Naomi ·12 September 2024
Running a successful veterinary clinic involves balancing a myriad of daily tasks, from patient care to administrative duties, all while ensuring a smooth and positive client experience and a happy, healthy team! However, as clinics increasingly look toward software tools to help better manage operations, the real challenge becomes making sure what you select is the best fit and most efficient for your business. A huge part of obtaining the best solution is getting the right integrations for your clinic’s software ecosystem. As the systems you put into place must create a unified workflow that
•Boosts productivity and efficiency
•Increases revenue
•Improves patient care
•Streamlines workflows
•Reduces non urgent phone line usage
In this article we will walk through the key elements you should be looking to fill your patient advocacy tool box with as well as the types of integrations that can maximise your veterinary clinic's software. So, let’s explore how veterinary practices like yours can leverage its software integrations to optimize their operational efforts and enhance the overall clinic experience you offer.
Veterinary clinics manage numerous tasks daily: scheduling appointments, maintaining medical records, managing inventory, processing payments, and communicating with clients. Managing these tasks through separate systems can lead to a fragmented workflow. By integrating key software tools, clinics can automate processes, allowing for smoother transitions between tasks. For example, having a good practice management system that integrates with your online booking software, means appointment details can automatically update in real time. This prevents scheduling errors like double bookings and missed appointments. Similarly, integrating your inventory management tool with your treatment records ensures that stock levels are efficiently updated after treatments, reducing the need for manual tracking. The result? A more intuitive run clinic where staff spend less time on admin work and more time delivering excellent care to their patients.
When software systems operate in silos, clinic staff often need to manually input the same data into multiple platforms, increasing the likelihood of errors and mental burn out. Integrated systems eliminate this problem by ensuring that data entered into one platform is automatically updated and duplicated across all connected systems. For instance, if a client schedules an appointment online, the data syncs across your practice management system, medical records, and billing software. This prevents discrepancies and ensures accurate patient and financial information across the board. With improved data accuracy, your clinic can minimize costly mistakes, such as billing errors or incorrect medical records, ultimately providing a safer and more reliable experience for your clients and patients.
Effective client communication is key to building strong, lasting relationships with pet owners. By integrating your CRM system with tools like email marketing and client communication platforms, you can automate personalized reminders, follow-ups, and notifications. For example, you can send automatic vaccination reminders, wellness check notifications, or personalized health updates directly to pet owners, ensuring they stay engaged with your clinic and compliant to the needs of their pet. Moreover, integrating tools that can also accommodate asynchronous communication and virtual consultations (once that patient/doctor relationship has been established) enhancing convenience and accessibility; allowing you to compete with ease against larger, lower quality online disruptors.
Ideally you want as many tools as possible located in one place to help you better engage and communicate with your clients more efficiently, with zero discrepancies in order to help increase their learning and compliance as well as decrease the need for constant back and forth on missed info. But where to begin? In my humble opinion the most important features to look out for are:
•Appointment booking and confirmations
•PMS generated reminders
•Transaction based reminders
•Payments write back
•Digital Payment
•Tailored campaigns, personalised to the patient
•Wellness & Loyalty Plans
•Prescription led home delivery
•Video calling
•Text and SMS chat
•Medical note write back
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Automated appointment booking, confirmation and reminders means that your reception team are not pinned to the front desk, desperately trying to book and confirm all necessary appointments for both emergency and routine cases. You can rest assured that the automation put in place with check in to confirm attendance as well as remind patience of up and coming routine appointments they need to book. And reminders are not just for appointments; transaction based reminders mean no more payment chasing! Digital payment capabilities mean you can also pre-empt needed fees by sending a pre-appointment payment link as well as take payment online via a your clients mobile phone. Walk outs without paying are common in clinic but not because your clients don't want to pay; they're just absent minded due to the stress of getting their pet in and out of clinic. Reminders make it easy for them to pay once they're home and sat down with their phone and a stress free cuppa!
With the incorporation of a robust CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system you can also plan in campaign runs tailored to different audiences within your client pool e.g cats approaching their 7th birthday, arthritic dogs or even all pets with lapsed dental records. These personalised campaigns both increase compliance while also capturing previously lost revenue. But why only improve your purse! With the use of Loyalty and Wellness Plans, you can continue to enhance your level of client compliance, increase your billable services and all while offering the best prices and discounts back to your patrons. You can even go one further by utilising prescription led home delivery, a brilliant way to remove the competition created by big online, digital disruptors like Chewy and Walmart.
Using an automated home delivery service, means you can increase your pharmacy capacity to fulfil prescription orders at greater numbers; the more clients you have signed up to home delivery via your wellness plan offering, the greater the discounts you'll receive (and are able to give back in your own product pricing) from the wholesalers providing the products you prescribe!
The more forms of asynchronous communication you have the lower the need to use phonelines for non urgent enquiries. Having text, chat and video call capabilities mean you can quickly assess a patient's need to come in to clinic, at a time that best suits you both. And with human led, AI assisted communication, your messages will still be upbeat and engaging no matter how difficult your day has been. And when a chat is complete a summary is generated with a link (for you) to the medical record of the patient. Simple!
So you've got your list of dream features, but what integrations should you be looking for to get them up and running in your clinic? There are a plethora of systems that collaborate with PetsApp to maximize your veterinary clinic’s software efficiencies.
Animana is a cloud based PMS owned by IDEXX. This is a fairly widely used PMS in the UK only.
Avimark is an on premise PMS created and run by a company called Covetrus.
Cornerstone is an on premise PMS created and run by a company called Idexx.
Ezvetpro is an on premise PMS created and run by a company called Ezofficesystems.
Ezyvet is a cloud based PMS created and run by a company called Idexx.
Impromed is an on premise PMS created and run by a company called Covetrus.
Merlin is a widely used cloud based PMS in the UK. It is used at almost all IVC practices as well as at many independents.
ProVetCloud is a relatively new based PMS in the UK, US and EU.
Robovet is an on premise PMS created and run by a company called Covetrus.
RxWorks is an on premise and cloud based PMS created and run by a company called Covetrus.
Teleos is an on premise PMS created and run by a company called Teleos.
VetIT is a cloud based PMS run by NVS
V-Tech Platinum is a comprehensive, clinic-based veterinary management software designed to streamline operations. It offers features like real-time client communication, integrated payments, and customizable templates, ensuring your practice runs smoothly while you focus on animal care.
Integrations available via the Bitwerx umbrella are the following enhanced reporting and real-time customer analytics software:
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