Our Story
BluePearl Veterinary Partners LLC is a community of hospitals that offer specialty and emergency veterinary medicine. BluePearl is wholly owned by employee veterinarians and veterinary professionals and locally managed by experienced, community-focused, and service-minded veterinarians.
The primary care veterinarians who refer their clients and patients to us are our partners. BluePearl’s obligation is to work together with the primary care veterinarians to provide the best patient care.
As important as our medical expertise is, compassion is the foundation of veterinary medicine. At BluePearl, we believe that excellent care combines state-of-the-art veterinary medicine with a focus on compassion and respect for your pet and for you.
- We treat your pet as we would treat our own pets.
- We treat you as we would treat a family friend.
- We treat your family veterinarian as our partner.
BluePearl is growing, but we remain committed to “acting locally,” assuring that each community we are a part of receives comprehensive, compassionate veterinary care in an exceptional patient-care and work environment. The leaders of our local hospitals are shareholders in BluePearl who were invited to join BluePearl precisely because of their attitudes, what they bring to our community of hospitals, and how well they fit with our culture.
Our Growth
| 1990 | Michigan Veterinary Specialists (MVS), now in Southfield, opened in a suburb of Detroit |
| 1992 | BluePearl co-founder Veterinary Specialty & Emergency Center of Kansas City opened |
| 1995 | Georgia Veterinary Specialists (GVS), now in Sandy Springs, opened in a suburb of Atlanta |
| 1996 | BluePearl co-founder Florida Veterinary Specialists (FVS) opened in Tampa |
| 2003 | MVS-Auburn Hills opened |
| 2005 | FVS-Brandon opened |
| 2006 | BluePearl co-founder NYC Veterinary Specialists (NYCVS) opened in Manhattan |
| FVS-Clearwater opened | |
| 2008 | MVS-Grand Rapids opened |
| NYCVS-Queens opened | |
| 2009 | BluePearl Veterinary Partners formed when VSEC-KC merges with FVS and NYCVS |
| BluePearl-Minnesota opened in Eden Prairie, a suburb of Minneapolis | |
| 2010 | GVS & MVS merged with Blue Pearl |
| BluePearl-Tennessee opened in Brentwood, a suburb of Nashville | |
| BluePearl-Minnesota opened in Blaine, a suburb of Minneapolis | |
| GVS-Gwinnett opened in a suburb of Atlanta | |
| BluePearl-New York opened in Brooklyn | |
| BluePearl-Tennessee opened in Goodlettsville, a suburb of Nashville | |
| BluePearl-Florida opened in Sarasota | |
| BluePearl began management of Louisville Veterinary Specialty & Emergency Services | |
| 2011 | FVS, NYCVS and VSEC-KC changed their names to BluePearl |
| BluePearl-Illinois opened in Northbrook, a suburb of Chicago | |
| BluePearl-Lexington opened in Kentucky | |
| BluePearl-New York opened in White Plains | |
| BluePearl-Lee’s Summit MO opened, sister hospital to BluePearl in Overland Park KS | |
| BluePearl-Michigan opened in Ann Arbor, one of the four MVS hospitals | |
| 2012 | BluePearl-Virgina Beach VA opened |
How did all of this get started?
In the 1990s, when veterinarian Neil Shaw was completing residency training in internal medicine at the University of Florida, his brother, Darryl Shaw, was finishing an MBA at Northwestern University. They dreamed of moving back to their hometown of Tampa to open a private specialty practice in which newly board-certified Neil would provide the medical care and Darryl would oversee business operations.
Before proceeding, the brothers turned for guidance to their dad, who is a veterinarian who has practiced in Tampa for many years. The brothers give their father credit for encouraging and building confidence in their dream.
The day after Neil completed his residency in July 1996, he began seeing patients at their new hospital in Tampa. From the beginning, the Shaws focused on providing exceptional patient care and exceptional service to referring veterinarians and clients.
Over the next few years, Florida Veterinary Specialists added board-certified veterinarians in different specialties, growing to become one of the largest multi-disciplinary private veterinary specialty hospitals in the Southeast. Their successful philosophy led to new opportunities, and specialty and emergency hospitals opened in other locations in the Tampa Bay area and in New York City.
About the same time, other veterinary specialty hospitals around the country were similarly thriving. Friendships were formed with like-minded and progressive veterinarians. Over time it became evident that working together toward our common goals made sense.
Significantly for BluePearl, in Kansas City, Dr. Jeff Dennis and Dr. Joe Desch were growing the specialty and emergency hospital they founded in 1992. These four men shared a vision of collaborative veterinary medicine provided with utmost compassion for families and pets.
In 2008, BluePearl Veterinary Partners LLC was formed by merging the Kansas City hospital with the Florida and New York hospitals.
In 2010, the BluePearl community was joined by Georgia Veterinary Specialists and Michigan Veterinary Specialists. Michigan Veterinary Specialists was Michigan’s first private, referral-based specialty veterinary practice, founded in 1990 by Dr. Dan Lorimer and Dr. Laura DeLellis. Five years later, Georgia Veterinary Specialists was founded by Dr. Lorimer, Dr. Mark Dorfman, and Dr. Renee Kaswan and is now the largest private multi-specialty hospital in Georgia.
Today, there are 23 BluePearl locations in 11 states. We employ more than 1000 people, including nearly 250 veterinarians.
