Honors

Veterinary Study Groups, Inc. is honored to announce the acceptance and inclusion of Dr. Kristen Hammett of the Animal Hospital of Waynesville as a fully participating member of Veterinary Management Group VI. Veterinary Management Groups were established in 1983 to assist veterinary practitioners in the most effective and efficient means to provide state of the art veterinary care for their member practices. These Veterinary Management Groups are configured in groups of twenty. The groups allow doctors from all over the country to meet in multi-day sessions to explore issues of best practices in medicine, surgery, and financial management of their practices. Each participating member is subjected to an intense assessment, not only of the doctor as a leading member in the community, but also the configuration and style of practice that member maintains as hospital director. We congratulate Dr. Hammett on her admission into Veterinary Management Group VI. Dr. Hammett will be a fine addition to her fellow colleagues striving for best practices within the veterinary profession.


Award: 2009 Community Pride Award
Given for achieving the Haywood County Chamber of Commerce Green Certification through comprehensive efforts to reduce the environmental footprint of the practice and for a commitment to environmental stewardship.

Business was selected to participate in the first ever Chamber of Commerce Business for Green Certification In order to participate you would need to establish a plan that would make a substantial reduction of environmental waste.

The Animal Hospital had an audit performed by Green World Consulting and scored and excellent score of 26. You would have to receive a total of 20 points or higher to receive this certification.

In addition to the above we also initiated the following into the office

Any employee that purchased a hybrid car or one that gets over 30mph would receive $50.00
At least 50% of the staff members agreed to ride to lunch together or bring their own lunch to conserve gas. We actually made much higher than 50%

Purchase recycled products such as printing paper, toilet paper, paper towels, etc.

Buy local whenever possible

Turn off all monitors and printers that we can each night.

Installed programmable thermostats.

Installed low flow toilets.

Employees will clean vehicles at commercial car washes where water is recycled.

Changed our Doggie Play Area from carpet to concrete to reduce the amount of water used in cleaning. We lowered our water usage to clean the play area by 75%.

We reduce, reuse and recycle.

• We recycle all our printer and ink cartridges, toners.
• Use scrap papers instead of sticky notes.
• Reuse old newspapers for cages and treatment area or put in the recycle bin.
• Use internet for reminders when clients allow emails instead of printing and mailing them.
• Purchased recycle bags with our logo to give to staff and clients. If client brings their bags next time they purchase we deduct $0.25 off their purchase. This reduces the plastic bags we use.
• Prescriptions bottles are recycled, if the client returns these bottle when the medication is refilled they will get $0.18 off their prescription, reducing the need for more bottles.
• We recycle all our plastics, cans, paper, cardboard, glass, light bulbs and batteries, reducing the garbage in the landfill.
• We recycle all our light bulbs, batteries

We have reduced the footprint in our environment and we are all very proud of our stewardship in this wonderful endeavor.

You can find more information on the Haywood County Chamber of Commerce web site under the Green Initiative tab.


2009 Relay for Life “Rookie Team of the Year” with our team PAWS FOR THE CAUSE.

Our wonderful employees Sally Sorrells and Amanda Garrett were the chairs of our first ever Relay for Life team named “PAWS FOR THE CAUSE”.
We set the goal for $1,500.00 and with the help of clients and staff we ended up collection over 2,000.00. What a wonderful cause for the staff to jump in and help.

Feb. 26, 2009 The Salvation Army gave us a certificate of Appreciation for "Doing the Most Good" during Christmas of 2008.

Feb. 26, 2009 The Salvation Army gave us a certificate of Appreciation for "Doing the Most Good" during Christmas of 2008.