The Best Laid Plans

Some days things just don't seem to work out like you expect them to. Today we had a busy surgery schedule, with a total of eight procedures. For us that's a very busy day, and doesn't include any of the other patients we see. I even came in about 45 minutes early this morning to make sure we got started and stayed on schedule.

With every surgery or dental cleaning we require pre-anesthetic blood testing. This involves a simple blood chemistry panel and blood cell count, and doesn't take very long to run. We do this as a screening for any hidden organ dysfunction, and consider it an essential part of the procedure. In fact, we won't do the procedure if we can't run the tests. Like today....

I walk in and my head tech says that the chemistry analyzer is on the fritz. I then take a look at it, and the LCD screen is merely a bunch of lines of pixels, and never changed. Turning it on and off several times didn't work, so I called the tech support number. Apparently the disc in the machine was an older version, and that may be why the machine wasn't working. So basically, we were totally unable to do any lab tests at all, and had to cancel ALL of the procedures. Thankfully the pet owners took it well, and we were able to reschedule the surgeries.

My only concern is tomorrow morning. We have five surgeries scheduled, three of them postponed from today. We're supposed to get the replacement disc in the morning, and I hope it comes early enough. I also hope that's the actual problem and there isn't a bigger issue that would delay us further. That would be frustrating for us, but extremely inconvenient for the clients.

Ah, the joys of running a business!