Reinventing Reminders

Reinventing Reminders

NaVetor makes reminders more effective by re-thinking this key feature.

Reminders are the lifeblood of a veterinary practice. That’s been said many times. Without this key tactic, pet owners would forget about annual wellness checks, regular vaccinations, and other important health checkups.

The industry is full of vendors and suppliers who help veterinary practices send reminders, whether via direct mail, email, text, automated phone call, or a combination. But no matter what form reminders take, the process always starts with veterinary practice management software.

The Old Way

Veterinary software is the first point in managing a patient’s reminders. Once reminders are entered into the system for each patient, software triggers the pending service due date. Staff members download the list of patients who need reminders and either manually send them out or send that list to their vendor of choice. In some cases, new integrations allow this process to happen seamlessly in the background.

Should work well, right?

Yes – until the patient misses an appointment.

Most veterinary software platforms trigger reminders through past appointments and/or invoices. In other words, patients must have an appointment, or an invoice must be generated, before the next reminder will trigger.

That process works well for clients who act on reminders and regularly schedule appointments when services are due. (The ideal case!) But if a patient skips a checkup, vaccination, or other appointment, those next reminders won’t trigger, future reminders won’t be sent … and, you get the picture.

Plus, important reminders over a patient’s life span can get overlooked if not tied to a regularly recurring service (like vaccinations).

The New Way

That potential problem prompted us to re-think reminders. Our goal is to simplify processes within veterinary practices, creating a natural, intuitive workflow. Patients should still continue to receive necessary reminders, even if they skip an appointment or invoice. And staff members shouldn’t have to wonder if they’ve overlooked anything when they set up new patients in their system.

As a result, the reminders feature in NaVetor functions more like a wellness plan. Once the patient’s breed, age, and health details are entered, reminders are triggered by life stage, regardless of whether the pet has been seen recently.

Bundling reminders together according to life stages or patient lifestyles (such as indoor feline vs outdoor feline) gives flexibility to the practice in creating reminders appropriate for different species as well as life stage.

Let’s look at canines, for example. A puppy reminders plan would include an annual visit, spay/neuter surgery, heartworm preventative, and vaccine reminders. A mature or geriatric patient could have reminders created for multiple office visits in a year, covering routine blood work and radiographs as well as vaccines and preventatives. Reminders are triggered when the patient reaches a specific life stage milestone, not when the client finishes an appointment or receives an invoice.

What’s better about this approach? If a patient happens to miss an appointment or reminder, future reminders are already in place. So wellness continues. No more waiting for appointments or invoices.

We think this is a smarter way to re-invent reminders. What do you think?

NaVetor is unique in other ways, too. For more information about NaVetor or to schedule a demo, call 877-422-8838 or request a demo  online.