Vets Pets to replace Points East Veterinary Specialty Hospital with larger clinic

Vets Pets, a network of veterinary hospitals in North Carolina, has begun construction of a state-of-the-art facility in Wilson, North Carolina.

According to a company release,¹ the Points East Veterinary Specialty Hospital (Points East) will be a 17,000-square-foot facility that will replace an existing smaller facility under a mile away. The project officially launched on September 26, 2022, featuring a ceremonial groundbreaking at the new facility's Grover Lane location.

Vets Pets medical director Paige Harrington, DVM, anticipates that the new Points East Veterinary Specialty Hospital will offer more convenience, comfort, and medical capabilities to pet owners within the area. "We'll have more of everything here—exceptionally knowledgeable, skilled, compassionate, board-certified personnel plus the region's most advanced emergency, surgical, critical-care, diagnostic, and therapeutic technologies," Harrington stated.

The original Points East, at the time known as Eastern Carolina Veterinary Emergency Treatment Services (ECVETS), debuted in 2006, started by Frank Batten, DVM, in a 2,500-square-foot industrial complex. The next year, Batten and his son-in-law Steve Thomas, Vets Pets CEO, founded Vets Pets by coupling ECVETS with another veterinary practice.

In 2010, Vets Pets bought and renovated a vacant 5,100-square-foot restaurant at 4935 Raleigh Road Parkway West as the home of ECVETS, which has been it ever since. That facility underwent renovation in 2015 and specialty surgery services were added, bringing Points East to fruition.¹

The facility was renovated again in 2019, and 24/7/365 emergency and critical-care services were then available. This along with the additional offered services were rebranded under the Points East name. Its Wilson location near the intersection of I-95 and U.S. Hwy. 264 located it in amid a vast, largely underserved region stretching eastward from Raleigh's Triangle Area to the Carolina coast.

"At its inception, ECVETS was the only veterinary hospital of its kind in the region, and with a consistent focus on growth and advancement, Points East remains so today," expressed Thomas, in the release.¹

Harrington added that moving to the larger facility was a plan that had been in the works for some time.

"We knew we were going to need a larger place if we were to keep pace with the surging demand for our services and to be able to continue accepting the growing variety of cases being brought to us," she shared. "The new, much larger, and better-equipped facility will help us do both."

Reference

Vets Pets breaks ground in Wilson, N.C., to build new home for Points East Veterinary Specialty Hospital. News release. Vets Pets. September 27, 2022. Accessed September 27, 2022. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/vets-pets-breaks-ground-in-wilson-nc-to-build-new-home-for-points-east-veterinary-specialty-hospital-301632402