The training and support process: North Maclean Family Vet

By Kylie McDonald

28 May 2019 5 min read

 

Top-notch training and support setup readied us to go-live.

A critical part of launching our new business was to find the best option for our practice management software. Because Sally, Erica and I had experience from our previous roles using various practice management solutions we had a good idea of what functionality and user experience we wanted.

We also needed to get our new practice up and running quickly, so it was essential the solution was intuitive and easy to use. We were also thinking ahead for when the practice would grow and take on new team members.

We didn’t want them bogged down learning a complicated and time-consuming system. This led us to Covetrus’ RxWorks™ – a decision we’re glad we made!

Once we had chosen RxWorks, we then thought, ‘Now what?’! How do we find out how to set it up and use it? This is where the Covetrus training and support team kicked into action.

Implementation specialist guided setup

I met our implementation specialist, Peter, who was going to walk me through setting up our clinic’s database. I was quite nervous and overwhelmed as I don’t have an IT background at all. I needn’t have worried – Peter was fantastic and made the whole process fun and enjoyable!

Peter, together with his colleague Adrienne, talked me through the whole process upfront and what would be needed. They explained a number of phone meetings would be scheduled for training, with some ‘homework‘ to be done in-between. Peter was also extremely patient and understanding throughout, as I was often taking these calls with noisy kids in the background!

I was only working part-time at this stage, but with Peter’s guidance, I was able to take care of the implementation. I would then discuss any important information or questions with Sally and Erica afterwards, who was still working full-time. They also had their own training session at the end of the implementation process to learn how to use the program, as we were all fairly new to it.

A road-map for training and support

I was given a really useful roadmap of what would be covered when in the first couple of weeks, which I have outlined below for you:

  • Week 1: Started off relatively straightforward. We covered how to create users, and discussed the setup and training process and hardware requirements. I also got a great overview of RxWorks and how to navigate between the different dashboards and functions.
  • Week 2: Dived into some detail about using the clipboards and configuring the clinic’s workflow and appointments. This was great as I was able to customise both of these key elements, so they were exactly what we wanted for the clinic. I was also shown how to create and edit our own documents in RxWorks. This session, especially, was gold! We would be using the main templated documents for our patients on a daily basis, such as vaccination certificates, and admission, reminder and consent forms, but RxWorks gives you the option to create your own documents for specific reasons if needed too. For example, we have created dog and cat vaccination certificates with species-specific information in each one to give our patients and clients that extra special experience.
  • Week 3: We moved onto item management. This covered adding items and fees, and looking at markups and stock control. It was a big week, with lots of important items, including vaccination and ProHeart configurations. Peter and Adrienne went above and beyond to support my training progress.

RxWorks’ customisation is valuable

What really helped was that Peter showed me how to edit, add and configure all these important items, step-by-step, and I could then complete the process at my own pace. It didn’t have to be finalised there and then, which took the pressure off me a bit! So even though there was a lot to learn in week three, I was able to get it all done.

Peter and the implementation team were great in accommodating our requirements in this area. We wanted to set up our ProHeart fees and reminders slightly differently to how other clinics normally do, and they found a way for us to do this. We really appreciated that we could configure things the way we wanted because it means we’re streamlining our processes and making our operations more efficient, rather than trying to fit into a different mould.

Sally and Erica then jumped into their user training. They were able to ask any questions they had, after going through the entire workflow process, and they both found it very helpful and informative.

Their feedback was incredibly positive, having said Peter explained everything well and provided supporting documents for anything I still had questions about. No question was too dumb – he was always willing to go back over things to make sure we understood it all and were on the right track.

Depth in Covetrus™ training and support network

Throughout the process, it was sometimes difficult to remember what Peter had said, or make sense of the notes I had written. This wasn’t a problem, as most of the time I was able to call him directly and get my questions answered.

However, I often did configuration at night once my kids were asleep and I was unable to speak with Peter then. At these times I would refer to the online portal system. The team are currently working on a new training manual with cheat sheets and FAQs to reference more quickly which I think will be a fantastic extension of this.

Throughout the training, I got some good insights into the RxWorks support network. At the times when Peter was away during one of our scheduled meetings, the other implementation staff stepped in and were all magnificent! Friendly and just as helpful – it really did feel like there was a whole team behind us.

Overall, the training and support process was not as scary or daunting as I thought it would be. It was fun, straightforward and – with a little help from a manual – could easily be done by most people!