There is no more fitting time than now to write this article, as this past week in April we recognized National Veterinary Receptionist Week!

Veterinary client service (CSR) teams are your hospital’s front lines, and usually part of pet owners’ first and last interactions with your hospital. In many of Instinct's emergency customer hospitals, this team is interacting with pet owners on what is likely one of their worst days.

CSRs are answering phone calls, greeting people as they come in, and doing a quick triage of animals. They must make quick decisions on whether patients are stable enough to wait or not, and know how to react when an animal needs emergency attention.

They field endless questions about wait times and costs, have difficult conversations with owners, and manage a ton of critical data for the hospital. This job can be made even more challenging when staff lack critical information or complicated software to navigate amongst all of this.

Instinct Treatment Plan and Instinct EMR both have amazing capabilities built in to make CSR roles a little bit easier. I’m highlighting my favorite features after spending 8 years as a receptionist myself, that benefit these knowledgeable and compassionate teams we serve at Instinct.  

Features in both Treatment Plan and EMR 

#1 Status Board 

I know how hard it can be to field phone calls from upset owners who are worried about their pet and wanting an update, asking: has the doctor seen my pet yet? Is there a patient here by that name? Is the patient critical? Answering these concerns typically involves multiple steps, including paging a doctor or tracking down staff for basic information. This is where the Status Board becomes indispensable. It allows CSRs to quickly view all necessary details about any checked-in patient, including which board they're on, the reason for their visit, any alerts, and the attending doctor's name. With just one click from the Status Board, CSRs can access a patient’s treatment sheet, streamlining communication and improving response time.

#2 Task List

I've handwritten countless reminder notes on post-its for myself and other staff members, only to have them frequently get lost.

With the task list, you can easily assign a task to yourself or to another user. Whichever user has the task assigned will have a colored circle and number appear as an alert letting the user know they have a task. Completion of a task is as simple as one click and the best thing about the task list is that there is a complete audit trail of who created the task, completed it and the corresponding days and times. No more worries about a paper being thrown out or lost, or if something was completed or not.

#3 Patient and Account Merging

Within the Business Office section, the 'Patient Registration & Accounts' tabs allow us to easily add and manage accounts for patients and owners. A particularly valuable tool for many CSR teams is the account and patient merge feature. This quick process consolidates duplicate accounts into one, reducing headaches for the team and ensuring more accurate record-keeping. 

Features in EMR 

#4 Rapid Registration

The 'Rapid Registration' feature in Instinct EMR is especially valuable for CSRs during urgent situations, whether they are responding to phone calls or managing in-person client interactions. When pet owners are distressed due to an emergency, collecting information and completing paperwork can be difficult. Rapid registration speeds up the process, allowing us to quickly check the patient in and add them to the status board, enabling our medical team to begin treatment sooner.

#5 Comm Log

Alongside documentation and communication, we offer the communication log (comm log), a feature I find absolutely invaluable. This feature allows you to quickly record important details about communications with patients or owners, whether through email, in-person, or phone calls. Each entry is time-stamped and stored in one convenient location for easy access and review. Additionally, you can send emails directly from the EMR, including attachments such as documents and medical records, with all emails chronologically organized for effortless retrieval.

#6 Referrers

The Referrers tab gives quick access to all referring practices you have without running a report. In this section you can easily add the RDVMs, edit existing referrers, or remove ones you no longer need. This section saves a ton of time and makes data upkeep easier! 

#7 Financials

The Financials Tab is one of my favorite areas in Instinct. This tab shows all accounts with a current balance, whether from a closed or open invoice. It's a handy spot to monitor your financials and, most importantly, spot any discrepancies. Just one click lets you dive into an account ledger for a closer look. This is one of the most important tools that can be used for upkeep of account financial details. 

#8 Shareville

Whether you need to receive or send records, Shareville is massively helpful all around! I remember how time-consuming it used to be to print and fax, or print and email records. Not to mention the hassle for staff members who had to call another hospital, wait on hold to request records, and then wait even longer to receive them. Now, the Shareville portal is a game changer for referring veterinary clinics. They can simply log in and access shared documents or records for mutual patients, eliminating all of that extra legwork.

#9 Patient Transaction History

Located on the bottom of the payments panel from an account ledger, this snapshot gives you a visual breakdown of every invoice for that patient and the financial details associated. You can see how much the invoice total was, any payments applied or unapplied, refunds issued, and the invoice balance. This snapshot is a huge help to users when troubleshooting a financial discrepancy. 

Are you on a veterinary CSR team and looking to explore Instinct?  Request a demo to learn more.