Veterinary Services Contract Approved
Gwinnett County Board of Commissioners • Unanimous Vote
All five members of the Gwinnett County Board of Commissioners approved a new veterinary-services agreement in February 2026. The vote came after GAAA had provided County leadership with its January 2026 Medical Oversight, Accountability & Risk Review, which documented recurring concerns involving medical monitoring and reassessment, medication administration and documentation, post-operative care, delayed diagnosis and escalation, disease prevention and infection control, veterinary coverage, and oversight of contracted veterinary services.
That January review recommended that the County seriously evaluate transitioning to permanent in-house veterinary capacity to improve continuity of care, accountability, and timely access to treatment. Despite those documented concerns, the Board proceeded with the contracted veterinary-services model.
Nicole Love Hendrickson • Kirkland Carden • Ben Ku • Jasper Watkins III • Matthew Holtkamp
The approval matters as part of the public accountability record because the Board had already received documented concerns about the County's veterinary-care model before voting on the new agreement.
Many of the Same Types of Concerns Were Documented Again
GAAA's subsequent 2026 medical and contract review identified many of the same categories of concern under the new agreement, including gaps in documented daily medical monitoring and follow-up, prescribed medications with no documented doses administered, and deficiencies involving controlled-substance records and other contract requirements.
These recurring findings raise continuing questions about whether Gwinnett County's contracted veterinary-care model provides sufficient continuity, oversight, and accountability — and whether the County is adequately verifying that the veterinary services it contracts and pays for are actually being performed.
