The Regional Veterinary Referral Center

I called this veterinary hospital at 2:30 in the morning because our dog had thrown up 3 times earlier in the day and was panting and shaking. The lady at the vet hospital asked about her symptoms, if there were any changes in her food, etc. After listening to everything I said she said that most likely it was a stomach bug. We had introduced a new food yesterday and she ate our other dogs serving as well. The vet suggested we wait until the morning to determine if she would eat ½ her breakfast and ½ her water. She said if she didn’t change, she refused food or water or threw up again we should take her in to see the vet. I am pleased that the vet listened to my concerns and was able to tell me what was happening with our dog. There is nothing worse than spending a ton of money for no reason. Our dog is doing 100% better this morning. If we ever need to take our dogs in for an emergency, we will definitely use The Regional Veterinary Referral Center. Thank you

I would give them 0 stars. The doctor Dr. Griffin was rude, unruly, and, reckless with his diagnosis. He messed up another dog. Look here:
He refused to take X-​rays or MRI and, decided to do an off the cuff diagnosis of my pets condition.
His staff is Rude, narcissistic, unruly, and, has a very controlling attitude. No Vet recommends them even though they are an Emergency hospital. Vets recommend Hope Center, south paws or Pender vet, little bit expensive but, great customer service. Maybe you save $ 100 here. Not worth it.
Mr. Randall medications were given. I have an invoice showing charges of the medications. My account above is accurate. I did not refuse PT, please read my review its accurate. However, your office promised to refund the entire amount to me. I am still waiting for the check.
Once received I will update my review.

We’ve had nothing but great experiences here. It’s so obvious how much the whole staff loves animals. Our beagle mix has had some health problems and so we’ve seen a lot of the different doctors there. Dr. Hansen saw her for allergies and was able to get them under control. He really took his time when he examined her and made sure she was comfortable with him before he even touched her.
We had to take her to the ER for fluid in her chest and abdomen and the ER staff was really kind to us. They even let me call them throughout the night so that I could see how she was doing. I think I even called them at 3am and they were very kind to me.
Finally, Dr. Kilrain saved her life. She developed a protein losing illness and Dr. Kilrain worked with her until she finally started responding to treatments. He was honest with us throughout this journey and told us he wasn’t giving up on her yet and after months of treatment, we got her medication dosage just right. Our dog doesn’t like any vet we’ve taken her too but she loves going to Regional. The staff comes up to her and greets her as soon as we arrive and she turns into a puppy. Highly highly recommend!

Our beagle is the 3^rd animal I have brought here. Two had major surgeries here and one passed away here. They are so kind here. I cannot say enough how my experiences always resemble understanding for our pets, thoughtfulness of cost to me, and answer all of my questions. They don’t make me feel stupid for not knowing, caring about cost, or when our dog had to be put to sleep. They always smile and are down to earth. They also give us their honest suggestions. I have no other emergency vet I would prefer. They walked us through our decisions carefully and with our best interest at heart.

Everyone here is professional, caring and friendly! We were referred to Dr. Hanson because we sought a 2^nd opinion with a regular vet. Maxwell had been on steroids for 7 years for scratching and itching. We went to Banfield for help and to get him relief. They tried a couple of different meds, then referred him to the specialist. For the first time in 7 years, Maxwell had complete relief from the scratching with just one injection of CADI. He had his 2^nd injection at 7 ½ weeks as he had started to scratch again. These injections will not harm his liver and can be done each time he starts to scratch. I would not hesitate to recommend RVRC! They gave Maxwell the care, love and relief that he needed!!!

