Our Return Policy

We understand that returns of products may be necessary. For your item to qualify for a refund it must meet the following criteria.

For any and all refunds, the item submitted must have been purchased within the last 30 days. Any products returned past 30 days will be placed in our donation stock or destroyed but will not qualify for a refund. The item must be physically brought to the clinic within 30 days.
Any item submitted for refund will qualify for a full refund if the item is in its original purchase condition. This means the original packaging is completely in tact including shrink wrap, blister packs, cardboard containers, safety seals, etc.
If the item is a prescription food or treat that the pet will not eat due to palatability issues (which means they do not like the taste, this does not apply if the item makes the pet physically ill), upon the item being physically brought to the clinic, our staff will call the manufacturer. If the manufacturer provides a replacement or will refund the clinic for the purchase, we will pass the refund onto you, the client.
If your pet suffers an allergic reaction or illness due to a medication, food, or vaccine, alert our medical staff immediately. Our team will then gather information based on your claim and may schedule an illness evaluation to assess the concern. We then submit the case to the manufacturer of the item. Depending on the manufacturer itself, we will either process a refund to you or the manufacturer will send a check for reimbursement. Most manufactuers, especially those who make vaccines, may help cover the cost of illness care as well as the vaccine itself so don't wait!

Our hospital administration is at its full discretion to approve or deny refunds. A refund of your item is not always guaranteed. We ask that you call us to inform us of your request and bring the item to the clinic as soon as you are able.

Our Refined Late Policy

Any client who is more than 10 minutes late to their scheduled appointment must reschedule for a later date and will not be seen, unless approved by a veterinarian.

We have this policy in place because we have experienced a small amount of our client base appearing over 30 minutes late to their appointments. Some clients have even appeared as late as 1.5 hours beyond their appointment time. This puts a severe strain on the patients who arrived on time needing urgent care, as we then have overlapping appointments and limited resources. In the past, we have accepted those late patients out of our understanding for their needs, despite the fact that we didn't have the capacity.

Moving forward, please be mindful that the times we offer are the times that we have available, and we schedule appointments the way that we do according to the amount of technician staff we will have at those specific times. We cannot extend ourselves any further, though we DO still have a 10 minute grace period for those who may be running just a couple minutes behind.

Thank you for your patience and understanding.

Our Policy On Children/Visitors:

For all appointments, Happy Tails will limit the amount of visitors and family members in an exam room if the addition of other visitors or family, aside from the primary owner, will inhibit our team to provide the best care for the pet. This is for adults or children.

If extended family or children are accompanying you on your visit, we have a waiting room with seating for those family members to be in the hospital, while not crowding the exam room. We are also able to conduct virtual appointments where you wait with your family or children in your car, and we will use video chat to have you see the appointment inside of the exam room. We have a right to ask any other visotrs who are not the primary owner of the patient to wait in their car, sit in the waiting room, or sit in another exam room.

Our exam rooms can be small, and unable to accomodate multiple people in a room. If it is within the best interest of the doctor's ability and the patient's safety, we will ask other visitors besides the primary owner to leave the room. This allows us to keep everyone safe and provide the best care for each aptient, our penultimate goal.

Our Policy on Annual Exams

Happy Tails is obligated by the Maryland State Board of Veterinary Medical Examiners to establish what is called a Veterinary-Client-Patient-Relationship (shortened to VCPR). This relationship is required for our doctors to give advice, prescribe medications, or perform treatments. We establish this relationship by performing annual comprehensive exams, which is outlined by the State as well as the FDA. Before we render any services, we strive to have this VCPR always established.

Below is a list of all states' policy on VCPRs provided by the American Veterinary Medical Association as well as the Title from the FDA:

https://www.avma.org/sites/default/files/2020-11/VCPR-State-Chart-NOV-2020.pdf

Our pre-payment policy for new patients

We are extremely lucky as a hospital that new members of our community reach out to us for their pets’ healthcare needs. We have a high volume of phone calls that are specifically about bringing pets in for an initial visit.

However, it unfortunately has become common for individuals to schedule an appointment with us, only to not show up for the appointment, without calling us to reschedule.

Whenever an appointment is missed, time is lost that could have been utilized to help another pet in need. It also strains our technician staff.

Because of this, we ask for a pre-payment of $65 for any new patient, regardless whether or not the client is brand new or long standing. This pre-payment goes towards your pet’s care, no matter what is included in their treatment plan for that day.

