Just one thing: Harnessing technology to bolster efficiency

Technology can be a powerful tool in our veterinary practices, simplifying or automating tasks in ways that help create time and space to enhance patient care and strengthen client communication and relationships.

Quite often, the tools we’re already using have capabilities we haven’t yet discovered or utilized. Extending our use of the technology solutions we already have can offer a low-budget, high-impact boost. The results can include superior patient care, happier clients, smoother operations, and less stress on the team.

Practice information management software (PIMS) is a great example. PIMS can be used to automate or facilitate appointment scheduling, reminders, patient and/or client recordkeeping, prescription processing, invoicing and payment processing, accounting, inventory management, and other routine, often repetitive, functions. 

Activating your technology tools

Here’s how you can start down a path toward more productive technology use in just 15 minutes:

• Identify one technology system your practice already uses that might have features you don’t leverage fully. If you use PIMS, this is a likely candidate.
• Briefly investigate what the system can be harnessed for. While you could read about the available features in the service provider’s marketing or instructional materials, a quicker path might be to contact the provider directly—for example, the PIMS company’s tech support team. Ask them to highlight what your practice could be doing with the technology.
• Choose one or more new features you think would be worth exploring. 

Next steps could include meeting with your team to solicit their thoughts on these unused features, and how the features might impact their work. Your team may already know about certain features, and have chosen not to use them. If this is the case, it’s important to find out why. 

Activating the feature might be as simple as getting a hands-on training session, whether led by a technology enthusiast on your team or the service provider. Or it could mean investing time to create well-written record templates or discharge instructions—again, get your team involved. If the features require activation before use, ask the service provider to advise on an implementation plan.