A day in equine practice: How your PMS can work for you
by Tony Houghton, Manging Director at VetIT
Transformational technology
Tony Houghton, Managing Director of VetIT, explains how your veterinary practice management system (veterinary PMS) can efficiently streamline your working day and ensure that customer service is always seamless.
Working as an equine vet can bring its own unique challenges, and once inpatients have been attended to and complex cases have been discussed, the day often starts out on the road. Along with a caffeinated beverage placed firmly in the cup holder, what we need is a fail-safe system for arriving at our destination – and at the time expected. Thankfully, cloud-based mobile technology – such as the On the Road (OTR) app – can remove a lot of the stress for you, and for your clients.Directions to remote yards certainly don’t need to be scribbled down by hand – all the instructions you need can be downloaded from the veterinary PMS straight onto the app and you’ll have access to accurate maps. Going to be late? Don’t worry, clients can be updated instantly via text message with your estimated time of arrival, all through the app itself.
As for the booking process, multi-booking can save a lot of time by scheduling multiple appointments or procedures for the same horse or client across different days, times and locations. This feature is particularly useful for equine practices that deal with horses that require ongoing care, treatment or rehabilitation.
We rely so much on an online network, that it’s just not practical anymore to use outdated systems, especially when our clients expect excellence and time is short. However, our equine patients can often reside in remote locations that, traditionally, would have spelt disaster in terms of trying to find a phone signal or internet connection. It wasn’t uncommon for vets to have to double their workload by manually adding notes and sending invoices only once they were back at the clinic.
Fortunately, technology has come a long way and mobile veterinary software, like the On the Road (OTR) app, can deliver all the benefits of an in-house veterinary practice management system, even when we’re offline and working remotely.
All relevant information such as clinical history and client balances can be downloaded ahead of the consultation, and once we’re at the client’s location, medical notes can be documented (or easier still, verbally dictated), images can be uploaded, medication dispensed, and follow-up appointments booked – all through the cloud-based technology whilst we’re offline.
When we regain a data connection, all this information can be synchronised with your veterinary practice management system with a single click. No more staying late in the evening just to re-write what you’ve already done!
Once the consultation has finished, creating accurate invoices for our equine patients can draw two specific obstacles: performing veterinary work away from the main practice, and, in the case of a syndicate, having more than one billpayer for the same horse. Again, these frustrations used to be commonplace before veterinary practice management software simplified these processes.
With veterinary cloud-based technology, we no longer need to limit what we can document off-site just because we don’t have the convenience of a computer on hand.
With veterinary cloud-based technology, we no longer need to limit what we can document off-site just because we don’t have the convenience of a computer on hand. Medications, products and clinical services can all be recorded at the time of the consultation, therefore ensuring that your clients always receive an accurate invoice, and you avoid accidental missed charges and lost revenue.
Now, let’s consider the second situation – multiple owners of the same horse, all with their own unique ownership share. This used to amount to an administrative headache by having to create multiple records for the same animal and then invoice each owner according to their percentage share. The alternative was to invoice one designated owner, and then leave it with them to figure out who owes what. Neither of these were viable solutions – it only amounted to extra work for the team, and it certainly did nothing to increase client satisfaction.
Thankfully, complex billing no longer needs to be feared, as smart veterinary software utilises a syndicate billing process – creating multiple owners for the same horse and then automatically splitting the invoice in accordance with each owner’s percentage share. The tailored invoices are then issued to each owner separately, all with a clear calculation.
To make life even easier and to save a lot of time, it’s helpful to import or create your own custom-made invoices and consent forms, along with a digital signature, and to email these to clients directly from the veterinary PMS. In regard to invoices, the practice can choose from our default options or custom-create their own, and they can also apply this to documents.
When your car becomes a mobile stock room throughout the working day, it’s easy to lose track of what’s at the clinic and what’s in the boot. This can become an even greater issue when performing any sort of formal stock count. We certainly don’t want to risk medication being unaccounted for and having to throw away expired items, or the inconvenience of ordering incorrect numbers of products simply because we don’t have an accurate inventory record. This is where our trusty veterinary practice management system can help us, even if we have stock in multiple locations.
Scanning functionality on a veterinary PMS can make it possible to record and monitor items that are either off-site, such as in a vehicle, or onsite in the practice. Stock location can also be changed at any time. When it comes to reordering, your veterinary PMS can do this for you, too, directly with your main wholesaler. It can also alert the user when items are running low or nearing their expiry date. Pharmaceuticals amount to one of our largest expenses, so it makes sense to have a reliable system to monitor and record stock.
When your car becomes a mobile stock room throughout the working day, it’s easy to lose track of what’s at the clinic and what’s in the boot.
A successful day in equine practice requires multiple channels to communicate effectively and reliably, so your veterinary PMS must deliver a competent suite of features with seamless functionality to meet the diverse needs of your patients.
Whether you’re at the practice or out on the road, or connecting with labs, insurance companies and other providers throughout the working day, your veterinary practice management system can integrate effortlessly with your wider network – working in exactly the way you do and prioritising client and patient care.
Arnie Agnew from AGNEW EQUINE LTD shares an impressive story of how VetIT has improved their equine veterinary practice - click on the video below to hear their story.
Click here If you’d like to talk to one of VetIT's Technology Consultants about how our tech can help your practice.
