In the past few months, we’ve been talking about a veterinary industry trend we’ve been seeing that we’re calling the Veterinary Team Experience Movement.
In our 3-part series, we introduced the Veterinary Team Experience (VTX) Movement and then shared a Hospital Owner’s Survival Guide to help veterinary centers improve their VTX.
Here’s the summary: Like software user experience (UX), VTX is the experience you provide your most important stakeholders (the veterinary medical team on the ground floor). VTX is the very personality of a practice, and it’s defined not by a mission statement or core values on a wall but by consistency across 5 critical parts of a center: leadership, facilities, policies, people, and tools.
As an industry, the reality is that our VTX is pretty lousy right now, but it’s improving!
For the forward-thinking practice looking to stand out, in the final installment of our series, we’re sharing some techy tools for you and your team that can boost your VTX.
1. Plumb’s Pro
Most know about the Plumb’s app (which the early Instinct team is proud to have helped build).
But what you might not know is that Plumb’s now offers a new clinical decision support tool called Plumb’s Pro that is game-changing for your staff for everything from efficiency to confidence building to patient safety. To that end, Plumb's Pro has up-to-date and reliable information not just about drugs but also per disease and medical problem, as well as innovative tools like a drug interaction checker.
It’s a supercharged digital reference, constantly updated, and from the trusted team at Clinician’s Brief. If you aren’t providing this as a benefit for your medical teams, you should!
2. Inventory Ally
Many hospitals don’t use their PIMS to track inventory. Those that do are rethinking how they track inventory to more effectively serve the ultimate goals (reducing carrying costs and eliminating stockouts).
Inventory Ally is a powerful yet simple inventory tool from inventory guru Nicole Clausen, who's behind the Inventory Nation podcast. Inventory Ally gets inventory out of the PIMS and helps your medical teams by reducing the frustrating experience of running out of key supplies. It’s not designed to be a replacement for a perpetual inventory system. Instead, it questions whether most practices even need one of those.
3. Diagnostic Decision Support Tools
New companies like SignalPet and Lacuna Diagnostics offer powerful technology-enabled support for your teams, so they aren’t alone. These tools don’t replace humans but enhance their ability to do their jobs, which ultimately enhances your VTX.
4. Phone Apps
There are some great mobile phone applications out there that your team may not know about—and that cost you nothing.
Introduce them to powerful tools like these:
- The Feline Grimace Scale (good for owners too)
- Recover CPR App (new!)
- Firstline Antimicrobial Guideline App (tricky to get into—be sure to follow the instructions from Dr. Weese)
- Kimba Emergency Medicine App (great for procedure videos)
- Plantnet (available in app form, plant identification good for poisonings)
- CAPC Internal Parasite ID App (ova identification support)
- AO Foundation’s Surgery Apps
5. Instinct EMR, Treatment Plan, and Scripts
Finally (and admittedly self-serving), there’s Instinct. Where else will you find full practice management software built specifically for your medical teams with easy and efficient charting, drug dosing, safety warnings, teaching mode, and e-prescribing built in?
It’s new and growing rapidly, and Instinct’s veterinarian and nurse users have reported that using our software “feels like getting a supportive hug” every day. That’s what we live for!
In the end, even the top veterinary centers in the industry are not immune to the staffing challenges that all veterinary clinics face.
While these challenges can feel insurmountable, our attitude at Instinct is different. We feel motivated, even fortunate, to be in the rare position of doing truly meaningful work while being a part of the solution for an industry that does so much good in the world.
This is why our incredible team wakes up every day to work so hard on Instinct, focused uniquely on your veterinary team’s experience.
And if you are reading this, it’s probably why you started your veterinary organization too. 🙌
If you’re curious and want to learn more about Instinct, you can request an demo here. We’d love to show you what we're building for the profession!