourselves on the back because we helped 10 animals from Main Line Animal Rescue. We do it because we love animals and that’s why we’re in this profession to begin with.”

To learn more about Metropolitan Veterinary Associates & Emergency Service, 2626 Van Buren Ave., Valley Forge, visit www.metro-vet.com or call 610-666-1050.

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