Archive: Business & Technology

Colonial Veterinary Hospital opened in 1972 in half of a farm house that had been moved to Triphammer Road to make room for the airport.  The other half  moved to Oakcrest Road, where it is still used as a home.  Dr. George Ross renovated the farm house three times as his practice expanded.  Now owned and operated by his son Tom and daughter-in-law Catherine Hegarty Ross, the  a new two-storied 16,000 square foot building will replace the old structure to accommodate a staff of about 45.  "We really needed more exam space again," says Hegarty Ross.  "We went from four doctors to nine doctors in two years, and we have three exam rooms now.  I do the schedule and I can tell you it's not easy to do that."

The practice has grown to include a varied menu of services on top of its general practice, including seven-day per week emergency service from 8am to 10pm, surgery, radiology and ultrasound, acupuncture, and physical therapy.  The new building is planned to accommodate all these services more efficiently.  Because it is being built from scratch, the doctors can arrange it in ways they couldn't if they merley added another addition.  "We've been doing our homework for about five years looking at publications and floor plans of other hospitals," Hegarty Ross says.  "One big goal was to increase efficiency of the hospital in terms of, say, keeping x-ray near the surgery, and the outpatient space near where the outpatients are, so there is a little less running around the hospital with the doctors physically walking all over the place."


Even while such major construction is going on the practice remains open.  That means that construction had to be planned in two phases.  While the front of the new hospital is being built, it is business as usual in the old building.  A narrow dirt drive leads to ample parking in the back, and a temporary entrance leads to the reception area.  When the first phase is completed the practice will move forward into the new space so that the old building can be demolished.  Once the space is cleared the back of the new building will be erected.

That plan was necessitated by Village of Lansing zoning, which requires business buildings to be placed closer to the road.  The only way to save the original house would have been to move it forward, an option that was impractical and costly.  "We are very emotional about tearing this building down, but we had some constraints that we had to work around some zoning concerns and financial concerns," explains Hegarty Ross.  "We looked at how can we save at least this little part of the old house.  Every which way we tried it, we couldn't do it without really considerable expense."


She says it will get worse before it gets better, but the expanded building will be worth it in the end.  "Phase one is supposed to be completed in October," she says.  "The second they are ready for us, we will move everything into that part of the building and they will demolish this building, and rebuild the second phase of the structure -- and it will be all one building."

Architect Richard Hauteniemi's design captures the pilastered colonial look of the old building an an homage to the original house.  With the new parking lot and landscaping the size of the new state of the art hospital will not be obvious from the street.  The key benefit will be ample exam room space and strategic location of the different areas for the practice's various services.  Outpatient exam rooms and a waiting room will be in the front, with a conference room upstairs.  Hospital facilities will be placed together in the back, including surgery, radiology, an ultrasound room, hospitalized patient areas, and an intensive care unit.  There will also be a large new dog ward and a cat ward.

"We're hoping it will actually be much better for clients right away (when phase one is complete)," Hegarty Ross says.  "We'll have the waiting room and more exam rooms, so that will be a plus.  Doctors will still be a little bit cramped, but the clients will benefit immediately once that front part is open."

She notes that the expansion is not so much to grow the business as to house the staff they have now.  She says that they are comfortable with the current staff size which is large enough to handle all of the services they offer, but small enough that clients can feel they are getting personal care.  "Even though there seems to be a lot of doctors, we are divided (by specialty)," she says.  "The surgeons work together on their patients.  The general practitioners take care of our own patients, and it's the same way with the emergency doctors.  They tend to keep their cases amongst themselves.  Typically our clients get to know all of us and there are not so many doctors that that's not possible."


As steel beams reach toward the sky, the first phase should be completed by October.  The whole project is expected to take almost a year.  Hegarty Ross says that the staff will be celebrating when phase one is done, but with an ongoing practice it will be business as usual.  "We will be celebrating internally when the first phase is done," she says.  "You have to remember we're running a hospital here.  It's really hard to plan for these things."

When the entire project is completed, though, she says there will be an open house to show the community what the new facility has to offer.  And there will be plenty of space for all the staff to treat their patients.

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