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An innovative Online Practice Management System For Vets
The document outlines Jenny Philp and Peter Osborne's experiences with a bespoke web-based practice management system (PMS) used at a new veterinary practice aimed at revolutionizing pet care. It highlights features such as online booking, flexible pricing, and a real-time pet log, all designed to enhance customer service and streamline administrative processes. Challenges encountered include the need for flexibility in budget and operations, while future directions focus on leveraging collected data for business insights and adapting to changing web access patterns.
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An innovative Online Practice Management System For Vets
- 1. ONLINE BOOKING (&MORE) JENNY PHILP & PETER OSBORNE EXPERIENCES OF USING A BESPOKE WEB-BASED PMS
- 2. WHO WE ARE PETEROSBORNE DIRECTOR OF USABILITY DATANAUTS LTD JENNY PHILPCLINICAL DIRECTOR VET’S KLINIC
- 3. WHAT WE’LL COVER •Background & context • Online booking • & More… – In-appointment checkout – The Pet Log (a very different clinical record) • What we’ve discovered • Future directions
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- 5. • New-bulid practicein Swindon • Conceived as a “revolution in pet care”
- 6. PRACTICE • 4 vets •10 Nurses • ca. 6400 clients • Profitable at 14 months after opening
- 7. KEY OBJECTIVES • Provideindustry–leading customer service • Use modern methods and technologies • Be accessible and affordable • Be honest and transparent
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- 9. TECHNOLOGY • Technology underpinsour key objectives • Reduce overheads by streamlining practice administration • Increase cost-efficiency through smarter allocation of resources and implementing smoother processes
- 10. A FULLY ONLINEPMS • No need for on–site servers (reduces costs) • Staff can work remotely • Less of learning-curve • Give clients direct access to their data • Incorporate ‘new’ ideas CLOUD PLUS BESPOKE
- 11. NEW IDEAS =BORROWED IDEAS status updates flexible pricing online registration / customer self-service
- 12. ONLINE REGISTRATION • Clientcan register at a time that suits them WHAT IT MEANS FOR CLIENTS WHAT IT MEANS FOR STAFF • Reduced workload No data entry required • Receive correct contact details Most of the time
- 13. ONLINE REGISTRATION INPRACTICE
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- 16. KEY CLIENT BENEFITS •Able to book 24/7 • Able to see all available appointments across a week / month • Can choose between rapid access and / or continuity of care
- 17. THE NEED TOBE ‘SMART’ • Clients are not clinicians. Don’t understand: – Which procedures require a vet rather than a nurse – Which procedures are incompatible with one another • Booking system needs to do the ‘thinking’ for them
- 18. SMART BOOKING INPRACTICE Let’s add our first procedure – dog booster & kennel cough Incompatible procedures are no longer selectable
- 19. FLEXIBLE PRICING • Easyjet-styleyield management • Clients can get cheaper appointments by: – Being flexible about who they see – Booking further in advance
- 20. HOW IT WORKS •Most procedures have a minimum and maximum price • Prices go up as consult session occupancy increases • Minimum until 20% filled • Maximum after 70% filled • Dynamic pricing between 20-70%
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- 22. WHAT IT MEANSFOR STAFF • In theory: – A more even spread of appointments • In practice: – Doesn’t account for: • Emergencies • Client preferences – Less certainty about workload – Potential damage to the vet’s ego
- 23. BUSINESS ADVANTAGES • Canmanipulate ATV by adjusting the algorithm rather than headline price
- 24. VARIABLE PRICING INPRACTICE … and a convenient time to visit Choose your vet… Prices and availability update
- 25. MAXIMIZING TRANSACTIONS • Aspart of the online booking process, clients are offered additional procedures (e.g nail clip) • A helpful reminder and low pressure sales • 100% reliable • Additional items sold at full price
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- 27. COMPLETING THE BOOKING •Online prepayment – Reduced Debt (<2%) – Fewer missed appointments – More secure cashflow • Instant confirmation client choice of email and / or SMS • Additional reminder sent automatically 24 hours before appointment
- 28. WHAT IF IFIND ONLINE BOOKING DIFFICULT? • Staff will talk clients through the booking process • Staff can send a ‘smart’ booking link • Can book by phone non-discounted
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- 34. HOW IT WORKS •Procedures are paid before appointment by credit card • Credit card details are stored • Additional charges are reviewed with client at the end of the appointment • Payment is taken from card on file • Client and pet can go straight home
- 35. EXPRESS CHECKOUT INPRACTICE
- 36. ADVANTAGES • Provides asmoother checkout • Reduced front-desk workload and less stress • Vet has responsibility to discuss payment with client • Lower bill–shock
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- 38. THE PET LOG/1 • ‘Facebook-style’ timeline for pets • Main clinical record • Updated in realtime using iPads running our Klinic app
- 39. ADDING ITEMS TOTHE PET LOG
- 40. ADDING ITEMS TOTHE PET LOG
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- 42. PET LOG /3 •Detailed, user-based audit trail • Something most practices would want, but… • 99% of the pet log is available to clients – in real time
- 43. OPEN HAS ADVANTAGES(ONCE YOU GET PAST THE FEAR) • Most practitioners are worried about clients reading notes, but… • Data Protection Act already gives them access THE FEARS THE ADVANTAGES • Encourages high standard of note writing • Instantly changes the relationship between owner and vet – Openess = trust (empowering the owner) • Reduces misunderstandings between staff & owner
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- 45. YOU WON’T GETEVERYTHING RIGHT FIRST TIME • When you do something radically different you will make mistakes, but… • Web development is quick – Bug fixes in hours – Minor new features in a few days – Major new features within weeks
- 46. BUT FLEXIBILITY ‘MEANS’FINANCIAL UNCERTAINTY • Some things will be a lot more complicated than you think they will • There’s a need to flexible with the budget • Sometimes have to reduce feature scope (or delay implementation)
- 47. OTHER ISSUES • Printinglabels • Legacy components (e.g SAGE) • WiFi issues (within surgery) • Clients will try and game the system (or make an honest mistake)
