When it comes to technology, there is no escaping the noise around developments in generative artificial intelligence, even when it comes to talk around practice management. Most people may even have seen the promise in trying programs such as ChatGPT for drafting documents or DALL-E for creating images from prompts. There are also a number of proven artificial intelligence tools available. There is a wealth of options to suit each practice for automating workflows, reducing the administrative burden, delivering quick test results, generating medical notes from diction and more. In an industry that is already stretched thin, these tools can be incredibly useful.
What is out there?
There are various examples of technology that practices can already use to make life easier. For clinical applications, diagnostics have made leaps and bounds to deliver quicker, cheaper and more accurate results. Through virtual laboratories and the instruments they are linked to, veterinarians can receive results of blood, urine and cytology tests within hours. No more sending them off, waiting around or need for third party consults.
By using deep learning (training from large datasets to spot characteristics) the accuracy of results will match that of a human. Second opinions will remain a necessity and the need for input from a veterinary professional cannot be negated, but routine testing can become much less time consuming. That time can instead be spent focusing on patient care and client services. Quicker results also, of course, mean quicker diagnoses and delivery of potential treatment plans, for healthier pets and happier owners.
Smooth everyday workflows
Clinical applications for technology offer some of the more tangible and instant results; clever technology is also a must for smoothing out work-flows across the practice. Services such as automated or two-way communications help extend a practice's outreach beyond the practice door and provide better inpatient experience.
Reminders are a basic but important communication to get right. As the primary way for keeping clients compliant with the prescribed treatments and on track for their appointments, it is important that they work well. This means being fully automated and containing all the relevant information for all pets sent at exactly the right time, every time. Practices can also build on smoothing their patient workflow beyond the practice door with two-way messaging services. This gives pet owners a chance to sort all their non-urgent issues, such as appointment requests, on light-touch triage, without ever needing to pick up the phone.
Start small, but start!
Great tools are one thing, but there is always a hurdle in the adoption of new methods. One of the most important things to get over is a fear of looking silly or making mistakes. There will always be hiccups. It is important to embrace these minor pains for the learning experiences they are and not let small negatives take away from the larger positives. Even the best technology and the best people involved will never deliver a seamless adoption process.
Therefore, it is critical to set a reasonable initial scope with something that is going to make an immediate impact. The 25% rule is a crucial tipping point for getting people onboard with an idea (Centola et al, 2018), and this applies to the practice team. Having champions to lead engagement with and promote use of technology internally ultimately helps to get everyone more comfortable and onboard. Practices should recognise and reward those adapting to new ways of working to highlight the tangible benefits for everyday life.
A positive mindset
All change comes with some hiccups. What practice leaders can do, however, is turn growing pains into positive learning moments for both practice staff and pet owners, no matter what the service is.
For example, a client has tried to order the wrong medication from the shop for collection in practice. Or perhaps the transaction failed because the client entered their pet's weight incorrectly. Rather than just cancelling this and moving on, it is a perfect opportunity to reach out to the client. From this point of contact, veterinary staff can set the pet owner up with the right medication (potentially on a recurring basis delivered to their home), discuss any health plan benefits they have yet to use or touch base with their pet's welfare for a personal touch.
Even better – if a practice uses a two-way messaging system rather than spending time on the phone, staff may find they can manage multiple conversations. This enables them to work in extra elements of care while saving precious time overall.
Helping hands
When it comes to finding the right tools and implementing them, having an expert will prove invaluable for a smooth adoption process. Virtual Recall have been in this niche for over a decade and are in good company with a lot of fantastic solution experts, for both the management and clinical sides of practice life. Technology and practice life have also emerged as popular topics for CPD, panels at events, webinars, podcasts and more. Keep an eye out, allow some thinking space and it will be much easier to start changing practice life for the better.