Today we’d like to introduce you to Dr. Christian Dorazio.
Dr. Dorazio, please share your story with us.
In the years prior to our opening, pet owners voiced concern about the lack of quality, compassionate, and affordable specialized veterinary care in the Nashoba Valley region. We calculated that if we offered a service that was focused on the family, treating every client with warmth, understanding, and fairness, our hospital would flourish.
In November of 2012, just after Superstorm Sandy, our hospital opened its doors to never close. We quickly found that the demand we expected was underestimated. The local pet-owing and veterinary community found our approach refreshing and we found ourselves suddenly in very high-demand. We proved to our colleagues and general-practice owners that we were here to collaborate, not compete with them. We depend on these veterinarians to refer clients to us and consider them part our team. Our initial team of emergency-room staff doubled within the first 6 months. Within 12 months we had a thriving Internal Medicine Service. By month 18 we had run out of room and expanded our hospital by 2100 square feet. From this additional space grew our CAT scan capabilities and our Oncology Service. Now, just after our 5th year anniversary, we are planning a future expansion to provide more services to better serve our community.
We were very happy to work with Cheryl Serpe and Sean Moriarty out of the Westford Branch of Enterprise Bank. With their help, we were able to consolidate nearly a half-million dollars of SBA and capital equipment loans thereby saving thousands of dollars annually. The savings have been re-invested into new equipment and additional staffing. Impressed by the diligence and personal care we received, we financed the purchase of our 54 acre horse farm with Enterprise Bank. We look forward to working with Enterprise Bank to achieve our future goals and expansions.
Dr. Chris D’Orazio was born and raised in New England. His mother tells the story on how he came home from first-grade announcing that he wanted to be a veterinarian; an aspiration that did not waiver. He grew up on the North Shore of Massachusetts and attended Hamilton-Wenham Regional High School. He enrolled at Merrimack College in North Andover majoring in Biology with a minor in Business Administration. After graduation from college, he worked for a number of years as a veterinary technician in animal hospitals in Boxford, Acton, and at the Tufts University ICU in North Grafton. With the desire to become a veterinarian still strong, he was accepted at Ross University School of Veterinary Medicine in the West Indies. His clinical year was spent at the University of Missouri where he honed his emergency medicine skills. After receiving his Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree, he moved back to New England where he worked exclusively in emergency medicine. It was while working at a large hospital in New Hampshire that he was mentored in and developed a professional interest in emergency soft-tissue surgery.
Westford Veterinary Emergency & Referral Center is co-owned by Sarah Gill-D’Orazio. Sarah was born in Gainesville, Florida. The first daughter of a military family, she traveled with her parents all over the country before settling in Westford, Massachusetts. Following graduation from Westford Academy, she attended the University of New Hampshire majoring in Equine Sciences. After earning her Bachelors of Science degree, she was employed by the defense contractor, BAE Systems while simultaneously managing her private horse farm. An accomplished equestrian in the sport of classical dressage, Sarah rides competitively and aspires to compete nationally. With an entrepreneurial spirit and passion for challenge, Chris and Sarah realized the Westford Veterinary Emergency & Referral Center.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
A challenge that we quickly faced was underestimating the demand for the quality affordable care we provide. Although we were aware that specialized veterinary services were needed in the Nashoba Valley region, we did not realize how quickly and welcomingly we would be received. Initially we had estimated that it would take 5 years to develop a reputation in the area for high-quality medicine and we would likely need to expand by year 10. The reality was that it only took 12 months for us to overflow a 5500 square foot space. Within 9 months we developed an advanced surgery service. Within 12 months we expanded our services to include a full-time internist; integrating an entire field of study into a single 10’x12’ room. 18 months after our opening, our center was so busy and congested we were running out space for our growing staff. Our clients and referring veterinarians were asking for even more services.
