When Happy Tails Veterinary Hospital started expanding from a 750-square-foot solo practice into a full-service general practice hospital, they needed more than just extra space. They needed practice management software that could keep up with a growing team and patient volume. Practice manager Sam Swails, known affectionately by her team as the "fixer of everything," led the charge to overhaul the hospital’s systems and processes, starting with a cloud-based PIMS, Instinct EMR.

"My actual real job title is ‘I fix the things.’ If things break, if things go wrong, if there's client trouble, staff trouble, doctor trouble, anything at all, I'm the person that comes in and fixes it."

—Sam Swails, Practice Manager, Happy Tails Veterinary Hospital

A Mission-Driven Practice With a Growth Mindset

Happy Tails was founded in 2014 in Pasadena, Maryland, by Dr. Vera Calpeno. Frustrated by the limitations of traditional practice models, she set out to build a full-service general practice rooted in client education and experience, personalized care, and open, thoughtful communication.

A key differentiator? Longer appointments—typically 45 minutes to an hour—so the team can listen, educate, and collaborate with pet owners on every aspect of their pet’s health. 

“We are partners. It's not just me giving you services, it's us working together to make your pets live longer, to make them live better, and to make sure they're happier. That's the goal.”

— Sam Swails

Now AAHA-accredited and staffed by 3 full-time doctors and 1 part-time, Happy Tails offers general practice, emergency care, and holistic services, including acupuncture, laser therapy, Chinese herbal medicine, and more. 

The Problem: A Legacy Server-Based PIMS That Couldn't Keep Up

When Sam joined in 2021, Happy Tails was running on a server-based PIMS that had been in use since the beginning. It was slow, unstable, and lacked support. Even worse, it was becoming a liability.

"If the server bursts into flames, then we're just doomed, and we keep spending all this money on backups and everything else," Sam said.

An early attempt to switch to a different cloud-based PIMS didn’t go well. However, the experience helped Sam and her team clarify what they really needed: security, flexibility, and tools that made work easier.

The Solution: A Medical-First EMR That Just Works

Happy Tails was among the first wave of general practices to bring Instinct EMR into a non-emergency, non-specialty setting. Here's what stood out most to Sam and her team after going live in August 2024.

🖥️ Digital treatment sheets and Ax Mode

“A huge thing that won my medical team over was the treatment sheets and the anesthesia module. It was crazy doing that stuff on paper for those really lengthy surgeries, like foreign bodies, exploratories, enucleations... it was awful.”

📱Tablet workflows

“If you are a main technician, then you have a tablet... We have these little pens so you can write directly on them, and that made a huge difference in terms of our turnaround time on things. Things became so much faster. We are truly using Instinct to its full capacity, which we weren't doing with our previous server-based PIMS.”

📊 Chart templates

“I had to do the majority of the initial chart template creation when we first implemented Instinct. And I was ready for it to take my entire soul away and all of my time. Because making templates on our old system… it was like getting your wisdom teeth removed. But [in Instinct], I was able to get all the major ones done in like, two days.”

💰 Estimates and financial workflows

“It's so much easier for [the medical team] to explain everything that's going on [to clients]. The estimate gets signed off on, and then we just get going. Once we know the money is approved, then we just bang it out. And then once everything is done, the treatment sheet transfers everything to the invoice so we don't have to worry about tracking that.”

📋 Task list

“We are using that task list like our lives depend on it. It's the best thing since sliced bread. Being able to communicate with doctors is so much easier with it.”

🌍 Paper-light and eco-conscious

“Paper usage is pretty devastating for the environment, and that is something we are conscious of. [With Instinct], we can save so much time and so much money and be nicer to our environment.”

The Impact: Faster Workflows, Less Stress, Better Care

With Instinct EMR, Happy Tails has streamlined their workflows and improved the client experience without overloading their team.

"Our emergency flow has gotten a lot faster, which makes clients happy because they don't want to be here all day."

Their practice management system is no longer a source of stress:

"It's no longer, Oh my god, the PIMS is acting up! which was a huge problem I kept having to handle," Sam said. "For years, it was like, Oh well, it's acting up again. And then everybody's day gets slowed down. That constant issue is removed from my picture, which is very stress-relieving."

Instinct also made it easier to train new staff:

"Now it's like someone could pick this up in less than a week and they'd be totally fine."

And it’s helped with legal and administrative workflows too:

"We're using it for everything because having it be able to be signed off on and then completed with all of that metadata... also helps us out legally."

A True Partnership in Progress

What stands out most to Sam is how responsive and collaborative the Instinct team has been.

"I don't think I've had a single issue come up with Instinct that wasn't fixed within the day by the support team," Sam said. "I do feel like Instinct as a company, Instinct Science, is genuinely listening to client feedback."

Her only ask is that Instinct keeps it up.

"Maintain that level of dedication... making sure that you have the people who believe in what you guys do... because that is a huge plus to working with your company."

What’s Next for Happy Tails

The Happy Tails team is exploring:

• An updated X-ray and PACS system
• A more integrated online pharmacy experience
• Ongoing upgrades to equipment and digital tools

They're also exploring AI tools for SOAP note transcription and X-ray interpretation, and they're strongly committed to staying at the forefront of veterinary innovation.

"This is a rapidly changing industry. And it's just such a detriment to your business if you're not looking into all the ways that it is updating itself."

Happy Tails is proof that scaling a veterinary hospital doesn’t have to mean sacrificing care, burning out your team, or getting buried in paperwork. With the right leadership, tools, and values, growth can feel good.

A huge thanks to Sam Swails and the Happy Tails team for taking the time to share their experiences with Instinct. We hope their insights help you take the next step toward a better software solution for your hospital!

If you’re curious whether Instinct Treatment Plan or our complete EMR platform would be a better solution for you and your team, reach out and get a tour.