If not for the quality care provided by Dr. Rosie himself, I would have given this business a rating of 1 star. Our problems with Northwest Veterinary Clinic started a little more than a year ago with the receptionist and the frequent lack of responses to our phone messages and blocked attempts to visit the office during business hours. We have experienced dozens of occasions where we have called during business hours, and no one answers the phone. Ever. Because our dog was so sick and was getting good treatment from Dr. Rosie, we put up with it. We were forced to leave messages, only to have them returned oftentimes 24 hours later or, in some cases, more than three days later. About a year ago, we showed up at 1:30 to pick up a prescription for our dog's medication, only to discover that, unbeknownst to us, the receptionist had started closing the office at 1 p.m. for an hour so that she could "catch up on phone messages." That policy is not posted anywhere in their office, and it certainly was never communicated to us during any of our visits. On one other occasion, I arrived at 3:00 p.m. only to find the office was locked again with the receptionist sitting behind the desk. She threw her hands up in the air at me behind the glass door as if I was inconveniencing her. Each trip to that vet is a 30-minute, one-way drive for us -- so I had to sit in my car until she opened the door at 3:15. It's odd that any business would shut down for an hour in the middle of the business day, at 1 p.m. (the lunch hour I could understand). But clearly that policy was applied inconsistently.
The receptionist often berated us for silly things, made snarky comments and was generally unpleasant. Her demeanor seems to have changed markedly in the past year or so. Again, we were willing to overlook these indignities and inconveniences in exchange for the quality care we received from the veterinarian.
The final straw for us occurred a little more than a week ago when we called to have our dog's life-saving prescription renewed. Again, we left a message and days went by with no response. Our puppy's medicine ran out over the weekend, and he passed away Monday morning. Though no one can ever know for sure if he passed because he didn't have his meds, I have to think it was, at the very least, hastened because of it.
About a month ago, I decided to take one of our cats to the Arlington Veterinary Hospital instead. I received excellent care at that facility and was treated with dignity by all of the staff. That's my recommendation for all the readers of this post. read more