We decided to expand when we realized that we also needed to offer cancer treatment options and CAT scans to our clients and local veterinarians. Consequently, we leased additional space adding 2100 square feet. Our 5 year anniversary was just a few months ago and we find ourselves on the crest of leasing another 8,500 square feet for yet another expansion to offer even more services.
Please tell us about Westford Veterinary Emergency & Referral Center.
Westford Veterinary Emergency & Referral Center is a highly specialized veterinary hospital that incorporates advanced techniques with a practical approach to animal care. We do not perform annual exams or vaccines, but rather provide the lifesaving intervention, chronic disease management, technically advanced surgeries, and cancer treatment that the general-practice veterinarian does not have the equipment or training to perform.
Our Emergency Service receives patient’s 24-hours a day, 7 days a week, and 365 days a year. We have not closed our doors since our debut in 2012. The Emergency Service team is made up of highly skilled and experienced veterinarians and technicians that enjoy the challenge and adrenalin rush that is only found in emergency medicine. The internists that make up our Internal Medicine Service are residency trained and board-certified. Each of our internal medicine specialists is skilled in the diagnosis and treatment of complicated, rare, and/or chronic diseases that afflict companion animals. In many cases their patients do not have just one illness, but many diseases running concurrently that require an expert to manage. Our Surgery Service is led by a surgeon who holds three board-certifications from the United States and Europe. Orthopedic, abdominal, and open-chest surgeries are commonplace at our facility. The newest service offered is cancer treatment. The Oncology Service has grown substantially over the last 12 months offering chemotherapy to pets afflicted with various forms of cancer.
We diagnose and treat illnesses and injury quickly and effectively as we are equipped with instruments and machines that are typically found only in larger human hospitals. We offer digital x-ray, digital computed tomography (CAT scans) with 3D rendering, high-resolution ultrasound, digital endoscopy, and digital arthroscopy.
We jokingly tell our clients that we are sorry to see them. Pets only present to us during an emergency or in the event of an illness/injury that is beyond the comfort-level of the family’s general-practice veterinarian. Many of our clients are panicked and all are worried for their pet. More and more pets are seen as members of the family. A study performed by the American Animal Hospital Association showed that more than 85% of pet owners would rather have pain inflected upon themselves rather than see their pet in pain. Our mission is to help people by helping their pets. Our clients are not just numbers on a file, they are the ones we are here to help. Pets are part of the family; we care for the entire family.
Long before we wrote a business plan or started scouting locations, we discussed what kind of hospital we were going to lead. We each had experience working in specialty hospitals and large corporations where client care, service, and morale were secondary to profits. We decided that our hospital was going to be different. Different for the pet, different for the client, and different for our team.
We knew that if we provided high-quality veterinary medicine that clients would seek us out. Living by this belief, we did not make strategic and tactical decisions based solely on our bottom-line. Our survival depended on ensuring that we are continually practicing the best medicine and client service possible. Not only do we continue to put care first, but we are always looking to provide more and better care, there is no end-goal to the quality of service we will provide.
High-quality veterinary medicine is expected for our class of hospital. It is our client service that accompanies the care we provide that is unparalleled. We pride ourselves on the lengths we will go to help a family in need. In the event of an emergency, our staff is directed to provide aid first and concern themselves with the cost of care later. Our policy is to never allow a pet to suffer even if the family does not have the financial means to provide the ideal care. Our second Guiding Principle is “there is always something that we can do”. Some of our clients cannot afford the office visit fee; for those families we offer sound advice, some injections for relief, and written prescriptions to help the pet get comfortably through the night until it can be evaluated by their regular family veterinarian in the morning. We never turn anyone away and we never refuse to alleviate suffering.
To those families who cannot afford the cost of care, we will help the family apply for aid though credit programs and non-profit organizations. We often donate our time in order to discount services. We also offer relinquishment of a pet where expensive life-long treatment may be needed. The family signs over ownership of the pet so that we may care for it and later offer the pet for adoption. More-than-once we have provided care to a family who promised to settle their bill in a few days and more-than-once we never saw them again; we are happy that the pet is doing well.
