Why 3,000+ Veterinary Practices Said Yes to vOS^™

We explore the world of animal health and the technologies connecting veterinarians, pet parents and the animals we love.

30 May 2023• 5 min read

Episode 8 – Why 3,000+ Veterinary Practices Said Yes to vOS^™

Around a year ago, Covetrus^® launched a first-of-its-kind solution called Covetrus Pulse^™, a cloud-based veterinary operating system or vOS. Since then, Pulse has helped veterinary practitioners serve over 3.5 million patients across more than 14.6 million appointments.

But what is a vOS? And, importantly, amid today’s demands, how has the Pulse technology improved the lives of veterinary practitioners and the animals they care for?

In this episode, Benny Estes, Director of Product Management at Covetrus, shares real-world insights gleaned from the practices that have been using Pulse. He describes how Pulse helps address many of today’s pain points in veterinary medicine, including:

Workloads
Inefficiency
Low Morale
Work-Life Balance

Whether you’re a practice owner, doctor or veterinary technician, this episode is full of actionable learnings gained from veterinary professionals just like you.

Additional information:

Study Reveals New Covetrus Technology Saves Time, Provides Relief to Overworked, Understaffed Veterinary Practices

Newday Veterinary Care chooses Covetrus Pulse as veterinary operating system

Episode 7 - Care Plans, Compliance and Revenue: What Veterinarians Need to Know

Now more than ever, pet parents need help budgeting for veterinary care. At the same time, higher compliance, revenue and iron-clad client relationships remain top practice goals. Are care plans the answer? ...

In this episode, Dr. Karen Felsted, a veterinary industry thought leader, explains why care plans are good for animal health and a practice’s bottom line. Dr. Felsted is the former CEO of the National Commission on Veterinary Economic Issues and served on the research team for several major veterinary industry studies, including the Bayer Veterinary Care Usage Study.

Drawing on research and decades of experience, Dr. Felsted answers veterinarians’ most pressing questions about care plans, debunking common misconceptions about the plans. She emphasizes the role technology plays in modern care plans, and the appeal of care plans to Millennials. She also shares the most effective steps to add customizable plans for preventive care, chronic care and dentistry to your practice flow.

Additional information:

Dr. Karen Felsted, MS, CVPM, CPA

Episode 6 - No-Nonsense Steps to Save Time and Drive Revenue in Your Veterinary Practice

Is your veterinary practice team overwhelmed by today’s hectic pace? We know practices could be more efficient, but what are the steps to get there? ...

Episode 6 of the Covetrus® Connected Care podcast explores proven, no-nonsense strategies to:

Uncover and understand areas of inefficiency in your veterinary practice
Streamline workflows without changing how you practice veterinary medicine
Tap into technology to recapture precious minutes and grow revenue and relationships

The episode features Dr. Link Welborn, Chief Veterinary Officer for Covetrus in North America and the owner of 6 AAHA-accredited hospitals in Tampa, Florida, and Stephanie Foster, Director of Customer Education at Covetrus.

A recent American Veterinary Medical Association study found that highly efficient practices saw 75% more patients per veterinarian than less efficient ones. If you’re looking to level up your practice’s efficiency, see more patients and increase revenue, then this episode is a must-listen.

Sources:

Episode 5 - How Can You Connect Pet Parents to Reliable Information?

Pet parents are seeking reliable health information about their pets — but are they finding it? When surveyed, 56% of pet parents said their top sources of information were pet retailers and the internet, rather than their vet. Given this reality, how can busy veterinary professionals take a more active role in connecting pet parents to reliable content? ...

In this episode of Covetrus^® Connected Care, we talk with Wendy Toth, publisher of Great Pet Care, an educational site for pet parents that’s part of Covetrus, and Dr. Hanie Elfenbein, an emergency services veterinarian and frequent contributor to Great Pet Care.*

Because pet parents are going online to look up symptoms or research an illness — either before, after or even during their vet clinic visit — Dr. Elfenbein says the information they find there should be reliable and understandable to the average animal lover.

“I think it's important to be able to really meet those pet parents where they're at for both the health of the animal and for the compliance of recommendations,” Dr. Elfenbein says. “With content like Great Pet Care, I can be confident that well-researched informative information is available as a reliable resource for pet parents.”

Visit Great Pet Care

Are you a veterinarian interested in writing for Great Pet Care? Click here to apply.

Additional information:

*Wendy Toth is a Covetrus employee and Dr. Elfenbein is a paid contributor to Great Pet Care.

Episode 4 - Veterinary Pharmacy: Expanding Pharmacy Education to Enrich Animal Healthcare

Back in 2014, an American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) survey discovered that one-third of veterinarians surveyed knew of occasions when pharmacies dispensed drugs to clients that were different from what the doctor had prescribed or were a different dosage. And 10% reported having patients harmed when outside pharmacies substituted one drug for another....

Since then, the AVMA, professional organizations, colleges and companies like Covetrus^® have worked to support hands-on veterinary pharmacy education in pharmacy schools.

