Practice Management for Veterinary Practices: Where Time and Revenue Are Lost

Managing a veterinary practice is less about software and more about how the day actually unfolds. It involves how staff and rooms are scheduled, how a visit progresses from booking to a paid invoice, and how team members hand things off to one another. The practice manager needs to identify where time is being spent and where revenue is being lost, and then make changes one thing at a time.

What Internship Supervision Entails

Internship supervision covers all aspects of the day-to-day operations of the internship:

• Layout of veterinarians, veterinary technicians, and treatment rooms.
• The workflow for each visit, from booking and arrival to medical records and billing.
• The administrative tasks related to appointments, such as record-keeping, reminders, and follow-ups.
• Communication within the team and with pet owners.
• Monitoring the program's progress, using the data the program has already collected.

The software supports every aspect, but it does not fix a routine that isn't working. The guide to medical record systems for veterinarians describes how the practice's core system should function.

From Booking to Paid Invoice

Follow a typical visit through the practice and note where it gets bogged down. The questions below usually reveal where the time goes:

• Is the same information entered in multiple places, such as in the timetable and in the journal?
• Are the medical records written during the day or after closing time?
• Does the veterinarian have everything needed when the animal enters the examination room?
• Is information missing when an animal is transferred between colleagues?
• How long does it take from the end of a visit to the invoice being sent?

The answers vary from one practice to another, so each practice needs to tailor the questions to its own daily routine rather than follow a template.

A Charge That Is Lost

Services that are performed but never billed are a common source of loss. This may include an additional medication, a brief checkup, or supplies that are not recorded. The practice needs a procedure to identify these instances, such as reconciling the invoice with the medical records before it is sent.

In Germany, the GOT fee schedule governs how veterinarians bill their patients.

According to Section 7 of the GOT, the fee is not due for payment until the animal owner has received an invoice. According to the same section, the invoice must include, at a minimum, the date of treatment, the type of animal, the diagnosis or reason for the visit, the billed procedure along with its serial number in the fee schedule, the invoice amount, and the sales tax.

Vetz suggests what should be billed based on the contents of the medical record, which reduces the risk of procedures being overlooked. More information on this can be found in the guide to billing at the veterinary clinic.

Record-keeping as a Management Issue

Record-keeping takes up a large part of a veterinarian’s day, and when it’s pushed back to the evening, it affects both the workload and how quickly the invoice can be sent. Therefore, decide who will write the records, when they should be completed, and how the practice will follow up on records that remain unfinished.

Vetz listens to the conversation with the pet owner and writes a structured draft of the medical record. The veterinarian reviews and approves the draft, which is then transferred to the medical record system with the push of a button. How this works in practice is described in the guide on AI-powered medical record-keeping for veterinarians.

Follow up on the case study with your own figures

The department already has most of what is needed to monitor operations. Start with a few questions that can be answered using your own systems:

• How many scheduled appointments are kept, and how many are missed?
• How many procedures are billed per visit for different types of visits?
• How long do medical records remain incomplete after a visit?
• How are the appointments divided among the veterinarians?
• What is the evening shift like for the staff?

Measure the same metrics over time so you can see if a change made a difference. Vetz provides an overview of workflows, productivity, and usage, revealing patterns and opportunities for improvement.

The Team and the Workload

Clearly defined roles at the front desk, in the examination room, and during handoffs reduce duplication of effort. When multiple team members are working with the same patient, they need to see the same information. In Vetz, multiple people can work on the same medical record at the same time, add comments, and see changes immediately.

Workload is also a management issue, since tired employees make more mistakes and are more likely to leave. The article on reducing the workload in the clinic discusses how reducing administrative tasks affects the workload.

Take it one change at a time

A practice that tries to change everything at once usually ends up with only partial results. Instead, choose a bottleneck—for example, medical records that are written after closing time. Test a new routine or tool for a limited period and measure the same metric before and after. Only when the change works should it be rolled out to the rest of the practice. More tools for daily work can be found in the overview of tools for veterinarians.

Learn more about Vetz

Would you like to see how Vetz can handle record-keeping from the evening through the visit? Book a demo, and we'll show you using your own visit types.