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- 49. THE WEB ISCONSTANTLY CHANGING • Internet access patterns have changed since 2012 – Mobile use is much more common (and 4G coverage has improved) – Social networking has become a useful communication channel for businesses – User advocacy has an increasingly important role in marketing
- 50. MAKE USE OFCOLLECTED DATA • We have detailed data on: – 6,000+ owners – 12,000+ pets – 27,000+ appointments – 70,000+ individual procedural steps – 375,000+ pet log entries • We now want to use this information to gain even more business insight
- 51. HOW CAN WEUSE THIS INFORMATION? • Standard KPIs – Average time between booking and arrival • Assessing individual staff performance • But, danger of finding correlations rather than causation
- 52. EVOLVING THE PLATFORM •Mobile app • Leverage social advocacy • Extend the web platform through to other group activities v.2.0
- 53. PS: IT’S NOTA PRODUCT • We involved in an ongoing project not a product • Paradigm shift from bundled DVD-ROM • Optimized for a single practice • Commercial PMSes require many more compromises
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Editor's Notes
- #3 PETER Three years ago, I wouldn’t have believed I’d be talking to an audience of vets and practice managers. I knew literally nothing about the industry (as Jenny will attest). However hat I did know was online booking systems. It’s something we’ve been doing for 10+ years and over that time we’ve learnt a lot. I’m not quite sure it qualified us to build an online PMS from the ground up, but I think we were one of the few, if not only agency gung ho enough to think we could deliver it for the budget VK had
- #4 PETER Background and context – where vet’s klinic came from, the philosophies behind it and why they decided an online PMS was right for them Online booking – How our online registration and booking has impacted the business. And, as we’ll see it’s not always in the way we expected & more – we’ll take a look at some of the other more innovative (or maybe just unusual elements of the online PMS) We’ll finish up by talking about what we’ve learned from two years working in partnership and share some of the things we wish we’d known when we started. Maybe it will be helpful to anyone else crazy enough to be considering this path
- #5 So how did this journey start and what drove it?
- #6 JENNY
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- #10 JENNY
- #11 PETER The idea of online PMSs is relatively new, but in no way unique. The reasons for the shift to cloud are fairly well known…. What is less common (and possibly slightly crazy) is electing to build your own PMS rather than taking a subscription out to one of the commercial offerings. In doing so you move from spending a few hundred pounds a month to an investment of tens of thousands. So why did VK elect to do it? The VK team felt that none of the available options provided a close match with the way they wanted to practice. It would mean having to work round a system rather than having a system that worked for them. Specifically they wanted to be able to incorporate
- #12 PETER When we say new we mean borrowed Flexible pricing – can we improve utilisation of vet time and facilities by pricing according to demand. For example – ensure we don’t have empty sessions Status updates – people always telling their friends how they’re doing online. What if we could let owners know, in near real-time how their pets are doing while they’re with the vet. Particularly for all day appointments. Client worried can check in and see what is happening Self service – reduce administration workload by allowing customers to do things for themselves.
- #13 JENNY Self service starts for us with online registration. Client can register when they want. No time pressure with the process (e.g. finding existing vet’s details etc) For staff it mean freedom from data entry Get customer details right Customer takes responsibility for keeping details updated.
- #14 JENNY Registration is a simple process – two short forms.
- #15 JENNY All our owners log in to a personalised dashboard Quick access to pet records Upcoming appointments Promotional items For example, we’ve just taken our refer a friend scheme completely online.
- #16 JENNY
- #17 JENNY Online booking gives clients quite a few benefits Can book at a time that suits them even if the clinic isn’t open They get the benefit of seeing all available appointments rather than having a ‘hunt the vacancy that suits’ dialogue with the reception staff Client preferences are taken into account. They can choose the earliest available appointment or elect to see the same clinician each time
- #18 JENNY The challenge is how we make a booking system simple for clients, while also enforcing all the constraints the clinicians need.
- #19 PETER
- #20 PETER One of the key aspects of the booking system is variable pricing What we’ve tried to implement is an Easyjet-style approach – changing prices as a flight (or in our case a session) gets busier Benfit for customers is that if they’re flexible they can save We aren’t (yet) making them print their own boarding passes.
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- #30 Show one screenshot of rotas, admin , clinic
- #31 PETER
- #32 PETER We don’t just do online booking. As we’ve said what we’ve built is a complete online PMS. We cover absolutely everything from procedure management, through invoicing, to admin and owner records. Can even log in as an owner if necessary to help provide support
- #33 And it’s not just clients who get a PMS that’s much more immediate and interactive. Our vets all use iPads in theatre as Interactive procedure checklists Note taking (typing or dictation) To take photos and / videos for adding to the pet record. I’d like to give you a couple of vignettes on the system and explain how some of the things they do impact on the clinician / customer relationship
- #34 In appointment checkout is just one way we try to make the clinic experience less stressfull for pet and owner
- #35 We start from the enviable position of having all the pre-booked procedures paid for *and* a debit or credit card on file So if the appointment has no additional charges the clinician can close it off and there’s no need for the client to go back to reception If there are extra charges then payment can be taken quickly and easily
- #37 JENNY
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- #40 PETER So if I go back to the vet app we showed earlier – I’d like to show how items get added to the pet log Step started or completed Note added Product sold Step finished Photo / video taken
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- #44 JENNY
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