For any patient that is being seen by our urgent care team who is not an established client with us, we take a non-refundable $206 deposit, which covers the cost of the doctor's exam, instead of the $65. This is a common practice for urgent care facilities and we remain compliant with industry best practices. This deposit is collected before the exam or any other treatments are performed and is non-negotiable.

If a scheduled appointment is missed without a 24 hours’ notice of cancellation, the pre-payment will be absorbed by the hospital as a cancellation fee and is non-refundable. We can be reached directly at info@happytailsvethospital.com.

Our cancellation policy for established patients

Clients must notify us by email, phone, or Otto Vet messenger that they are unable to make their appointment at least 24 hours before their appointment is scheduled to begin. If an appointment is missed, and we do not receive 24 hours’ notice, a $35 “broken appointment fee” will be charged to the card we have on file.

If you are scheduling a surgery or ultrasound with us, we will collect a non-refundable $250 deposit at time of booking which will be used towards your scheduled services. We are able to reschedule your appointment without penalty, the $250 deposit will still be credited to your new scheduled time. If you outright cancel the appointment then we will absorb the deposit as a cancellation fee.

If a client calls but must leave a voicemail, it will be recognized as proper notice, as long as the time stamp on the message is at least 24 hours in advance.

If a client calls and would like to reschedule their appointment for a later time in the day we will waive the fee, but only if we have the availability for your appointment. If we do not have the availability, then we will still charge the broken appointment fee.

This policy only applies to patients that have already had at least one completed appointment with our hospital.

We would like to thank all of our clients, old and new, for their time, patience, and understanding.

Our partnership with Scribblevet (c) AI

We are currently partnered with Scribblevet, which is a speech-to-text AI software our doctors use to record their exam and treatment notes for every patient. This encrypted software records conversations and dictation from our team members, and formats the recordings into a SOAP format (the most common format for veterinarians to take exam notes).

Our doctors and team members, whoever is the first person at your appointment to begin recording, will ask for your permission to record the visit for note taking purposes (if you have never given consent before). The software will note if permission is given by you, the client, to record the visit. Each recording is kept on a heavily encrypted cloud-based portal that only our veterinarians have access to. We treat each recording with the same respect to privacy as any other medical record or financial record. Scribblevet does not participate in data-mining practices, a modern advertising tactic we do not take lightly.

This software is incredibly crucial to our appointment flow and our doctors' note-taking process, saving more than 4 hours every day devoted to typing exam notes. As per Maryland law, we must have your consent to record. If you decline us recording the visit, the veterinarian has every right not to service you for the appointment, it is ultimately up to their discretion.

Our team loves this software, it is a time-saver and aids in accuracy and follow-through. We thank you very much for your understanding and your cooperation!

Our Denial of Services Policy

We are a privately owned professional practice, therefore we have no obligation to service clients who do not take their time with us seriously, who are violent or abusive, or who do not pay their bills or keep their appointments.

The following extreme behaviors by clients will not be tolerated. They will result in our termination of the Veterinarian-Client-Patient-Relationship immediately. If you are to engage in any of these behaviors then we will release your medical records and deny service to you and your pets, current or future.

Using offensive and demeaning language including curse words, derogatory or belittling speech, or discriminatory slurs targeting our staff or doctors (sexist, racist, homophobic, xenophobic, etc)
Being physically violent or threatening physical violence. We consider bother verbal and physical cues as well as written word when determing what a threat is. This can include, but is not limited to, things like saying you will fight a staff member in an exam room, writing a review where you threaten to harm a staff member at a later date, or lifting your fist in a staff member's face, among other threats. If you harm a staff member on premises, during or after business hours, we WILL contact the police.
Refusing to intervene when a pet turns violent, or making light of, making fun of, or laughing at a staff member's distress or injuries when the pet becomes violent.
Consistently- for three executive appointments- declining treatments for any reason. We understand that people have financial and time contraints, however, for some, rejecting treatments is a pattern. We do not have the time or capacity to keep treating pets whose owners will not work with us on providing the actual care a pet needs.
Negotiating pricing in any way. Our prices are what they are and they are non-negotiable. We will not tolerate haggling or the bartering of services or goods in exchange for free or reduced care for your pet.
Consistently paying bills late or not paying bills at all. If you are unable to pay for goods and services upon discharge on three separate occassions, we have a right to terminate you.
Having 3 no-call-no-shows in one year's time will be grounds for termination. If you are not able to keep your scheduled appointemnts and do not grant us the courtesy of informing us of cancellations or rescheduling, it makes it nearly impossible to have a Veterinarian-Client-Patient-Relationship.

We thank all of our respectful clients who take our policies seriously and greatly appreciate everyone's business.