Medical Lake Veterinary Hospital is constructing a 6,850-square-foot facility valued at $747,500 on formerly vacant land just outside of the city of Medical Lake. 

The practice is expected to move to its new facility at 7616 S. Bartholomew Road in September, says project manager Vilho Tuomala, of Spokane-based Ramey Construction Inc., the contractor on the project.

Practice manager Jeannette Dutton says lack of space in the current 2,800-square-foot Medical Lake Veterinary Hospital building, at 212 E. Lake, in Medical Lake, led to the decision to construct a new building for the practice. 

“We’re bursting at the seams,” Dutton says. “Our clientele has tripled since purchasing the business in 2011, requiring us to move to a bigger space.”

The practice serves clients from as far away as Coeur d’Alene or Ritzville, she says.

Dutton says the veterinary hospital employs about 16 people, including the owners of the practice, Dutton’s daughters Dr. Heather O’Bannan and Dr. Trina Dutton.

“We’ve already hired another doctor, so that’ll be our fourth, and we’re considering hiring a fifth—there’s just not enough room for everyone,” Dutton says.

Construction on the project began in November, Tuomala says, and the one-story building is currently in the framing stage.

Tuomala says Spokane architect Paul Harrington, of South Henry Studios, designed the project.

Medical Lake Veterinary Hospital is one of the few veterinary practices in the area that serves farm animals, including cattle and horses, Dutton says. A veterinarian specializing in cattle was hired last year, she says, and an equine veterinarian specialist will start seeing patients at the practice in July.

“The only animals we’re not able to service, because it requires additional certification, are wild animals,” she says.

The new facility originally had been planned to include a farm animal wing, but budgetary constraints prohibited that, Dutton says. However, the practice plans to build a barn for treating farm animals in the future. In the meantime, the practice will treat farm animals in the new facility.