Pathology wait times in veterinary medicine (FedEx only goes so fast)

Sick pet…surgery…biopsy…what’s next? How long does it take for the faraway pathologist to render a diagnosis? Some clients call every day—twice, even—hoping to catch the fax as it hits my email inbox. They’re justifiably on edge, wondering if that scary oral sore is a squamous cell carcinoma, the toe mass a melanoma, the skin mass a grade III mast cell tumor…or something they can finally big a big sigh of relief over. Three to five business days I tell them. Try to put it out of your mind until then, I urge. Easier said than done, I know. But last week’s client was not so easily mollified. Angry at what she perceived to be a delay (four and a half days since the biopsy, four days since FedEx took it away to a lab in Oregon), she berated the receptionists mercilessly for our archaic snail’s pace in a 24/7 world. Hmmm… I... [read full story]