Our guest in this episode is Dr. Jennifer O’Grady, Covetrus Vice President of Quality and Regulatory Affairs and Pharmacist-in-Charge, who created the Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experience (APPE) curriculum. The goal of the curriculum is to help pharmacists to better understand animal health. Today, Covetrus offers preceptor sites for five veterinary APPE programs at the following educational institutions:

University of New England
Creighton University
University of Nebraska Medical Center
Texas Southern University
Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences

Learn more:

Episode 3 – The Veterinary Workforce Crisis: What's Behind It and How Do We Move Beyond It?

A trained economist, Matt Salois is a pro at parsing the latest veterinary industry data on employment, productivity and employee well-being. Salois is President of Veterinary Study Groups, where he's charged with enhancing the economic and cultural success of more than 1,800 veterinary member practices....

In this episode of Covetrus^® Connected Care, Salois draws on his extensive industry knowledge to walk us through the latest data on pet-care demand, supply, and veterinary employment and productivity.

Salois makes sense of the real-life reality behind the numbers — normalizing visits, high turnover and burnout. For practices looking to tackle today’s challenges, Salois cautions against investing soley in a bigger pipeline of veterinary talent. With a deeply knowledgeable and optimistic outlook, he offers concrete steps to begin to remedy systemic issues, such as turnover, low productivity and poor mental health among veterinary practitioners.

The ultimate goal? To help practices achieve a more sustainable business model, connect more deeply as a workforce and with clients, and improve animal health.

Resources:

Episode 2 - Personalized Care With Pet-Friendly Medicine

Research tells us that when veterinary visits are less stressful, there’s a stronger likelihood for early intervention and successful treatment.¹...

In this episode, Dena Barlow, a former veterinary technician and current Senior Technical Marketing Specialist at Covetrus, describes a new exclusive partnership between Covetrus^® Compounding (Roadrunner Pharmacy and Atlas Pharmaceuticals) and Fear Free^®. The partnership aims to reduce visit-related fear, anxiety and stress for pets — and everyone involved in their care — while also increasing compliance and improving pet health.

The goal of the partnership is to empower veterinary practices with:

Tailored medications to enhance the health and well-being of pets
Easy-to-use tools to automate ordering of dose forms and flavors
Fewer steps in the ordering process to save time

Rather than being one-size-fits-all, compounded medications can be customized to help the veterinarian and pet parent administer the medicine in the dose forms and flavoring options the pet likes.

As Dena explains, "At Roadrunner and Atlas, we believe the world will be a better place when we treat each animal with individual empathy and remove the unnecessary anxiety from animal healthcare. We want to evolve to bring personalized care and animal-friendly medicine — for veterinarians and pet parents alike.”

Learn more:

¹Becker, M., Radosta, L., Sung, W., Becker, M. (2018). From Fearful to Fear Free: A positive Program to Free Your Dog from Anxiety, Fears, and Phobias. Deerfield Beach, FL: Health Communications, Inc.

Episode 1 – Finding Value in “Small t” Technology

Technology can be a unifying force for good, connecting practices to pet parents and pet patients to improve animal health....

If you’re curious about technology, how do you choose one that will support your clinic’s goals for the long term?

In the first episode of Covetrus® Connected Care, Ying Chen, Chief Customer Officer, Product at Covetrus, outlines practical, easy-to-follow steps to find value in technology. For example, she suggests starting with certain technologies, which she calls “small t” technologies, rather than others.

Episode 12 - Philanthropy in Practice: Care Plans for Service Animals

There are a half-million service animals in the United States, according to ShareAmerica, and 16,766 assistance dogs certified by Assistance Dogs International....

These animals aid in so many ways, yet the cost of veterinary care may prove unaffordable for the families that adopt assistance canines after their years of service are over. Now, a new initiative aims to close the care gap with service animal care plans.

Our guest, Nick Braukhoff, is a volunteer firefighter and software manager at Covetrus. He’ll talk about the types of service animals that might benefit from these plans and how the plans enable local clinics to do good in their community, while fostering stronger bonds with pet parents.

Find out more about the pilot program by emailing serviceanimals@vcp.vet.

Please like, subscribe and review the show wherever you listen — it helps new listeners find us!

Have feedback? Email nicole.knight@covetrus.com.

Episode 11 – A New Plan to Improve Dental Health

Periodontal disease remains the most common clinical condition in cats and dogs, according to a recent AVMA report.... How can practices proactively address this enduring problem — beyond raising awareness of the issue during Pet Dental Health Month. What role can technology and veterinary innovation play each and every day to help solve this health problem?

In this episode, we chat with Michelle St. Mary, Director of Utilization and Coaching at VCP, about dental care plans and dental options as a means to improve oral health care. As it turns out, 65% of VCP-supported plans include dental, making the plans a significant driver of dental compliance.

Learn more at vcp.vet

Episode 10 – Searching for a Complete Veterinary Solution?

