About the Terry Center

Philanthropist Randall B. Terry, Jr. had a vision of a spacious and welcoming veterinary medical center that would be a national model of excellence. The goal was to ensure compassionate and leading-edge specialty health care for companion animals by surrounding a dedicated staff with advanced medical facilities and state of the art diagnostic and treatment technologies.

This goal will be achieved in May with the dedication of the Randall B. Terry, Jr. Companion Animal Veterinary Medical Center. Located at North Carolina State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine, the 110,000-square foot, Terry Center is one of the nation’s largest veterinary hospitals and is more than twice the size of the original Small Animal Veterinary Teaching Hospital. When it began operating in 1983, the Small Animal VTH had a planned capacity of 12,000 cases. Today NC State clinicians annually examine, diagnose, and treat more than 20,000 patients referred to them by private practice veterinarians.

Veterinary medicine has experienced dramatic changes since 1983, including the growth of specialties and sub-specialties. The Terry Center is designed to meet the requirements of specialization and associated state of the art technologies. The heart of the new center remains an outstanding medical community that includes 123 faculty, 83 house officers (interns and residents), some 115 students, and 179 staff members—all dedicated to ensuring the health and well-being of a client’s pet.

With a focus on patient care, client comfort, and staff efficiency, the $72 million Terry Center complex is dedicated to exceeding client and referring veterinarian expectations for compassionate, state-of-the-art specialty health care. The Terry Center is made possible through an innovative private/ public collaboration involving Randall Terry’s $20 million bequest, appropriations from the 2006 North Carolina General Assembly, and ongoing private donations that are matched by the R.B. Terry, Jr. Charitable Foundation.

Among the design features:

• Thirty exam rooms, more than doubling the number of VTH exam rooms;
• Ten surgery suites, doubling the number of VTH operating rooms;
• Three dedicated emergency exam rooms;
• A greatly expanded Intensive Care Unit with patient visitation area;
• High flow air filtration in four isolation units and in emergency care to protect and treat patients from infectious diseases;
• A spacious pharmacy with specialized capabilities for sterile compounding of drugs for pet health needs;
• A pneumatic tube system to transfer lab specimens and drugs to speed patient diagnosis and treatment;
• Patient-focused design features include “night comfort” lighting in Intensive Care;
• Dedicated teaching space in each pavilion for instruction of DVM students and house officers;
• Pavilions with separate client entrances and reception areas for various clinical services; and,
• Abundance of natural light throughout public and patient care areas.

Examples of medical enhancements:

• A new state of the art linear accelerator to treat a variety of different forms of cancer with precision;
• A 64-slice Computed Tomography (CT) Scan to create high-resolution images of the heart, brain, or lungs in seconds;
• A biplane fluoroscopy unit for better visualization of complex structures—such as congenital heart defects—allowing for more accurate and faster placement of interventional devices;
• Four ultrasound stations in radiology for state-of-the-art, non-invasive imaging;
• Special copper-shielded rooms required for leading-edge neurological and ophthalmological diagnostics; and,  
• A Canine Bone Marrow Transplant Unit with a reverse isolation air filtration system to protect immunocompromised and vulnerable patients—the Terry Center is the only academic clinical facility in the country offering canine bone marrow transplants.