5 benefits of becoming a paperless veterinary practice
If your practice is still running on pen and paper, and perhaps a whiteboard and dry erase marker, now could be the ideal time to join many other practices around the world that have taken the plunge and adopted a digital, cloud-based solution.
Going paperless, or even just paper-light, can make a significant difference to the day-to-day running of your practice in so many positive ways, and the benefits will be felt not only by your team but also your patients. Read on to find out more!
1. Paperless makes Teamwork Seamless
Paperless veterinary software facilitates seamless access to information across a range of devices, which means that every member of your team will always be on the same page. When patient records are digitised, they can be accessed anywhere and anytime without the need to spend time looking through page after page for the one you need.
As information can be accessed on a range of devices, you will also find that collaboration between each member of your team will increase, which often leads to better patient outcomes and a more streamlined approach to daily tasks.
2. Veterinary Paperless Software Increases Workflow Efficiency
Paperless software solutions allow you and your team to spend more time doing what they do best, which is taking care of patients and their families. With a paperless system, your team will spend less time looking for information and deciphering handwritten notes because everything they need can be accessed instantly and it is presented in ways that are easily understood, even at a glance.
At the same time, it gives you the rapid flexibility that you can never have from a paper or whiteboard-based system; if an op overruns, everything else can readily be rescheduled around it with the minimum of effort.
Veterinary practices experience increased accuracy with paperless systems, as they minimise human error that can arise through overlooking details including everything from patients’ medication through to client billing. Any legibility concerns regarding handwritten documents become a thing of the past, leading to more accurate record-keeping and seamless communication.
3. Going Paperless Makes It Easier to Meet Your RCVS Requirements
The RCVS requires that “The utmost care is essential in writing records or recording a client's personal details to ensure that they are clear, legible, accurate and appropriately detailed”. Given all the advantages above, a paperless system makes that easy – but there are additional benefits. If you’re in the Practice Standards Scheme, you’ve probably experienced the “Mad Paperwork Hunt” when the inspector wants to see some arcane piece of information and expects you to have it at your fingertips… Well, with a paperless system like Plexi, it really is at your fingertips – on your workstation or your tablet, ready to show them.
4. Paperless Workflow Software is Less Wasteful
Although paper products can typically be recycled with relative ease, going paperless will instantly make your business a more environmentally friendly veterinary practice. Minimising waste is an important step that both individuals and businesses need to take, and this is an added bonus of switching to a digital solution.
In addition to removing the need to spend money on printing costs and general office supplies, digital solutions will help you to keep costs down in other ways as well, including minimising billing mistakes and ensuring that all inefficiencies are properly addressed. Above all – smoother workflows mean less wasted time, increased fee-earning opportunities, less frustration for staff and maybe more time for a well-earned cuppa!
5. The Best Paperless Technology is Safe and Secure
Keeping client data safe is imperative to ensuring that your practice is continually seen as a trustworthy business. The highest quality paperless software has inbuilt security and encryption systems and offers opportunities to enable permission-based access to certain pieces of information, such as financial records. Digital software also provides a layer of accountability, with all changes to any information recorded in a log which details who made them and when. It’s a lot harder to make unauthorised changes to paperless records than it is to amend a paper file.
Paper records are susceptible to data loss in many ways, from simply being misplaced or dropped on wet floors, to being irreparably damaged by floods or fires, or even stolen. The loss or damage of important records can present you and your team with a major headache, as you need easy access to the most up-to-date clinical records to ensure the best outcomes for your patients and to comply with the RCVS Code of Conduct, as well as for legal purposes. Having properly backed up digital records gives peace of mind, knowing they can be recovered even in the unlikely event that the software fails for some reason. And if you’re using a good backup system, even ransomware is an annoyance rather than a disaster.
What is the best software for going paperless in your veterinary clinic?
Plexi is an innovative paperless software solution for veterinary teams. Although the transition from traditional paper-based methods to digital solutions can seem daunting at first, Plexi is extremely intuitive and easy to learn, and our customer success team has the experience and knowledge to deliver the structured training and support needed to get your team excited and ready to use Plexi by the time of go-live. Ultimately, going digital minimises mistakes, simplifies the workflow of every member of the team, and makes everyday practice much easier!
It’s also worth highlighting that you don't need to dive head first into a paperless approach. Instead, you can work towards replacing the most paper-heavy processes one by one. So, when the first digital process is running seamlessly within your practice on an everyday basis, you can move on to digitising the next one.
To find out more about how Plexi can help you on your journey to going paperless in your practice, get in touch today to arrange a demo at a time that works for you!