I would like to start off by saying that I have used all departments of this facility and received outstanding service and the staff seemed to be genuinely concerned and compassionate. This is why it pains me to rate this hospital a 1 star (I would give it zero if I could). I have proof they murdered my baby cat and will be taking appropriate action. Unfortunately last week I had to utilize the ER (critical care) department of the hospital. The service received was atrocious, I know the procedure they performed on my cat caused her to take a turn for the worst! You would think before performing a procedure they would review her records (she was treated at another department at their facility). Instead I feel like they just used her to experiment. she was doing so well and making good progress (even had gained her weight back and was active. The procedure the Critical care unit performed was either performed incorrectly or they over complicated a simple procedure to justify charging more money. She now has no energy and cant keep food on her stomach. If you have to use this facility, please schedule appointments with the regular departments. When I called to complain, I was told to just feed her small amounts. as she continued to decline, they said to bring her back so they could «check to see if they did something wrong» But they could not guarantee when they found something they would not charge me. I would not trust my baby or any other animal to the critical care staff ever again!!. I am addressing my concerns about the service through other means, but I urge you for your animal’s sake not to use their critical care department; The lack of experience from the critical care staff MURDERED my baby! They couldn’t put a simple feeding tube in place correctly.. They would not listen when i told them something was wrong. I urge anyone with a bad experience to report it:
It’s too bad vets in ERs aren’t like doctor’s «first do no harm». Instead they are more concerned with doing useless test to run up a bill. They take advantage of the owner’s panic and use it to bring in more money for the hospital. I did not mind paying the money at all. I paid thousands of dollars in oncology. What I am upset about is the fact that they screwed up the simple procedure of replacing a feeding tube and my baby died. She fought and recovered from a disease that would have killed her. The oncology department was so impressed! Only to die from a simple procedure gone wrong. I am getting a necropsy to confirm the cause of death, but I know it was misplacement of the tube killed her.

Thank you RVRC Saff for your prompt attention and honesty when we came rushing in the wee hours of the morning on Saturday (⁸⁄₂₉). We were distraught, but you helped us. Tori Coleman; you are so Awesome. Thanks for explaining everything and giving us options when we really couldn’t see any. We so appreciate you and Max made it through surgery and is resting comfortably. We will see him through this and plan to keep him in our family. We thank you again!

I came in for a PT consultation for my cat. I ended up not needing to see her for PT and instead gave me a set of exercises I can do with my cat. I appreciate that she can tell me that rather than just see an opportunity to milk a client. I felt that Morgan was very transparent about what my cat needed and gave me confidence in her expert opinion and techniques she showed me. She answered all of my questions and recommended if I did not see an improvement in 2 or so weeks with the techniques she taught me, to feel free to come back.
The only qualm I have was the fact that their schedule is a bit inflexible but to no fault of her own (very popular clinic, only physical therapist at RVRC it seems!)

I’ve used the ER vet and CVCA for our dog. We went to The ER on Sunday with our very sick dog. He has heart issues and suddenly very ill w/​GI issues. They hospitalized him, monitored his kidneys, and was able to really bring him back to life while managing his heart issues. He ended up having pancreatitis. We were pretty sure he wasn’t coming home. But he is home now! And the vets and techs were so kind. We could visit anytime from 10−10pm. They called us at least once a day in the morning to update us. And we never had an issue w/​the shift changes… they always had good notes from the previous vet and techs. He’s not out of the weeds yet but our dog is 11 and I mentioned pre existing issues. This vet has done everything to give our dog a second chance at life. And we felt comfortable when our regular vet said of all the ER vets, she’d take her own dog to Springfield. We also felt that they didn’t overcharge us although, yes, ER services are NOT CHEAP. They were honest about cost the whole time and I never felt like they overcharged or tried to get more from us. I’d use them again and recommend them to anyone.

