TAKE A LOOK AROUND — Neighborhood Veterinary Centers prepares massive Mid County grand opening
Published 12:40 am Tuesday, December 7, 2021
Dr. Brady Hanson and Krysten Williams, LVT, perform surgery at Neighborhood Veterinary Center in Nederland. (Monique Batson/The News)
The new Neighborhood Veterinary Center is located at 3606 Highway 365 West in Nederland. (Monique Batson/The News)
Casey Smith preps a cat for surgery. (Monique Batson/The News)
Neighborhood Veterinary Center in Nederland has isolation areas to keep dogs and cats separated from each other. (Monique Batson/The News)
Dr. Brady Hanson, founder of Neighborhood Veterinary Centers, will be opening the new Nederland location Monday (Dec. 13). (Monique Batson/The News)
An exam room. (Monique Batson/The News)
Neighborhood Veterinary Center in Nederland is approximately 16,000 square-feet and has lots of kennel space for animals. (Monique Batson/The News)
A CT machine. (Monique Batson/The News)
The dog kennels have push buttons that open doors in the back to allow for them to go outside. (Monique Batson/The News)
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NEDERLAND — While Texas A&M is debuting a Mid County veterinarian as one of its 2021 12 Under 12 Young Alumni Spotlight, Dr. Brady Hanson is preparing to debut his newest animal hospital to the community.
Hanson, owner of Neighborhood Veterinary Centers, already operates the former Wilcox Veterinary Clinic in Groves. But it’s the large building behind Starbucks that went under contraction in 2019 that has everyone talking.
And although the animal hospital will not have its grand opening until January, they’ll be open for business Monday (Dec. 13).
Hanson, 39, has been practicing veterinary medicine in the area for almost nine years. While born and raised in Dallas, he’s lived a bit of everywhere — Tennessee, Arizona, Georgia, Colorado, and even two years in Scotland. But for the most part, he’s been in Texas most of his life.
Construction on the new animal hospital began in August 2019, and the center is undergoing a soft opening while completing construction. But once done, the two-story center will be unlike anything else in Mid and South County.
Career path
“Every pet that I’ve had, I felt became a part of me and who I was,” he said. “I really love medicine and biology and just thought that this was the answer for me. It’s a lot different being a veterinarian than what I pictured as a child. It is a stressful career but it’s very rewarding, too.”
He now operates multiple centers that employ more than 120 people and are aimed at providing affordable treatment to animal owners, according to information from Texas A&M.
He is also one of only 108 of A&M’s 555,000 former students to be selected for the 12 Under 12 Young Alumni Spotlight since it was created in 2014.
“This year’s 12 Under 12 Young Alumni Spotlight recipients are an inspiration as they are making their mark on our world by already achieving great professional success and serving their communities and Texas A&M,” said Porter S. Garner III ’79, Association President and CEO, in a written statement.
All 12 honorees will be featured in the 2022 issue of Texas Aggie magazine.
The new hospital
What began as a one-dimensional plan on a sheet of paper grew into an all-inclusive veterinary hospital.
“A company actually made the design but I started off with like a rectangle and kind of designed the flow of rooms — surgery, recovery, that kind of stuff — and told them what I needed,” Hansen said.
Originally it was about 12,000 square feet, but the completed project is just over 16,000 square feet.
“I did make it a little bit bigger because I wanted to grow into it instead of grow out of it,” he said.
Hansen will keep the Groves clinic open, starting with approximately 45 of their 65 employees in Nederland and the other 20 in Groves. And in a year or two, he plans to either remodel or rebuild it.
But for now, concentration is on opening the new state-of-the-art building.
“We’ve been doing these really complicated orthopedic and neuro surgeries and we were in a building built like a house,” he said. “It had re-circulated air and it was built 40 years ago. So the idea was to build something that was cleaner and more sterile for the dogs.”
Hansen is not a specialist and makes sure all of his clients understand that. However, he does focus mostly on surgery.
“All vet clinics do surgeries, and some do orthopedic surgeries as well,” he said. “That’s just what I’ve concentrated on and what I love to do. Ninety percent of what I do is surgery.”
The air that enters the surgical area is already sterilized, and is a one-way flow. In fact, the entire hospital is one-way flow to provide a more sanitary environment.
Right now the Nederland center will be open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays, and 8 a.m. to noon on Saturdays. However, that will change at some point.
“The goal is to eventually be 24 hours but it’s going to be a while,” Hansen said. “I didn’t build it to be an emergency center or 24 hours, but the way things have happened the past few years, my goals and ideas for the hospital have changed a little bit.”
Once that happens, there will be an apartment upstairs — complete with a restroom and balcony — as well as two other overnight rooms for staff in need. And for staff, there is also a lunch area as well as a gym stocked with dumbbells, cardio equipment, etc.
“I’ve tried to stay in shape my whole life and a lot of the girls are so busy and it’s a stressful job, so it’ll be something for them to do before work, at lunch or after work,” Hanson said. “They don’t have to pay for it and they can relieve some stress and stay in shape.”
For the animals, there are separate areas for dogs and cats, as well as isolation areas for animals with infectious diseases. Kennels have push-button doors in the back that allow them to easily go outside. There’s 2,000 square-feet devoted to storage alone, and all Neighborhood Veterinary Clinics have an on-site pharmacy.
“I just want to have a place where people can get advanced surgeries at a more affordable cost,” Hansen said. “Not euthanize a dog because they can’t afford to do a surgery.”
