IDEXX Newsletter

The start of 2020 seems like a lifetime ago — all the carefully laid plans for veterinary practices have since been side-tracked due to uncertainty and lockdown. Click the link below to read about what protocols and processes have improved workflow and keep your team safe.

COVID-19 Veterinary Protocols

• Mandatory Curbside Service: Clients stayed in their cars while we collected patients and delivered prescriptions to them.
• Telemedicine: Providing remote appointments with doctors.
• Additional Team Meetings: Adding an extra meeting between morning and afternoon shifts to our regular morning rounds.

Your practice may have made additional changes, like limiting service types, extending appointments, or changing shift patterns, that you should also review.

Assess Your COVID-19 Protocols

When deciding whether you should change, keep, or alter your temporary pandemic protocols, consider the following:

• Why was this created? What was the need this addressed and does that need still exist? • Does it work? If the protocol is followed, does it fulfil the reason for its creation?
• Is it used? This is often overlooked; if no one follows the rules, why not?
• What are the disadvantages? Even good processes can have downsides; can you reduce them?
• Is there a better way? Brainstorming with your team — especially if they do something regularly — can produce new ideas.

These questions are simple, but answering them properly can be deceptively complicated. This is the time to work with your teams to figure out the best way to adapt a protocol, allow them to talk about their concerns, and share their ideas to resolve any issues. Their daily experience of following the protocol steps can give you insight from a different perspective.

For example, curbside services were initially put in place to meet state-mandated building closures and protect team members from exposure. Many states' restrictions have been lifted, but practices still want to limit exposure. This protocol certainly worked and was followed, but what about when summer comes back around, and pet owners can’t stand to wait in the hot car?

If you state government allows in person clinic visits, you could implement a new protocol including cleaning and social distancing throughout the day and between consultations. You can also continue to offer clients the option of staying in their cars as well.

Keep the Good 

When removing a protocol, keep in mind that parts of it might still be relevant. In addition, trying something new can lead to learning, even if you don't see the desired results. So even as we change our curbside protocol, we're keeping these elements:

• Detailed Pre-Appointment Communication: Ensuring that the client knows what to expect when they arrive and what they need to bring has made exams more efficient.
• Improved History Collection: With less access to clients, technicians needed to get concise and complete histories every time. We've found that these more comprehensive histories help our team in diagnosing potential issues.
• Increased Drop-Offs: This can help doctors manage their time; since we've gotten better at this process, we'll be trying to do it more often.
• Remote Payments: We've refined our payment solutions to collect and store client payment details, making checkout easier and faster in the future.

We think you will be keeping more of the changes than eliminating them. The last few months have been hard on everyone, but veterinary practices can come out of this stronger by learning from the experience and working with your teams to build better processes. Keep the good, fix the bad, and never lose sight of an opportunity to improve.

Veterinary Software & Services New Zealand

News items and blog articles posted by the IDEXX Veterinary Software & Services Team