The Neighbourhood Vet Tewantin is a newly established veterinary clinic located in Tewantin on the picturesque Sunshine Coast. It was founded by a duo of passionate veterinary professionals, Dr Amber Christie and Practice Manager and Senior Vet Nurse Brooke Goodwin, with the mission to deliver exceptional and compassionate pet care within a warm and welcoming environment.
Driven by their extensive experience in the veterinary field, the two founders have the goal of becoming the go-to veterinary clinic for the surrounding area by offering personalised attention and tailored medical services for small animals. The cornerstone of their philosophy is the belief that every pet deserves compassionate care, which is a principle they demonstrate through their holistic approach to veterinary services.
A need for streamlined workflows, enhanced communication, and efficiency
As a newly opened boutique small animal clinic, The Neighbourhood Vet was looking for a cloud-based practice management solution that aligned with their commitment to personalised client care. They wanted a user-friendly, easily accessible, and cloud-based system that would streamline workflows, enhance communication, and enable efficient practice management.
Brooke emphasises the importance of these factors, saying,
“Ascend aligned with us well, especially as it’s cloud-based. It’s really important that we have access to our software at home as well because a lot of the time we need to access it from home.”
Why Covetrus Ascend?
The Neighbourhood Vet Tewantin chose Covetrus Ascend as their cloud-based practice management system for several key reasons:
- User-friendliness and intuitive interface: Ascend’s intuitive interface and seamless flow resonated with Amber and Brooke’s need for a system that was easy to learn and use. Brooke shares her positive experience, saying,
“Ascend is super easy to go onto and find your way through. It flows well. The user interface has been really easy to learn and it’s super user-friendly. You can click back like on your browser, which is very handy, and you can open more browser tabs too.”
- Cloud-based accessibility: Being cloud-based, Ascend allows users to access the software from anywhere, whether they’re at the clinic or at home. This feature was crucial for both Brooke and Amber, as they like to be able to access patient records and clinic information remotely.
“I can access Ascend at home to check when our first consult is,” says Brooke, “which is really handy. And I can also make consults and alter and access client details from home.”
- Comprehensive features and functionality: Covetrus Ascend’s robust features, such as the Inpatients Workflow digital whiteboard, workflow tracking, and integrated invoicing, addressed the clinic’s operational needs and supported their goal of providing personalised care.
- Positive trial experience: The clinic’s trial of Covetrus Ascend confirmed for Brooke and Amber they were making the right decision in their choice of software. They were impressed by the capabilities and found it met their requirements and aligned with their vision for the clinic.
“We were really, really impressed with the trial and we went from there,” she says. “Everything that Ascend had aligned with us. Considering we’re a startup clinic, it’s really important we have something that is easily accessible and user-friendly.”
Onboarding Experience
The Neighbourhood Vet Tewantin found the onboarding process comprehensive and supportive. Brooke recounts their experience, saying,
“It was really good. We had our dedicated trainer, Simone, and she was fantastic and very fast in responding. All the training sessions were great, they were all recorded and sent to us so we could reference them when we needed to.”
The clinic appreciated the personalised attention and guidance they received from Simone, which helped them get up and running quickly with Covetrus Ascend. In addition to the training sessions, they were given a workbook to guide them through the initial setup.
Brooke found the workbook straightforward and easy to navigate and she appreciated the overall support from Covetrus throughout the process. She also highlights the go-live day as a valuable opportunity to ask questions and ensure a smooth transition.
Most utilised features delivering value
The Neighbourhood Vet Tewantin use many of Covetrus Ascend’s key features:
- Inpatients Workflow digital whiteboard: This feature replaces the need for manual whiteboards and provides the team with a digital platform for tracking inpatients workflows and tasks. This enhances efficiency and improves communication among staff and with the pet parents. This feature is included in the price of Ascend, at no additional cost.
- Streamlined workflow: The Neighbourhood Vet team enjoys the seamless and time-saving workflow that Covetrus Ascend provides.
