For veterinary practices

Triage off your front desk. Onto our line.

Dawn Patrol Triage gives your overflow clients a 30-minute conversation with a board-trained veterinarian — within hours, not days. We tell them whether to go to the ER, wait for your next opening, or monitor at home with a written plan. You keep the client, you earn a referral fee on every call, and your front desk gets to focus on running your practice.

Schedule a 20-minute call See how it works

At a glance

Cost to your practice $0

Referral fee to you $20 / call

Response time < 4 hours

Coverage All California

Compliance AB 1399

The problem

Your front desk is making medical decisions all day.

Vet practices in California are running 2-6 week waitlists, and clients with worrying symptoms are calling every day. Without a clinical triage step, those calls land on the people least equipped to handle them — and the cost shows up in churn, in unnecessary ER referrals, and in the cases that should have come in sooner.

Front desk burnout

Your CSRs are not licensed to triage. But they're doing it anyway — and feeling responsible for outcomes they shouldn't carry.

Client churn

Clients who can't get a timely answer go to PetMD, then Reddit, then a competitor. The relationship ends before you knew it was at risk.

Unnecessary ER spend

"Just go to the ER" is the safe default, but it's a $1,500 conversation that often ends with the client paying twice — at the ER and at your practice.

Missed urgent cases

And occasionally, the inverse: a client told to wait who actually needed to be seen in three hours. Those are the calls everyone remembers.

How it works

A clinical triage step, added without adding staff.

Plug Dawn Patrol Triage into your existing intake flow. We handle the medical conversation, document it cleanly, and route the client back to you with a plan. You decide how to integrate — most practices start with one of three structures.

Step 1

Client calls your line

Your CSR identifies that the client has a clinical question or worry that needs a vet's read. They mention Dawn Patrol Triage and either transfer or send a callback link.

Step 2

We call within 4 hours

Dr. Lafey conducts a 30-minute triage call with the client — history, symptoms, photos and video as needed. Statewide, via secure video or phone.

Step 3

You get a written note

The client is routed to the right next step. Within an hour, you receive a SOAP-formatted note ready to drop into the chart.

Outcome A

Send to ER

When clinical signs warrant immediate care, we route directly to local emergency hospitals and notify you.

Outcome B

Schedule with you

When it's urgent but not emergent, we tell the client to call you back for a same-week appointment.

Outcome C

Monitor at home

When watchful waiting is right, we send the client home with a plan, a list of red flags, and a follow-up window.

The deal

Free to your practice. Twenty dollars back on every call.

There is no subscription, no retainer, no monthly fee. You refer overflow clients to Dawn Patrol Triage; the client pays us directly; we pay you a referral fee on every call. The whole arrangement is structured so you earn money on cases you couldn't have fit in anyway.

You couldn't see them this week. We can. And we pay you to send them.

A simple referral relationship. No contracts, no minimums, no commitment. Cancel any time by telling your front desk to stop using our number.

Client pays Dawn Patrol directly — $85 for a 30-minute triage call
Your practice earns $20 for every triage call we receive from your referral
SOAP note shared with you within one hour of the call
Monthly statement and ACH payment to your practice
Client is told to follow up with you — we explicitly do not solicit your business
Priority on Dr. Lafey's procedure-day partner list (in San Diego)

Become a referral partner

Cost to your practice

No subscription, no retainer

Paid to your practice

$20

Per triage call referred

Commitment

None

Cancel at any time

Who's on your line

Dr. Scott Lafey — the vet your CSRs wish they could put on the phone.

A board-trained small-animal veterinarian with more than a decade of clinical practice in San Diego, Dr. Lafey is known among his colleagues for fast, accurate triage instincts and a calm, decisive bedside manner. He has personally triaged thousands of cases through his career at one of San Diego's busiest general practices.

UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine One of the top-ranked veterinary programs in the country
Veterinary Specialty Hospital, San Diego — Internship One of the most respected referral centers on the West Coast
10+ years at Amici Pet Hospital, San Diego Recognized as one of the practice's most clinically broad and productive veterinarians
Founder, Dawn Patrol Veterinary A concierge primary-care practice serving San Diego, plus statewide triage

Coming 2027

Future service

Concierge mobile sample collection.

For your clients who can't bring their pets in — the elderly couple with the senior cat, the family with three dogs, the patient whose anxiety makes a clinic visit impossible. Dawn Patrol Mobile Lab will draw blood, collect samples, run point-of-care diagnostics, and route to your reference lab of choice. Coming to San Diego County in 2027 as a referral service for partner practices.

In-home blood draws

Trained team comes to the client's home. Calm, low-stress sample collection — especially valuable for senior and anxious pets.

Point-of-care diagnostics

Basic CBC, chemistry, urinalysis, and other in-the-field testing. Results back to your practice same day.

Reference lab routing

Direct integration with Idexx and Antech. Results delivered to your practice through your existing channels.

Interested in being a launch partner? Let us know on the call.

Practice owner FAQ

The questions we get on the call.

Does triage advice from Dawn Patrol create liability for my practice?

No. Dawn Patrol carries its own malpractice coverage; the triage conversation establishes a temporary veterinarian-client-patient relationship between Dr. Lafey and the client under California's AB 1399 framework. The SOAP note documents the encounter cleanly, and the client is explicitly told to call you back or go to an ER for follow-up — Dawn Patrol is the triage step, not the primary care provider.

What about my existing clients — won't Dawn Patrol take them?

No. We explicitly do not solicit your clients into Dawn Patrol's concierge practice in San Diego. The triage service is structured as a partnership, not a Trojan horse. We're solving your waitlist problem, not poaching it.

Can Dr. Lafey prescribe medications during triage?

For non-controlled medications, yes — California AB 1399 (effective January 2024) permits telehealth prescribing once a VCPR is established via video. Controlled substances require an in-person visit, so for those we route the client back to you. Where prescribed, medications are sent to the client's preferred pharmacy with a copy of the order to your chart.

What if a triage call needs to become a real visit?

If the client needs to be seen, we tell them — and we tell you. Same-day or next-day urgency goes through your practice. If you can't fit them in, we coordinate ER or specialty referral and stay on the case until they've been seen.

What hours are covered?

Standard coverage is Monday-Friday, 8am-6pm Pacific, with a typical response time under 4 hours. After-hours and weekend coverage may be available in the future depending on demand.

How does the $20 referral fee actually work?

For every triage call your practice refers, Dawn Patrol pays your practice a $20 referral fee. We send a monthly statement and ACH payment. The math is intentionally simple: you refer a client, they pay us $85, we send you $20. The point is that we're a partner, not a vendor — your practice should make money on the relationship, not spend money on it.

How do I actually get started?

A 20-minute call with Dr. Lafey. We'll talk about your practice's call volume, where the triage pain shows up, and which pricing model fits. If it's a fit, you'll be live within 7 days.