There is room for improvement even in the best veterinary clinics. This article endeavors to suggest ways to boost the efficiency of clinics in several different key areas, including staffing, technology, and training. If you are a leader in a clinic looking to boost your efficiency, analyze these points to see if any of them might be applicable. You just might find this article reveals issues you had not even considered. At the very least, you will find some food for thought regarding practical ways to boost efficiency in your veterinary clinic.
Get Lab Work Done in Advance of Surgeries
If you are still doing lab work on the day of routine surgeries, then you are gumming up the workflow more than you might even realize. Waiting for results will delay getting the patient to the table. You should avoid this by educating clients about the benefits of testing in advance. If you can, try to complete the testing during the appointment when the procedure is recommended. Maybe you can give the clients a discount if they go with this option. With testing out of the way early on, you can efficiently complete surgeries.
Hire People Based on Their Attitude
Nothing will increase your clinic’s efficiency like a workforce that operates in sync with each other. You want an environment full of highly motivated, caring individuals. Not only will this attitude be more attractive to your clients, but it also means your staff will not be bogged down by pettiness, low energy, or disinterest. Your employees should be advocates for your clinic, not just people who clock in and clock out. Be more selective with your staffing choices. You want people that feel like a breath of fresh air. When you surround yourself with people that radiate success, more of it will be attracted to your clinic and efficiency will soar.
Leverage the Use of Cloud Technologies
Once you get more invested in cloud-based technology, you will be amazed how much it improves your clinic’s efficiency. Cloud technology can now help manage your picture archives and communication system, time tracking, and your PIMS. As more veterinary clinics continue to adopt this technology, it would be a mistake to lag behind.
Train Your Technicians To Make Callbacks
Callbacks help your practice improve client relationships, but they can also take up a lot of a veterinarian’s time. One of the practical ways to boost efficiency in your veterinary clinic is to train technicians to take on some of that responsibility. As a general rule, a clinic that invests in training is investing in efficiency. A well-trained technician can communicate information to clients about routine blood work or tests, especially if everything comes back with good news. In those instances, the doctor is not necessary. Instead, veterinarians can dedicate their time to cases that require more discussions about diagnoses or treatment plans.
Use Digital Imaging Equipment
Today’s veterinary imaging equipment is becoming more and more technologically advanced. With this kind of digital equipment, veterinarians can get clearer images much faster. There is no need to process the X-rays using darkroom technology. Also, by updating your X-ray and ultrasound equipment to keep up with modern models, you are eliminating the cost of upkeeping your old one. Old equipment can quickly become a nightmare to repair, both on your wallet and on your time.
Reduce Clutter
If you allow clutter to build up in your clinic, then that issue is almost definitely limiting your efficiency. Productivity can get stymied by an uncomfortable environment. Looking at a bleak setting all day is a drain on your employees’ mental health. If you can remove papers by digitizing more of your practice, that is a wonderful solution. But you can also reduce clutter just by getting more filing cabinets or by assigning someone in your clinic the responsibility to keep the surfaces free from distracting, disorganized documents. Make sure your team understands that clutter is always a problem, then treat it that way.
Keep Your Team Hydrated
Links have been made to hydration and memory, motor skills, and attention. If everyone in the clinic gets enough water, you will see an increase in their ability to get routine jobs accomplished. Not only that, but they will also be less stressed and more able to tackle difficult problems as they come. You should educate your staff on the importance of drinking water. Recommend that they set goals for how much they should drink a day. You can also make water more enticing by purchasing a high-quality water cooler.
Identify and Eliminate Bottlenecks
In an environment like a veterinary clinic, where so much information is relayed from staff to clients and then back to the staff, you might be able to identify areas where communication is being blocked. As soon as you find those bottlenecks, implement changes to eliminate them. By ridding yourself of bottlenecks, you are winning back time that could have been lost in an unnecessary back and forth.
Make Daily Staff Assignments
If you have multiple doctors and a full staff, every person should know their “post” at the beginning of every day. Build routines that enforce that level of organization. At the end of each working day, someone should prepare the staff assignments for the next day. With this bit of information already decided before the workday begins, you will not have to deal with the distractions and difficulties of assigning posts as your staff arrives.
Summation
There are always more ways to boost the efficiency of a veterinary clinic. Professionals in clinics must make it their responsibility to look for areas that need improvement, and then act to make real changes. This could mean increasing your use of cloud-based technologies, training your technicians to make callbacks, reducing clutter, or something as simple as reminding your team to drink water.
Hopefully, this article has given you options to consider. Maybe it revealed areas in your clinic needing improvement that you had not even considered before.