“The nurses do everything in the consult room and once the client’s ready to pay, it’s literally one move over to check out and you can process the whole payment. And you can go back to the consult notes by just clicking on ‘go to consult’,” she adds. “It’s so much more streamlined and intuitive – it flows really easily. It’s just a click to go to your next step.”
- MyHub: The MyHub feature streamlines their communication and organisation, and lets staff easily track patient progress throughout their consultations and identify when they’re ready for checkout in their designated consultation room. Brooke notes: “Ascend aligns well for us because you can follow the patient from when they walk through the door to when they’re ready to pay and go. If a patient does get admitted, you can admit them straight from consult into the inpatients section, which is so easy.”
- Auto save: This feature eliminates the risk of losing unsaved notes and improves collaboration, as notes are automatically updated and accessible to all staff members in real-time. Brooke expresses her appreciation for this feature, saying, “I love that your notes are saved automatically! I can be on one computer typing up notes and Amber can be on another, and it’ll show up on her screen.”
- Future review appointments: Brooke says that Amber likes to create a review appointment a certain number of days after checkout.
“It means being able to book an appointment in 10 days’ time, for example, rather than having to go into the calendar and find the date, which is really good functionality in Ascend.”
- Consolidated patient view: Unlike other practice management systems that Brooke and Amber had used previously, Covetrus Ascend provides a single point for all patient information.
“With Ascend, you can see all the patient’s details in the patient file. You can see consult notes, history, and the invoice. From there, it’s really easy to go through to checkout, which means less clicking.” She loves this in comparison to other practice management solutions which have “so many tabs to go through to get through to the end.”
- Easy protocol creation for new staff: Brooke adds that it’s very easy in Covetrus Ascend to record a new protocol.
“The manual up top is really handy,” she says. “We have new staff coming on shortly and I wanted to create a protocol to teach them how to do the till. I just wrote in ‘End of day’ and it came up with photos and a step-by-step so I could create my protocol and reference some photos, which was really handy.”
Integrations with Covetrus Ascend
Ascend connects to several leading integrations, enhancing available functionality for practices. Brooke, Amber and their team use a number of important integrations with Covetrus Ascend:
- Provet Connect: Covetrus Ascend integrates seamlessly with Provet, the clinic’s wholesaler and distribution partner. This facilitates efficient ordering and inventory management.
“Provet have been fantastic,” says Brooke, “really helpful. Their customer service is really good. We always get our order and communication’s great with Provet too.”
- IDEXX: The integration with IDEXX in-house lab equipment streamlines the transfer of lab results into patient records.
- GapOnly: This integration simplifies the process of submitting insurance e-claims, which reduces administrative overhead.
- Paws App: The clinic uses the Paws app for online bookings to give clients a convenient way to schedule appointments and this improves their attendance rates and reduces no-shows.
Key Benefits of Covetrus Ascend
The Neighbourhood Vet Tewantin is enjoying numerous benefits since implementing Covetrus Ascend:
- Enhanced workflow and efficiency: Ascend’s intuitive interface and seamless flow have significantly streamlined the clinic’s workflow, from patient check-in through to checkout. Brooke notes, “It’s so much more streamlined – it flows really easy.”
- Improved communication and collaboration: The MyHub feature has enhanced communication among staff and ensures everyone is informed about patient status and consult progress.
- Time savings: Brooke’s team are saving an hour a day or approximately 6 hours per week thanks to Ascend. This is due to Ascend’s intuitive design. Additionally, features like automated note-saving have reduced administrative overhead. Brooke confirms this, saying, “Because the nurses take everything in the consult room…it’s literally one move over to check out and you can process the whole payment.”
Final thoughts
Brooke’s enthusiasm for Covetrus Ascend is evident and she wholeheartedly recommends it for any veterinary practice that needs a cloud-based veterinary practice management system or is considering switching from their current provider.
“I definitely recommend it,” she says. “The thing that pushed us over to Ascend was the comprehensive demo. Then having the software to play with for two weeks was really handy – we could access it, use the workflow, write notes, check patients out and get a good feel for the software. I definitely recommend doing the demo and the test environment – it confirmed this is what we want to do, and we’re happy with it.”
Learn more about Covetrus Ascend.