I’ve received both emergency and oncology services here so will break out the review into two sections:
EMERGENCY SERVICES
I rushed my dog here after she started to look odd after vomiting in the morning. They rushed her into the back for an immediate assessment and called me within 5 minutes of my aBrrival to ask if they should proceed forward with emergency treatment. My poor dog had hemangiosarcoma and they had to perform a procedure to release the fluid from her heart. Within 10 minutes of her arrival, her treatment had begun and they did save her life at that moment.
PROS:
–No wait: I have been here for two different emergent issues and there was NO wait for my dog to be assessed for either condition. They understand issues are urgent and well take your dog back while you get started with the paperwork (after you give them a very cursory overview of the problem)
–Great providers: Both the MDs and rest of the healthcare team seem competent. They diagnosed both my dog’s issues right away. My dog was there for a bit so a new provider came in during the evening. She made sure to speak to us as well and I could tell that they have some nice protocols in place to ensure the transition of the care between providers was very good and there would be no issues with continuity of care
–Clear about cost: They are very upfront about the cost and they give you a lower and upper estimate so you can make an informed decision
BEST PROVIDER I HAVE EVER MET HANDS DOWN: Dr. Komorek
Words can not express how grateful I am that Dr. Komorek was there to help my dog during the last night of her life. She really listened to what I wanted for my dog, adjusted her plan accordingly and was just so thoughtful and kind. You know how sometimes you meet providers and they are so dogmatic about their recommendation you don’t feel like there are any other options? This is not that vet. She’s there first and foremost to provide excellent care for your pet but she has that critical skill of really listening to people and integrating that into the treatment plan.
We are so fortunate to have had Dr. Komorek treat our dog. One of the most compassionate, thoughtful vets I have ever met.
ONCOLOGY
I’ll write a longer review later on (my dog is still undergoing treatment) but there is no Oncology Center I would refer more highly than this one. I’ve been to Southpaws and Hope and this is the best one. Everyone is technically very competent and they have a great caring support staff.
Drs. Gordon (Rad Onc), Binstock and Stewart (Med Onc) are all wonderful. You can tell they stay up to date on the latest advances, are wonderful communicators, patient with both the humans and dogs and have a great team to support them. Their appointments start on time.
You can also schedule the chemo infusions so your dog doesn’t have to stay in a kennel all day which is a nice bonus.
One little story about how accommodating and sensitive they are about your needs. I’m a bit adamant about my dogs spending minimal time in a kennel. She had been back there for a while between the blood work and x-​rays and I asked them to bring her back to me if she was in a kennel. The receptionist said «oh she’s a sweet girl. She’s been in the back treatment area unleashed with the rest of the team.»
Just an example of how well they take care of your dogs in front of you and behind the scenes.

This is a review of the internal medicine department there. We’ve had good experiences with the ER there, but I wanted to tell my story for this department. My dog had a cough that wasn’t going away so I made an appointment to bring him in to see the Internal Medicine vet. Various tests showed a mass in his lungs. The vet said the next step was CT scan and a major surgery just to do a biopsy of my dog’s lungs. Cost of several thousand dollars, which I would have gladly paid if there was a snowballs chance in hell that they could give my dog a good quality of life for a few months or years. I agonized over this decision. I did not want to put him through a surgery just to be told it was a very aggressive form of cancer and he would have a month tops. As my dog got worse over the next few days, I called the office to speak with the vet as I wanted clarity on exactly what he thought my dog’s prognosis was. Instead I had a technician return my call that just said CT/​surgery was the only option, and oh by the way, they couldn’t do a CT for 2 weeks. The vet never cared to try to understand what my goals were for my dog and what I thought would be best for him. I really feel like they tried to bully me into an expensive, useless surgery that would have left my dog in pain for his last few days. I decided to seek a second opinion from a different specialist up the road (Southpaws), was told this likely cancer isn’t treatable and surgery isn’t going to buy him anything. That vet was caring, compassionate, but honest about my dog’s prognosis. So instead of pain meds and needles and sterile cages in my dogs future, he will have cheeseburgers and belly scratches for the little time he has left. Pet owners in this area can do better than this place.

