Tailoring PMS functionality to practice discipline
And in the case of equine patients, we may be communicating with more than one owner. These specific requirements call for different PMS functions, and thankfully, technology has evolved greatly since the early days of veterinary software.
A PMS that can tailor its functionality to your patients’ unique needs can offer huge advantages:
Save time by completing discipline-specific tasks in just a few clicks.
Enhance the running of your practice’s day-to-day performance.
Improve and maintain client satisfaction levels by demonstrating that your practice understands their animals’ requirements.
Within the functions of the practice management system, it’s important to utilise the specific in-appointment support available. When used appropriately, this helps to manage time spent with a client more efficiently by streamlining certain actions. But what do we mean by this exactly? Let’s take a closer look at how a tailored PMS can support the different disciplines.
Client communication is the backbone of all veterinary practices and ensures treatment compliance and timely communication regarding patient care. However, it’s not uncommon for client contact to slip a little when we’re short on time, or when we assume that another team member has already spoken with an owner regarding follow-up appointments, medication or lab results. A smart PMS removes the risk of human error by automating many common reminders and communications via email and SMS, and this is particularly helpful in a small animal practice where multiple team members are involved in the client journey.
When we’re working within a team, it makes sense to be able to share responsibilities and delegate. A tailored PMS can offer a designated task list feature where specific tasks can be assigned to members of the team and progress tracked. Whether it’s taking the blood sample or issuing a prescription or booking a procedure; a shared task list can offer a simple and effective way of ensuring that everyone is involved and that all required steps are taken for your patients' care.
Read more…In this blog post “A Day in Small Animal Practice: Effective use of your veterinary practice management system”
Correct invoicing is essential, not just for the client, but also for insurance companies and, of course, your practice’s bottom line. However, equine patients are unique in that multiple owners may be part of a syndicate.
Before tailored PMS functionality was possible, the practice team needed to make multiple records of the same horse, and then invoice each owner separately. This took up time for the practice team and was open to error as not every owner had the same share of the horse.
Syndicate billing through a tailored PMS streamlines this process by creating multiple invoices from one bill and then invoicing each owner in line with their unique percentage share. This function saves time for the team and also reassures owners that invoices will always be accurate and easy to understand.
Multi-booking is another time-saving function that is particularly useful for equine practices where horses need ongoing treatment or rehabilitation. With this feature, multiple bookings can be scheduled across different days, times or locations for the same client or horse.
In this blog post “A Day in Equine Practice: How your veterinary practice management system can work for you”
Farm-practice vehicles are nothing short of a mobile clinic, so it’s paramount that stock can be accounted for and monitored correctly. Scanning functionality allows for easy stock tracking and ensures that money isn’t wasted by throwing away expired medication or ordering inappropriate numbers of products. It’s also possible to change stock location at any time, and to reorder items through your veterinary PMS directly with your main wholesaler. Vets can also be alerted when items are running low or nearing the expiry date, meaning that we don’t have to worry about being out of stock when we’re away from the practice.
When we’re working with large farms, it’s important that we have the right tools within the functionality of our PMS to track herds too, so that animals can be easily identified. In addition to this, we may need to create customised pricing for herds and farms, quickly and simply, as not every client has the same set of needs.
There are few ‘typical’ days for a farm practice, and a tailored PMS can assist with the changing requirements of our patients; ensuring that we can offer an exceptional, bespoke service to each and every client.
In this blog post “A Day in Farm Practice: Getting the most out of your veterinary practice management system”
Working remotely is an everyday occurrence for equine, farm and mixed practices, and small animal practices may also offer at-home appointments, particularly for sensitive cases or end-of-life care. Your PMS therefore needs to function offline, without compromising communication with clients. Tailored apps that utilise cloud-based technology can access downloaded directions, clinical history and account balances offline, and clients can be updated with an estimated time of arrival via SMS all through the app.
Once we’re with our client, medical notes can be verbally dictated, follow-up appointments booked, and medication prescribed – all whilst we’re offline and away from the practice. And it’s easy to add these details to the main veterinary practice management system with a single click once we regain a data connection or we’re back at the clinic.
As members of the veterinary community, we all seek to offer exceptional care to our clients and patients. Yet, how we offer this service may differ quite significantly depending on which discipline we are working in. It therefore makes sense that the functionality of our veterinary practice management system can be tailored to how we work.
The day-to-day performance of our practice can be greatly enhanced with the support offered by tailored functions, and time can be saved by completing discipline-specific tasks quickly and accurately.
Importantly, we can be sure that, as trusted clinicians, our practice is suited to the unique needs of our patients, and our clients will have confidence in our services long into the future.
Brilliant support and service every step of the way from an expert team
A system configured to perfectly suit your practice needs
Reliable and always accessible with cloud-based technology
A powerful tool to maximise profitability and grow your practice
Integration with your chosen providers and services
