Appointment Scheduling System for a Veterinary Clinic: What It Should Be Able to Do and How to Choose One

The appointment schedule dictates a large part of the day at a veterinary clinic. It determines how long appointments will be, when emergency cases can be accommodated, and how many calls the front desk needs to make. When a clinic reviews its scheduling system, the first question isn’t which system is best, but where the schedule should be located and how it integrates with the medical records and the point-of-sale system.

In the medical records system or next to it

Many veterinary practice management systems have a built-in appointment scheduler. The advantage is that the appointment, medical record, and invoice are all stored in the same system, so information about the animal and its owner only needs to be entered once.

A separate scheduling system may offer more features for online scheduling and reminders, but in that case, the appointments must be transferred to the practice management system. Therefore, always ask how an appointment in one system is synced with the other, and what happens when an appointment is rescheduled or canceled. For more information on what the practice management system should be able to do, see the guide to practice management systems for veterinarians.

Here's what the planner is designed to handle

Test the appointment calendar using a typical week from the clinic, not the vendor's example:

  • Appointment types with their own duration, so that a vaccination and a gait assessment are not scheduled for the same time.
  • Multiple veterinarians, veterinary technicians, and treatment rooms booked at the same time.
  • Follow-up appointments booked directly from the medical record.
  • Slots reserved for emergency cases.
  • Cancellations and rescheduling that quickly free up the time for someone else.

Let the front desk run the test. That’s where the shortcomings of a scheduling system are first noticed—often during the busiest hour of the morning.

Online Reservations for Pet Owners

Online booking can reduce the volume of phone calls, but the clinic needs to control what patients can book on their own. Ask the provider:

  • What types of visits can pet owners schedule on their own?
  • How does the clinic disable online booking for certain time slots or veterinarians?
  • What information about the animal and the reason for the visit does the pet owner provide?
  • How does the pet owner receive reminders, and can the clinic control when they are sent?
  • How should an appointment that isn't appropriate be handled—for example, an emergency case that was scheduled as a routine visit?

From Reservation to Medical Record and Invoice

A booking is the start of a workflow that continues with arrival, examination, medical record, and billing. Make sure the information from the booking is carried through the entire process, so that no one has to re-enter the animal’s name or the reason for the visit at a later stage.

Also ask how the system displays today's appointments for the person working in the examination room. The veterinarian needs to see who is coming next and why, without having to check the reception desk's view.

How Vetz Handles Bookings

Vetz is not a booking system for pet owners. Instead, Vetz retrieves appointments from the clinic’s medical record system. Once the integration is active, the clinic’s appointments are automatically displayed in Vetz, and the completed medical record is sent back to the medical record system without any manual steps. Vetz integrates with Provet Cloud, Vettigo, and MHK FileMaker, and the technology is described in the article on how Vetz integrates with the medical record system.

Vetz also has a calendar for patient appointments, where the veterinarian can plan and follow up on visits and keep track of times, follow-up appointments, and the daily schedule. During the visit, Vetz listens to the conversation with the pet owner and writes a draft medical record, which the veterinarian reviews and approves. More tools for the clinic are available in the overview of tools for veterinarians, and all features are listed on the Vetz features page.

Data Protection for Booking Information

A booking system stores pet owners' names, phone numbers, and email addresses. Request written responses before using the system:

  • Where is the data stored and processed?
  • Which subcontractors are involved, for example, for text messages and email?
  • How long are details of past reservations retained?
  • How is the data deleted, and can the clinic delete it on its own?
  • What access logs can the clinic review?

For more questions about personal data and AI, see the article on AI and the GDPR for veterinarians.

How to Compare

Make a shortlist based on the features the clinic can’t do without, and then test each option using an actual week from the clinic’s schedule. Ask how existing appointments and pet owners’ contact information will be transferred, and who will handle the transfer.

Also ask how the price is calculated—whether it’s per user, per veterinarian, or per clinic—whether text message reminders cost extra, and whether the price is listed with or without sales tax. Specific systems should be compared against the providers’ own current websites, as features and terms and conditions are subject to change.

Learn more about Vetz

Would you like to see how Vetz retrieves the clinic's appointments and enters patient records during a visit? Schedule a demo, and we'll show you using your own visit types.