Veterinary workloads are rising as practices care for more pet patients amid ongoing challenges.... Could technology provide a path forward? In this episode, Georgia Wraight, EVP and president of Global Technology Solutions at Covetrus, tells us about a new, complete solution called Covetrus Pulse.

The recently announced technology brings all of your software applications into a single, seamless veterinary operating system, letting practice teams focus on what matters most — caring for pet patients and building client relationships.

Find out more about Covetrus Pulse at cvet.co/pulse.

Episode 9 – Pet Insurance and Wellness Plans Work Hand in Hand

During the pandemic, pet insurance rates rose 23%, per the latest report from the North American Pet Health Insurance Association.... In this episode, Dr. Doug Kenney, author and host of the Pet Insurance Guide Podcast, outlines the value of pet insurance and pitfalls to avoid. We also explore the intersection of wellness plans and pet insurance and how the two services can work hand in hand in your practice.

Wellness Plans

Chronic Illness Plans

Pet Insurance Guide Podcast

Wellness, Dental, Chronic Disease Plans Make Pet Healthcare Affordable - Veterinary Care Plans (VCP) - Episode 67

Episode 8 – The Technological Future of Practice Management Software

More than 20,000 veterinary practices here in the U.S. rely on Covetrus practice management software. ... Coming innovations to this technological backbone will give vets and their staff new tools to work more efficiently and achieve better clinical and business outcomes. In this episode, Sara Swenson of Covetrus provides us with a sneak peek into the future of practice management software at Covetrus. She also describes the differences between wellness modules and VCP's platform and reveals when VCP will be integrated with AVImark, eVetPractice, and ImproMed.

Episode 7 – The Strategic Power of Customizable Wellness Plans

Monument View Veterinary Hospital launched its wellness plan program in December 2020 in the thick of the pandemic.... And they signed up about 140 pets in just a few months! In this episode, Practice Manager Miranda Schroeder shares their blueprint for wellness plan success, such as involving employees early on and building a culture of wellness. She explains that VCP's customization capability proved instrumental to help them truly tailor preventive care plans to each pet to show value — while providing appropriate doctor-recommended care.

Episode 6 — New Wearable for Data-Driven Pet Health

The latest episode features an interview with Donny Lamey, CEO of Link, a company that makes an innovative wearable pet device.... Donny explains how the device, which has GPS and many other features, helps position veterinarians as trusted advisors — to build loyalty and set the practice apart from the competition. This episode is a must-listen for veterinary professionals curious about the intersection of "big" data and pet wellness.

Find out more about Link. Visit the VCP Talk show page.

Episode 5 — Wellness Plans with Dr. Karen Felsted

This episode features an interview with Dr. Karen Felsted, a doctor of veterinary medicine, consultant and CPA, who is widely recognized for her expertise in wellness plans.... Our wide-ranging conversation covers the business aspects of wellness plans, innovative new thinking around chronic care plans, and program applications. We talk about wellness plan benefits — namely providing better care and increasing revenue both in-plan and out-of-plan, all while driving client loyalty.

You can find Dr. Felsted at PantheraT.com and learn more about VCP at here. Visit our show page.

Episode 4 — Feline Genetic Testing for Oral and Overall Health

Cat parents, just like dog owners, need to be educated about their cat’s overall health, breed traits, and oral health.... Now, that education can include genetic information about each cat's unique makeup. This knowledge can not only improve cat health, but also can foster stronger client relationships and increased revenue for veterinary practices.

In this episode, we chat with Dr. Kash Kuruppu of Basepaws about feline DNA tests for oral health and overall health. She describes how the results of the Basepaws test typically lead to immediate action in 15% of adult cats, 1 in 5 senior cats, and 2 in 5 geriatric cats. This translates to increased visits and increased treatment, and greater trust between the pet owner and doctor.

Find out more about VCP. Learn about feline DNA testing by going here.

Episode 3 — Can Canine DNA Testing Drive Improve Health and Greater Loyalty?

An innovative new canine DNA test can help veterinarians form more airtight bonds with pet owners and put pets on the road to a lifetime of better health.... In this episode, we chat with Lauren Thorne of Neogen about the ideal candidates for canine DNA testing and how the test is a natural fit for wellness and treatment plans.

Learn more about the test and Neogen here.

Episode 2 — How to Generate Loyal Pet Owners

Well-run wellness plans can be a tremendous driver of loyalty.... But what are other complementary strategies to cultivate loyalty? Today our guest, Dr. Stacee Santi, shares impactful ideas on generating loyalty and growing compliance and revenue at your animal hospital.

Episode 1 — The Top Six Myths About Wellness Plans Debunked!

Wellness plans are popular with pet owners, but some veterinarians are leery of the plans after hearing horror stories.... But are these stories TRUE? VCP's Bob Richardson and Ron Nelson, along with host Nicole Knight, get to the truth about the six most common myths. Find out the six myths — and whether they're true or not — in this informative episode!