Celebrating Ten Years Bailey Small Animal Teaching Hospital

TEN YEARS OF SERVICE

When it was dedicated in April 2014, the Auburn College of Veterinary Medicine’s Wilford and Kate Bailey Small Animal Teaching Hospital (BSATH) became one of the nation’s foremost medical facilities for animal healthcare and companion animal clinical education for veterinary students.

Named for Dr. Wilford Bailey ‘42 — whose Auburn career spanned 50 years, including service as the university’s 13th president — and his wife Kate, the $47 million, 208,000-square-foot complex was one of the largest and most technologically advanced teaching and referral hospitals in America. It represented a resounding vote of confidence in the CVM’s future at a time when many new and existing veterinary colleges were opting to have their clinicians practice offsite due to the high costs of hospital operation.

“The hospital was built at just the right time,” recalled current CVM Dean Calvin Johnson, who helped dedicate the facility a decade ago.
“Construction bids were awarded during a recession, and we were able to get exceptionally strong contractors and construction management firms to commit to the project while construction was very slow. I credit former Dean Tim Boosinger for moving the initiative forward at a time when most universities were cautious about launching large construction projects.”

Private support also helped push the project ahead as friends and alumni of the College rallied to support the hospital’s construction.

“We would never have gotten the momentum to proceed without two key philanthropic gifts from friends of the CVM,” Johnson added.  “The first was an estate gift from Mrs. Clara McDonald, which funded the initial planning and architectural rendering.  This gift was cultivated by Dr. Michael Newman of Decatur, Alabama, who served as Mrs. McDonald’s veterinarian.  

“The second was a major naming gift from John and Rosemary Brown in memory of their dear friends, Wilford and Kate Bailey. Dr. Bailey’s son, Ed Bailey, was instrumental in connecting the Browns with the College of Veterinary Medicine and also made a major gift in support of the project.”

The resulting facility earned high praise when it opened in 2014, not only from the world of veterinary academia, but from the construction industry as well. The new BSATH was recognized with several major construction awards, including the Associated Builders & Contractors National Excellence in Construction Award, an Engineering News Record Best of Award for 2015 and the Associated Builders & Contractors Alabama Chapter Excellence in Construction Award in the $25-$100 million category.

That investment in the CVM’s future a decade ago has definitely paid dividends in the years since. Today, as the BSATH celebrates its tenth anniversary, it continues to be one of the largest and most comprehensive small animal teaching hospitals in the world.  

Seeing on average 15,000 small companion animal patients each year, it offers 15 clinical services — from dermatology and internal medicine to orthopedics and neurology — giving animal owners and referring veterinarians access to the CVM’s expertise in the most advanced medical, surgical and diagnostic services.

The hospital incorporates the clinical and diagnostic activities of more than 75 faculty members, 130 veterinary students, 67 interns and residents, 105 veterinary technicians and assistants and in excess of 100 administrative staff.

Supporting them are a pharmacy serving both the small and large animal teaching hospitals; a clinical pathology department and a high-tech conference room as well as smaller meeting spaces to expand the college’s instructional and outreach capabilities. In the ten-year span since it opened, more than 150,000 patients have benefitted from the BSATH’s comprehensive veterinary medical services.

The Auburn University Veterinary Clinic, housed in the BSATH, is a comprehensive primary care clinic that also contains a full-service dental suite and is home to the small animal hospital’s Exotic Service — providing healthcare and proper handling education for a wide variety of birds, non-venomous reptiles and exotic mammals, including injured and orphaned raptors in conjunction with the Auburn University Raptor Center.

In addition, the Bailey Hospital offers patients access to some of the most cutting-edge diagnostic, treatment and surgical tools and techniques of any veterinary hospital in the U.S. These include the state-of-the-art Varian Edge Linear Accelerator — one of only a few such devices currently offered nationwide in veterinary teaching hospitals to treat cancer without surgery.

The hospital also houses the Holland-Ware Imaging Center, which provides advanced Computed Tomography (CT) for large and small animal diagnostic imaging and a 3T Siemens Skyra Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) Scanner.

In spite of his justifiable pride in the facility and the considerable technology and expertise it contains, Dean Johnson is quick to point out that it is the exceptional care and compassion exhibited by the hospital’s clinicians, staff and students through the years that have made it a success.  

“An independent research organization that surveys client satisfaction has placed the BSATH among the top of all academic veterinary referral centers in customer satisfaction, with a net promoter score routinely achieving 90% or greater,” Johnson noted. “In other words, 90 percent of its clients would recommend the hospital to a friend who needed advanced veterinary care. Of all the accolades given to the BSATH over the years, that’s one of the most impressive of all.”

Dr. Nickie Baird, the CVM’s Associate Dean for Clinical Affairs, seconded Johnson’s praise for the hospital’s people and said he expects that Auburn-level care for both people and their pets to continue in the years ahead.

“As we celebrate 10 years since the dedication of the Wilford & Kate Bailey Small Animal Teaching Hospital, it is still one of the most outstanding veterinary facilities in America,” Baird concluded. “We are constantly looking for better ways to use this hospital to provide the best possible training of students, interns and residents while providing world-class care for the animal population.

But while facilities and cutting-edge technology are great, it is still the people that make Auburn truly Auburn. We will continue to invest in our people as we grow our practice and increase our impact on pets and pet owners in the Southeast.”