I just had to review this place…
I really don’t understand all the horrible reviews, but here is my experience.
My little girl (dog), Ceci, was starting to display signs of being very sick. I took her to the normal vet who then referred me to a specialist here. Unfortunately, she suddenly took a turn for the worse after getting better, and I had to go through their emergency service. Ceci was taken back immediately to be taken care of… stabilized — I could barely speak when I walked in cradling her in my arms, but I didn’t have to.
I was taken to a private exam room where they began to explain all the issues and potential cost. It was expected that emergency services would be pretty high (C’mon. they have to be with all the equipment and specialist and 24 hour service they provide) so I was not disturbed by the invoice estimate. Everything was explained to me even though I am sure they were probably very aware of my skepticism (this was the one time Unilocal reviews were actually off from my own experience), SORRY DR. DERBIN. They were patient and kept me in the loop ALL day considering that I am VERY hard to get in touch with throughout the day bc of my work.
Ceci wasn’t able to get stabilized … But they let me know immediately and didn’t try to push all those estimated procedures in just to nickel and dime me… they probably could have because I had already been charged the full amount of the lower end estimate. I was given a refund on the services they did not use…
I said goodbye to her…
These doctors and technicians, who never met me or my little girl, tended to both of us with sensitivity and took on roles they never had to —. counselor/​friend… it was the perfect touch during a horrible time.
I took her paw print home after I said goodbye. I will be utilizing this hospital/​office when I need to see specialists in the future for my 2 other girls.
Thank you so much, Regional Veterinary Referral Center — Dr. Derbin and all others who attended to her.

Expensive! But these guys saved my dog twice. First, my beagle had his knee repaired and they took great care of him. It was expensive, but I’ve heard of other people paying much more for the same surgery. He was also seen for follow-​up canine PT and you can barely tell 13 weeks out that he ever had surgery :) Being a beagle, my dog is always into «something.» He consumed a near lethal dosage of dark chocolate and was very symptomatic. I rushed him here late that night and they saved him! He was back to himself after a short stay and they cut me a break on the bill knowing that I had just paid for his surgery less than a month earlier.

The dermatology/​allergy department is fantastic. They took their time and gave us an accurate diagnosis for our Dog’s condition. (many months of trying to get an accurate diagnosis from other facilities). Thank you!!!

I took my my child (6lb chihuahua mix) into the emergency vet this last week at 11:00pm. One of the other reviewers was right, these folks know how to run an ER! The receptionist/​vet aid asked a few quick questions and as soon as I said he was in pain another vet tech came up got the story and took him in the back to immediately start relieving him of pain. It was only after making my pet comfortable that I then filled out the administrative paperwork.
It was about 1:00am when I was discharged and all the information they had told me was written in my discharge papers. Thank goodness, because I was in no mindset to comprehend anything. They were so patient and kind.
I’ve called them twice since leaving and they answered my questions without hesitation or requiring me to come back in! They go above and beyond and do love your pet like you do.

Recently my now over 14 year old Beagle had a repeat of neck pain. Dr. Griffin was wonderful on the phone and even offered to look at her radiographs at no cost! He spent his own time to speak to my dog’s regular veterinarian and offer his recommendations.
There are not enough stars to appropriately rate RVRC and their staff!

5-​star because of the 24-​hour emergency care for my cat as unexpected things often happened when his regular vet is closed. I brought my cat in here maybe around once a year or if I’m lucky once every two years. The vets here are great as well as the front desk staff.

I can’t believe the other reviews of this place were so low!
In no particular order: distilled water, complimentary tea and coffee, with travel coffee cups and lids, stellar doctors, attentive techs, and sweet, professional and respectful reception desk employees.
Exemplary customer service and received informative calls from the techs and doctors, as well as called them myself to check up on my kitty– at 12:30 at night! They are dependable and on-​time when reporting results, and when i discovered i was charged the balance instead of refunded it, the receptionist apologized for their mistake and my problem was solved as soon as was possible and she checked with my bank to make sure the refund went through. I also received a receipt for this refund in the mail two days later!
I have already recommended this hospital to everyone i know and will definitely come here next time I need an emergency vet (which hopefully won’t be soon!) best customer service I’ve experienced in quite a long time (and I am hard to please)!!
Word of warning: be ready to decide if you want your pet to receive CPR if needed. I had to sign a form for my decision and was not expecting to have to do that before leaving my pet at the hospital.

