When I first started working with DVMcenter, in 2017, I remember our scheduling process was…archaic, shall we say. We were filling out sheets of paper and then typing into very basic software after the phone call. Personally typing out EVERY email, and manually sending everything ourselves. We then graduated to an excel spreadsheet that we filled out during a call, then transferred into that basic software, but still filling out templates and manually sending out all of our email.

As DVMcenter grew, we were needing to find a scheduling software that improved our efficiency but didn’t have all the extra “fluff” that other veterinary software does. Fate was in our favor when we met Dr. Casey Hill, who not only owned her own in-home euthanasia practice, but she also developed software as a hobby.

Dr. Casey has been able to build customized software specifically for DVMcenter, to improve the experience of scheduling for our support specialists, clients, and doctors. She has given us the program of our dreams which include many automated processes such as confirmation and grief emails, clinic notifications, and pricing quotes.

Contact Form

Buddy includes a contact form that is specific to each of our practices but also includes all of the information needed to schedule a visit. This contact form is filled out for every phone call or email sent to a DVMcenter member. It is broken down into five categories:

• Client information
• Pet information
• Visit details – Detailed information about the pet’s diagnosis or symptoms, date/time the visit is scheduled, etc.
• Finance – Using pricing data, Buddy will automatically add up services and pricing based on location, weight, and services selected.
• Checklists – Our checklists include COVID protocols, behavior, multiple pets, etc. that will populate if indicated elsewhere in the form. These checklists help our support staff keep better track of practice nuances, and use them as guides on how to schedule more difficult visits such as aggressive pets, or hospice consultations that require multiple visits to be blocked off, or records to be requested.

Buddy Calendar

The calendar used to help our support specialists schedule visits based on the doctors’ availability is modeled after Google Calendar. Doctors can create their own schedules and are able to sync them to their own Google Calendar to see their scheduled visits. Doctors and support staff are able to add notes to each appointment slot if there are any restrictions for scheduling such as pet size or type of appointment. The support team utilizes color-coded appointment slots to indicate special notes, fees, and unavailable visits.

Reports

Buddy also has the ability to put together reports for each practice that can be viewed with certain date parameters. We offer several different reports that can be downloaded into Excel to find more detailed information about each practice. Some of our reports include:

• Incomplete Visit Report – This report keeps track of the visits that still need completion to make sure nothing falls between the cracks.
• Inactive Visit Report – This report tracks why a caller did not schedule a visit. For example, our team notes whether they were out of service area, had pricing concerns, or if the availability did not meet their needs.
• Production Report – This report breaks down the number and amount of each service offered and can also further break it down by provider.
• Visit Detail Report – This report can be used as a catch-all for most information about each visit. It includes client name, pet name, weight, provider, visit type, status, region, visit total, and payment received.

Record Keeping

Buddy is also able to keep track of records for each patient. When a visit is finished, the doctor will go through a completion process that records any medical notes, payment taken at the visit, and a place to create a task for support to perform such as add another rDVM or change cremation from communal to individual. Buddy automatically sends rDVM notifications and a supportive email follow ups to clients as well.

Written by Rebecca McComas, DVM – Owner

In 2010, I started MN Pets, a home euthanasia practice in the Twin Cities, envisioning an flexible part-time job to stay busy when my children were in elementary school. Within a year, I saw this wasn’t going to be any sort of easy, part-time thing! The demands of operating a business and the local client demand for home euthanasia exceeded what I would be able to do on my own.

Though a bit scary and largely unfamiliar, I decided to hire other experienced veterinarians to help with appointments and compassionate social workers to help with answering our phones. We spent the next few years growing MN Pets and our team.

Then, in 2016, on the plane ride home from the annual IAAHPC conference, I had an epiphany. With a highly trained and supportive phone staff, as well as our scalable medical records computer system, I realized we could help other end-of-life colleagues by answering their phones, too.

We called this new branch of our practice ‘DVMcenter’, reflecting that it’s the central hub of client support for mobile end-of-life veterinarians.

My engineer spouse Jeff, who had always helped me with IT, marketing, and back-office support for MN Pets, decided to leave his corporate job at 3M to devote himself full-time to DVMcenter.

With Jeff and our veterinary social worker, Kristi Lehman’s, superb help as our Director of Operations, we’ve configured our team and processes to be able to successfully assist many other practices by answering their phones, scheduling their visits, and managing their calendar and medical records. We continually embrace the use of the latest phone and computer technology to grow our internal systems.

In keeping with our belief in the value of an interdisciplinary team, we’ve continued to grow, moving into our larger, newly remodeled office in 2017. Currently we have over 35 professionals on staff at both MN Pets and DVMcenter.

We are well-positioned to continue helping mobile, end-of-life practices with their client support needs from the east coast to the west coast and everything in between.

Rebecca has learned a lot from other mobile end-of-life providers through her involvement with IAAHPC Business Circles and helping DVMcenter member practices go through growing pains. It’s her greatest joy to hear from a member that DVMcenter has helped them reach that next stage of business growth successfully.

As mobile practices grow, the practice owner wears many hats: receptionist, counselor, veterinarian, bookkeeper, IT department, marketer. At some point, many owners feel their personal limitations becoming more apparent. Unfortunately, those limitations are hard to see coming. We tend to only see them when we’re tangled up in the thick of them.

The limitations are as varied as the practices themselves. When juggling business management, client phone calls, and in-home visits, you may be missing more than you’re gaining. You may be missing dinnertime with your kids, opportunities to help more families, increasing number of incoming phone calls, vacations and time away. All the hats you’re wearing begin to feel heavy, and it’s difficult to grow and move forward when you can’t hold your head up.

You are your business’s most important asset. When you are spread too thin, the talents and passion that brought you to this point begin to take a backseat to the day-to-day details that you can’t seem to stay ahead of.

No matter what measurements drives you – revenue, visits per month, the number of your daughter’s volleyball games you’re still able to attend – you want to feel that you have a focused control over the outcome.

When you feel that you’ve reached your limit, or if you can see your limit coming up over the horizon as you’re barreling towards it, consider how you can make more room. Make room for what you do best by hiring our team to do what we do best. DVMcenter’s team of support specialists are specially trained to respond to client’s needs. Whether the need is a listening ear, to schedule a euthanasia visit, handle payment, or guidance in end-of-life decisions, DVMcenter is an extension of your practice by providing expert support to your clients. You will begin to gain more than you miss.

Kristi has worked with MN Pets and DVMcenter since 2013. She manages the operations of both companies and provides ongoing support to ensure that doctors and their clients receive expert, compassionate care. Kristi is especially interested in mission-driven business management and human-animal bond centered practices.