CEOs You Should Know - Dr. Justine Johnson, Ocean State Veterinary Specialists

Dr. Johnson completed her veterinary degree at the New York State College of Veterinary Medicine at Cornell University in 1991. She completed an internship at the Santa Cruz Veterinary hospital in California in 1992. After a few years doing general practice, teaching anatomy at a veterinary school, and completing a research project, she entered a residency program at Tufts University in the study of Emergency Medicine and Critical Care. She became board certified in this specialty in 1997. Dr. Johnson has published several articles and textbook chapters in the topics of head trauma, nosocomial infections, and pain management. She has also lectured to veterinarians and technicians at regional veterinary conferences. She is an active member of the American College of Veterinary Emergency and Critical Care. She is the chief of staff at both OSVS and BSVESS and the director of the internship and residency programs at OSVS. Dr. Johnson enjoys riding her horse, planting (but not weeding) her garden, scuba diving, and other outdoorsy stuff. Most of all she loves spending time with (but not cleaning up after) her husband (Dr. Gary Block of OSVS and BSVESS), two amazing children, and a menagerie of pets that includes horses, goats, dogs, cats, tortoises, and about 60,000 honeybees.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
iHeartRadio Providence CEOs. You should know. Today with us we
have got doctor Justine Johnson from Ocean State Veterinary Specialists.
Thank you for coming on, doctor Johnson.

Speaker 2 (00:09):
Oh thanks for having me, Adam, I appreciate it.

Speaker 1 (00:11):
Absolutely. Tell me a little bit about your company's mission
and how it is unique.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
Sure, yeah, I mean our mission is to provide the
highest level of emergency and specialty care to the family
pets of southern New England, but also to educate the
next generation of exceptional veterinary clinicians and technicians. So you know,
we understand that from many people, pets are truly a
part of the family, and with the advances that have

(00:36):
been made in veterinary medicine over the last twenty years,
we're able to provide the kind of life saving and
life improving treatments that we would want for a family
member to have. What's unique, I guess we're the only
hospital in Rhode Island that has board certified specialists in
all of the major areas of medicine including surgery, internal medicine, cardiology, neurology,

(00:59):
cancer care, and amongst others, and also the only facility
with advanced diagnostics like cat scan, MRI ultrasound. We work
closely with the primary care veterinarians across southern New England
who refer their patients to us when they need twenty
four hour intensive care or advanced diagnostics and treatments that

(01:20):
aren't available in most veterinary hospitals.

Speaker 1 (01:23):
That's awesome. How did your company get started? So?

Speaker 2 (01:26):
My husband, doctor Gary Block, is an internal medicine specialist
at our hospital. He and I met in VET school
at Cornell University and completed internships after VET school, and
then I followed him while he did his residency in
Indiana at Purdue University, and he followed me to Tought's
University in Massachusetts, where I did my residency in Emergency

(01:47):
in Medicine and Critical Care. I grew up in Massachusetts
and really wanted to stay in New England, and we
were hired at a hospital down here in Rhode Island
with a plan to develop a specialty and referral center.
That opportunity didn't work work out, but after a couple
of years living in Rhode Island, we had really fallen
in love with it and wanted to stay if we could.
But we had also developed relationships with a lot of

(02:09):
the area primary care veterinarians who had quickly become used
to having somewhere to send their patients when they needed
specialty or intensive care. So Rhode Island was one of
the last regions in the country, honestly that didn't have
a multi specialty, twenty four hour emergency center, so we
decided to open one. It was a big leap of faith,

(02:30):
but we were really fortunate to have found a small
group of specialists and emergency doctors with advanced training from
all over the country, and we trained up a team
of technicians to be able to support the kind of
medicine we were providing. So it was a great group
of people and who were really committed to excellence in medicine,

(02:52):
but also just really good human beings who cared to
do the best that they could for pets and their people.
And so we were quickly came to be known as
a place that delivered excellent care but also a great
place to work, and so started growing quickly after that,
and we've actually had to add on to the building
five times since we started in two thousand.

Speaker 1 (03:13):
Yeah, that's amazing. So on that people does your company employee.

Speaker 2 (03:17):
So we have two hospitals. Our other hospital is over
in Swansea, Massachusetts, and we share some staff, but the
East Greenwich location employs about three hundred people.

Speaker 1 (03:26):
Wow, that's awesome. How do you see your role in
the local economy overall?

Speaker 2 (03:30):
So, I mean, we've brought in staff from all over
the country, people who you know, did not grow up
in Rhode Island, so but people who have come here
and settled and raised their families here and are actually
great ambassadors for the state of Rhode Island. We also,
you know, as I said, we employ about three hundred
people and obviously pay taxes. But I guess the other

(03:53):
way we've supported the local economy is, as I said,
we've done now five construction projects, and we use local
architects and local contractors, so we've had a lot of
a lot of work done in the process of building
this facility.

Speaker 1 (04:08):
That's awesome. Tell me a little bit about any philanthropic
causes you support.

Speaker 2 (04:12):
Yeah, so we do support a bunch of local shelters
and rescues. Certainly, I'd say the main thing is that
we have an in house assistance fund called the pot
Forward Fund, that provides some financial support for families who
aren't able to afford the full cost of care for
their pet. You know, those funds are pretty limited, so

(04:35):
there's pretty strict rules on how they get applied. You know,
we're not a nonprofit, so we have not historically been
able to solicit a lot of big donations for this
fund because they weren't tax deductible. But we're kind of
excited because this year we've partnered with a national nonprofit
called Frankie's Friends that will allow people to donate to

(04:58):
our in house fund and as a nonprofit, so they
will be tax deductible. So we're kind of we're looking
forward to being able to do some more aggressive fundraising
for that because this fund has already saved a lot
of animals, honestly, but you know, certainly there's a lot
of families who need help when their pets get in trouble,

(05:20):
and so we would love to expand that going forward.

Speaker 1 (05:23):
Awesome, Are you currently hiring and if so, how does
somebody apply?

Speaker 2 (05:26):
So, yes, we are always hiring. You know. Unfortunately, because
of the types of conditions we treat and the kind
of therapies we offer, our greatest need is for doctors
with advanced training beyond veterinary school as well as veterinary
technicians with advanced training. So there's a national shortage of

(05:47):
both veterinarians and technicians, especially vets who have completed emergency
internships after VET school or done three year residency programs
to become specialists, so that the main challenge is finding
those folks, and so we actually recruit nationally for a
lot of those positions. That said, you know, it takes
all sorts of different roles to run a place like ours,

(06:10):
including receptionists, technician assistants, housekeepers, administrators. So whenever we have
those jobs available, which is often, they are posted on
indeed and job fight and other job sites, as well
as on our website.

Speaker 1 (06:26):
Awesome, how can somebody finds out a little bit more
about Ocean State Veterinary Specialists online, social media, etc.

Speaker 2 (06:32):
All of the above. So we do have a website
which is OSVS dot net and we are also on
Facebook and Instagram.

Speaker 1 (06:42):
Awesome. Well, thank you for the work that you do
and I'm sure, like you said, saving all the animals
and helping out so many people around southern New England
is so awesome. Doctor Justine Johnson from Ocean State Veterinary Specialists,
thank you for being a part of iHeartRadio CEOs. You
should know I really.

Speaker 2 (06:57):
Appreciate the opportunity, Adam. Thank you.