Our founding philosophy of being service-driven and not revenue-driven is well known by our team. Allowing our staff to work from their heart knowing it’s ok to help a pet even if there is a loss of revenue gives them job satisfaction, encouragement, and pride. We, as co-owners of the hospital value helping local families and their pets above excessive profit.
We have so many business and personal achievements it is difficult to choose just one. Probably our finest achievement, the one we are most proud of, is staff we refer to as TeamWERC. Our original staff consisted of 7 full-time employees (including ourselves); 2 veterinarians and 5 technicians. Today, just over 5 years later, our hospital has more than 55 TeamWERC members and we continue to grow. We project that by the end of 2018 our full complement will be 65 full-time TeamWERC members. Over the last 5 years TeamWERC has treated more than 26,000 pets at our facility.
Many of our original 7 members are still with us today as managers imparting our founding philosophies to the newest TeamWERC members. One of our team members started with us shortly after opening. She came to us only having worked at a pet supply store. When she was presented with a training opportunity she persevered and flourished. She now leads an entire team of her own. Our management team prides itself on recognizing potential and nourishing it to grow. The majority of our management team is made up of team members that started with us at entry-level positions. We are happy to play a role in the personal satisfaction and successes of our team members. We celebrate with them when they buy a new car, purchase a home, have children, and express happiness.
The nature of our work, especially emergency medicine, is highly emotional and taxing on the body. Scars, both physical and psychological are a commonplace reality in our industry. Over the last few years, the veterinary profession has climbed onto the list of professions with the highest rate of suicide due to compassion fatigue and burn-out. Veterinary professionals are deeply caring individuals that too easily dismiss the continual good we do only to obsess on a lonely failure. When we started WERC we decided that every team member would end their shift with their head held high. As such, team morale is of the utmost importance to us. Whether it is TeamWERC Family Day at Kimball’s Farm in Westford, Technician Appreciation Week, Halloween pumpkin decorating contests, or a spontaneous pizza party during a busy Sunday night, we make every attempt to keep our team engaged, appreciated, and happy. To ease the emotional toll on our team, we invite nationally recognized veterinarians and compassion fatigue professionals each year to talk with our staff and provide them with the tools needed to lift themselves up.
Our greatest accomplishment is the development of TeamWERC. We openly muse that the key to our success was hiring people smarter than we are. Although it may sound in jest, there is a great deal of truth to the statement. We would not be where we are without their intelligence, hard work, loyalty, and stamina. It is the team of veterinarians, technicians, assistants, and client service representatives that makes our hospital special. Without the development of this team, our hospital would not be growing by leaps and bounds.
We are most proud of our TeamWERC members and their accomplishments.
If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
Like any new entrepreneur or start-up business, there are many things you learn along the way. Although we have made mistakes along the way, we do not regret any of our missteps. No one likes to make errors, however if it were not for these errors, we would not be the strong business we are today. We are fortunate that the challenges we encountered never compromised patient care nor harmed us financially. Recalling, debriefing, and understanding where we went wrong with our management team helps us avoid repeating the pitfall in the future. TeamWERC is the greatest it ever has been and continues to grow because we learned from our mistakes. We would not have done anything differently.
Contact Info:
- Address: 11 Cornerstone Square, Westford, MA 01886
- Website: WestfordVeterinary.com
- Phone: 978-577-6525
- Email: contact@WestfordVeterinary.com
- Instagram: instragram.com/wverc_LLC
- Facebook: facebook.com/westfordveterinaryemergencyreferralcenter
- Twitter: twitter.com/WVERC
- Yelp: yelp.com/biz/westford-veterinary-emergency-and-referral-center-westford?utm_campaign=www_business_share_popup&utm_medium=copy_link&utm_source=(direct)
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