This place and their staff are simply AMAZING! There are not enough stars on Unilocal to give them!
Our dog was hit by a car after getting loose one evening and after seeing he needed some surgery our vet promptly sent us here. Our vet called them ahead so they knew to expect us and had a room ready to go. Once we arrived they were so caring and reassuring towards both us and our dog! The vet and all the techs really took their time to make our dog feel comfortable and at ease with them. They spent time checking out our dog without us present and came back to us to sit and discuss our options. They were very kind in discussing our options and really explained the reasons behind their suggestions, which was very appreciated!
They promised to call us as soon as he woke up from surgery regardless of the time and they did! They really followed through on every promise and never let us down. They were friendly every time I called to check-​in and check up on my dog. My dog also has a sensitive stomach and needs special food so they were really considerate in allowing me to bring in his food and ensured that he was only fed his food which was great!
Everyone we encountered there was beyond professional and SO completely caring. They were empathetic to our situation and did not judge us and took phenomenal care of our dog. I cannot thank them enough for all they did! They go above and beyond, and my dog was actually excited to go back to get his stitches removed so he clearly enjoyed his stay! Many, many thanks!

I’d give them six stars, or ten even, if I could. The service was that amazing. I have been to various veterinary clinics and hospitals throughout my fourteen years of pet ownership, and I can honestly say that this was the best experience I’ve ever had.
This evening, my mom and I came home to a torn up bag of Lindts chocolates. No sign of chocolates. I immediately freaked out because that could only mean one thing: My dog had consumed them.
Frantic, I called his regular vet to ask for guidance and she told me to take Lu to ER. At first, I considered a place in Vienna, which I had been to in the past. Lu’s vet suggested the Regional Veterinary Referral Center instead, which was a bit closer to me.
Personally, I’ve never been a fan of the part of Springfield that this practice is located in, as this area seems rather seedy. (Paper Moon and MVC within a minute’s drive, hello?) Anyway, ignore that the shopping center looks like where businesses go to die (though the Outback is always bumping). I digress…
I led my chocolate monster into the emergency care center dreading fluorescent lights and a long wait. It didn’t seem promising when no one was at the front desk and I had to go, «hello, hello» to get someone’s attention. However, as soon as the receptionist returned, I knew we were in good hands.
This woman clearly knows how it should be in ER and what hysterical pet owners want to hear. She promptly handed me one form to fill out while she asked me about Lu’s issue and alerted staff that we were there. To my relief, the form was short and sweet. A nurse/​vet assistant quickly took Lu to the back so that they could induce vomiting.
While I waited, a few other women, with the same panicked expressions rushed in with their pets. Like me, they all received fast and caring service. One was the owner of a birthing momma dog who was having complications. Another client had brought in her dog for the same reason as me. Supposedly, chocolate poisoning is rampant around this time of year! Though there would be an inevitable wait for service, we were all assured that our beloved pets would be taken care of. The front desk receptionist gave each of us realistic expectations of how long it would take and also told us that they were prioritizing based on severity of symptoms. I’m sure other places will be vague or not want to tell you how long the wait might be, or if certain cases will take precedence.
When my time came to speak to the doc, he was polite and detailed. He explained what kinds of tests and treatments my Lu had received. He gave an assessment based on his observations and recommendations based on his findings.
This is a golden opportunity for vets to milk it. I’ve seen it be done before at a certain veterinary clinic in Fairfax, in University Mall *ahem.* «Well, he might _​so to be safe you should _​_​_​_​. I would also recommend XYZ test.» Yeah, yeah, yeah.
There was none of that here. The vet only suggested using activated charcoal to prevent the chocolate from being absorbed into his system, if he had ingested any. From a quick search on my phone, this was pretty much the standard treatment/​recommendation for chocolate-​eating patients.
Lastly, the home care instructions were detailed, and the nurse was very patient about explaining things before I left.
If you didn’t feel like reading this entire review, this is what you need to know: The Regional Veterinary Referral Center provides responsible, efficient, compassionate, and credible services. I would highly, highly, highly recommend them if you’re in need of urgent care for your four-​legged friend.