The push towards telehealth is not only happening within health care for humans. In fact, veterinary clinics are increasingly moving practices to the virtual realm, aiming to broaden their offerings and services to pet owners who are looking for convenient options to keep their pets healthy. With the massive, industry-agnostic move towards digitization, pet software providers are partnering and collaborating with vendors to enable veterinarians to treat pets remotely and seamlessly.
As this trend continues, software developers that build vet practice management systems must take these evolving needs into consideration. In some cases, there is an overlap between what a vet clinic is looking for in telehealth technology and what they need in a practice management system.
Help Vets Help Pets
Vet clinics face increasing pressure to increase margins as various other service providers step into the pet healthcare industry. Raising prices alone will not cover shrinking margins, though a combination of expanded services offerings and analytical insights can bolster a practice’s profitability. By facilitating after-hours service that can occur remotely, they can better serve their current clients and also retain the ones that may have turned to an after-hours emergency vet clinic instead.
To enable this type of flexible care, many clinics are leveraging technology that allows them to tap into sophisticated algorithms that can quickly identify issues or conditions that a pet may be experiencing. This allows the vet to assess the urgency of symptoms and deliver the necessary care virtually.
The ability to integrate with these telehealth systems is just one part of the equation. The ability to deliver complex care requires complex solutions that streamlines the entire operation from beginning to end. That means that vet practice management systems must be able to integrate the pets’ medical data effortlessly between platforms.
Streamlining Operations, Smoothing Ruff Edges
In a world where only 10% of practices are corporately owned, a lot of responsibility falls on the heads of staff that work within independently owned practices. Veterinary practice managers must wear many hats. In addition to providing business management services, they must also oversee operations. Some vets do not have the luxury of vet practice managers and instead rely on all staff to put in a team effort to keep operations running smoothly. In either situation, vet practice management systems can make lives easier for everyone involved, especially one that has advanced tools and functionality available for the vet practices to utilize. By automating and streamlining key responsibilities, vet practice management software can allow veterinarians to focus their efforts on practicing veterinary medicine.
Whether part of an in-person team or a telemedicine practice, vet practice managers (and vet practice management software) must juggle the following duties:
- Overseeing staff management and client relations
- Overseeing and managing patient medical records
- Billing and financial reporting, which entails accounts receivable, income reconciliation, credit, accounts payable, inventory, and budgeting
- Client service, including communication, education, interaction, and procedure protocol
Without the necessary technology in place to support these responsibilities, vet practice owners and managers can find that time is often diverted away from pet care and towards administrative tasks.
Developers should work to enhance vet practice management software to address the pain points within each of these operational areas (where possible). In many cases, even solving for administrative issues alone can have a rolling impact on client service and pet care as time and resources are freed up and staff can focus on high-value responsibilities.
Developers have the power to help clinics and their staff provide quality care while generating revenue and remaining profitable. Billing, revenue cycle optimization, and payments are table stakes for vet practice management software. Capabilities should enable transparent billing via a secure and compliant connection to streamline ledger reconciliation.
A robust payment processing solution with the ability to accept multiple payment methods and easily reconcile payments saves time and reduces human error. This means offering customers secure options to pay how they want, including online, over the phone, chip card, text-to-pay or digital wallets. The ability to set up and accept recurring payments automatically, interact with customers via electronic statements, and to automate reconciliation is a critical component that vets need. To read more veterinary payment statistics check out our infographic.
Additional considerations and integrations can make one vet practice management system stand apart from the rest. Providing analytics and insights, competitive analysis, cross-chain performance insights, and real-time client information can be strategic differentiators that help clinics choose one system over another.
Partnering with Global Payments Integrated enables software developers to offer all of these capabilities bundled together as part of a value-added integrated payments system. Not only do we empower you to help your vet clients accept the most popular forms of payment, but we make billing and reconciliation a breeze while helping your veterinary practice clients grow their business.
Beyond the nuts and bolts of getting paid, Global Payments Integrated offers developers Callpop technologies to facilitate seamless and open communication between practices and their customers. Callpop empowers practices by providing key information about a customer each time they call, including balance owed, personal information, appointment times and history, and Smart-Caller ID. Practices can also push texts when lines are busy and send appointment reminders and Google Map directions via text.
For more information about how to better empower your veterinary customers and add value to your product, contact us today.