Curtin Vet Clinic, situated in the heart of Canberra, is a locally owned and operated practice that’s dedicated to providing personalised and comprehensive care for pets. The clinic prides itself on being a local vet and its personal and compassionate approach has earned it a reputation for commitment to excellent animal health outcomes.
The team focuses on creating a welcoming environment where pets and their owners feel valued and understood and where the unique needs of each pet are met. Curtin Vet Clinic offers a wide range of services, including health checks, vaccinations, desexing, microchipping, and dietary advice.
Why the switch to Covetrus Ascend?
Curtin Vet Clinic’s Practice Manager, Leesa, explains that the clinic’s decision to switch to Covetrus Ascend for their practice management solution was a result of needing to upgrade their old systems and software, which were hindering the team’s ability to operate efficiently and provide optimal patient care.
“We had outdated computer software and hardware and decided that a move to a cloud-based option was going to be better for us,” she says. “Ascend also gave us options for staff to log in elsewhere or do a quick remote check-in if needed. For me personally, as practice manager, I can now log in and do work from home whenever necessary.”
Covetrus Ascend’s remote accessibility was a big plus for Leesa and her team. “It’s great that all staff – not just managers – can now access our systems remotely,” she explains.
Ascend’s cloud-based design lets users access the practice management system anywhere there’s an internet connection, not just from computers within Curtin Vet Clinic. Ascend is also compatible with laptops, tablets, and smartphones, so staff can access patient information, billing, and other features during house calls or when working remotely, which can help improve work-life balance.
Additionally, team members can access and update patient and client information at the same time, which ensures all staff have the most current patient and clinic data at their fingertips. This real-time access results in better communication among team members, no matter where they’re located.
These and other key features made Covetrus Ascend an ideal choice for Leesa and her team.
Onboarding experience with Covetrus Ascend
Leesa speaks positively about the learning and onboarding process for Covetrus Ascend.
“The training was really good,” she says. “We had good access to Theresa, who was our main trainer, and the online training was easy to go through.”
She adds that she and her team found their feet quickly in transitioning to Ascend. “Most of us were pretty confident using it within a day or two,” she says. “Little things come up throughout the day but someone in the clinic knew the answer, so we all had individual areas to give input on.
“Overall, it was easy to get a grasp on things once Ascend was up and running,” she adds.
Value from Covetrus Ascend
Curtin Vet has found several key features of Covetrus Ascend particularly valuable:
• Accessibility: The cloud-based nature of Ascend means staff can access it from anywhere, and at any time. This has proven particularly beneficial for handling tasks like med requests and follow-up calls from home.
“We now have a vet who focuses on med requests and follow-up calls and Ascend has made things a lot easier for them. Also, if any of us have had a really busy day and suddenly remember something at night, it’s easy to simply log into Ascend to check something or complete a task. It’s so much better, easier, and less stressful” she explains.
• Ease of use: The team found the software intuitive and easy to navigate, especially compared with their previous practice management system.
• Integrations: Covetrus Ascend integrates seamlessly with other veterinary software, such as Vetstoria booking software and VetCheck, which has helped streamline their workflows. “The integrations are great, we’ve had no issues!” says Leesa.
• Time-savings: The clinic has experienced significant time savings, particularly in areas like consult note recording and client detail management. Leesa highlights the value of the automatic consult note recording feature, saying, “You don’t have to think about constantly saving or worrying you’re going to lose notes, which is really good!”
She adds that Ascend prompts her and her team to check the accuracy of client details too, which is very useful, and describes it as “really quick and easy.”
Results of Covetrus Ascend implementation
While it’s still early days in the rollout of Covetrus Ascend at Curtin Vet Clinic, Leesa and her team are already enjoying productivity gains and time savings. She highlights the consult note recording feature as the biggest time-saving aspect of Covetrus Ascend. Being able to easily save and access notes has also eliminated the stress of losing or misplacing information.
Ascend offers one of the most intuitive, modern user interfaces for a cloud-based PMS in the market, which can save practices up to 16 hours a week. These time savings let team members focus on improving the client, patient, and staff experience instead.
Final thoughts
Responding to the question on how she and her team feel about using the newly rolled out Covetrus Ascend, Leesa confirms everyone in the practice is happy with how the implementation is going. “Everyone’s happy and enjoying Ascend!” she says.