NC State Terry Center Ushers in New Era of Specialty Health Care in Veterinary Medicine

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 has been achieved with the opening of the Randall B. Terry, Jr. Companion Animal Veterinary Medical Center. At 110,000-square feet, the 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 our clinicians annually examine, diagnose, and treat more than 20,000 patients.

With a focus on patient care, client comfort, and staff efficiency, the Terry Center is designed to help clinicians exceed client and referring veterinarian expectations for state-of-the-art specialty health care. Our mission is to partner with veterinarians and provide excellent and compassionate medical care; advance the veterinary profession through medical innovation and clinical research; and prepare the next generation of veterinarians and veterinary research scientists.

Terry Center design features include:

• 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.

Medical enhancements include:

• 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.

The Terry Center ushers in a new era in veterinary medicine at NC State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine. View the Terry Center video.