1 Jul 2014
Anonymous
Job Title
• Practice management systems already play an integral role in modern practice. Appointments, invoicing, stock control and processing insurance claims are just some of the functions. But how much more will this software be doing in 2024? VBJ asked four leading providers to dust off their crystal balls and take a look into the future.
VBJ: WHAT WILL the practice management system (PMS) of the future look like?
VetIT managing director I believe there will be significant change in many areas to meet the market’s needs – mobility, interconnectivity, personalisation, reporting and communication, to name but a few.
Mobility – for example, with a cloud solution you can access the PMS “anywhere, anytime” by simply using a web browser. So you can check your next day’s appointments in a web café in Barcelona, or sit in front of the television at home completing some notes. Today, tablets are used throughout the practice, and this will change further to include the use of smart glasses or similar with head-up displays and retina recognition.
Interconnectivity will grow. You can already link with machines, external data sources and other organisations, but this will get smarter and more intelligent – for example, by flagging up recent relevant research as you consult.
Personalisation is about delivering relevant services to clients by understanding their profile. This is an area that has to be developed carefully as the client-practice relationship is a personal one and needs to be enhanced by technology, not replaced.
Reporting is the bane of many businesses. Granularity of data helps to provide the basis for more flexible and meaningful reporting and the effort expended in capturing, validating and classifying it will be rewarded. There are some wonderful reporting and visualisation tools already available to help tell a story, but the underlying facts need to be right.
Finally, communication – this covers clients and staff. Today, the use of email and text reminders is commonplace; feeds into Facebook and Twitter are done, but this will stretch out further to cover video messaging, apps and the next social media phenomena.
The challenge with all this is having rich, accessible data and a solution that can hold and expose it in a controlled way. Basically, an “enterprise” solution, but without the time and money – this can be delivered by the cloud as you are able to have a more complex solution than possible on a single server in a practice without an IT department to run it.
Head of sales and marketing at Vetsolutions In the past decade, technology has progressed at lightening speed. In the year 2000 there were just 361 million internet users; to put that into perspective it’s around two-thirds of the size of Facebook today.
By 2010 usage had exploded to almost two billion and last year it was close to 2.5 billion – clear evidence the rate of penetration of technology shows no sign of abating.
In the UK, data transfer speeds reach up to 60 megabits per second via some 4G services, but in January, scientists created the fastest ever internet connection using commercial-grade fibre optic lines. Clocking up speeds of 1.4 terabits per second, this “controlled test” suggests it is only a matter of time before super fast connection speeds become commonplace.
The pace of change in the technology sector is one factor that has set the past decade apart from its predecessors. Digitisation, live streaming and 3D printing are just a few of the advances that are rapidly coming to define everyday life. In the next decade we can look forward to sharing videos, simulations, experiences and environments on a multitude of devices, in a scenario as commonplace as flicking a light switch. No longer the preserve of the young or early adopters, this technology is now mainstream.
The challenge for the veterinary profession is how this technology can be harnessed to create more efficient and successful practices, which communicate with clients in the most effective ways possible. In our view improved customer service and meeting the demands of clients will be important differentiating factors for practices in the coming years and we expect client communication will be pivotal in driving success. Already, text messaging is proving widely popular and the ability to improve the two-way and interactive element of this communication will contribute significantly to the building of client relationships.
Automation is another area in which we predict huge advances in the coming years. The technology now exists to automate every aspect of the reminder, appointment booking and confirmation process, which can be completed without the need for human intervention. For those who embrace these possibilities the impact will be significant. A reception team that no longer has to juggle its priorities between incoming telephone calls and clients in the practice will provide improved face-to-face service.
Vetsolutions is already a leader in developing and integrating technology into practices so vets can operate more efficient and effective organisations and deliver better health care for clients and their animals. The key to making this process work is to integrate the technology that is designed to help your practice operate more efficiently and to be forward-thinking in viewing this remarkable opportunity.
RxWorks managing director Given trends in pet ownership and the number of veterinary surgeons, it’s obvious competition for clients will be greater in 2024. Your system will need to harness the power of information held in your databases to help:
• improve client retention through better communications;
• improve profitability using “intelligent agents”;
• provide management information on the business drivers of your practice; and
• increase efficiency by automating tasks.
Some systems have already started to address these goals, but in 10 years’ time they will be the norm.
The most significant difference between current systems and those in 2024 will be in communication, which will encompass a wider exchange of information between people and between electronic devices.
All communications with clients will be tailored to represent a personal touch. This is where we will see advances in the content and the communication process. Information provided to clients will reflect patient characteristics, such as breed predispositions, as well as suiting their preferred method of learning – video, audio or text. You’ll have more tools to ensure clients automatically receive appropriate and timely communications.
The next major change will be in the use of “intelligent agents” within your business processes. In many processes, when a set of conditions applies, the same decision is always made. Those conditions can be predefined along with the actions to be taken.
Tools are already available that address simple decisions, such as automatically adding a reminder to a patient’s record if there’s not one there. Messages are already automatically generated for upcoming appointments and other tasks. These will be expanded through further development of agents and content.
To be competitive, you’ll need to monitor and control the activities that really affect practice performance. Practices will establish performance goals, such as client retention rate, expected percentage of surgeries with anaesthetic, number of procedures per vet and so on, and your system will provide the key performance indicators. Gross revenue reports will no longer be sufficient.
Systems will support increased automation of workflows and better reliability of charging. Examples include automating more bi-directional lab and digital equipment data exchange as well as using intelligent agents.
Last, but not least, computing power will transform into a utility with the cloud being the infrastructure of choice.
Vet-One managing director Any system frozen in time or not being developed in a timely fashion is likely to be under serious threat and replaced.
This is particularly an issue for PMSs using an older technology base and this is where hosted or web-based systems score over having a server maintained in-house. The cost of upgrading generally falls on the PMS supplier rather than on the practice that generally just pays a licence and support charge.
Keeping up with legislative change is also a must, so we are likely to see changes being reflected in PMSs. Stock control and batch tracking is likely to become even more of an issue than it is now and safe medicines supply is also an area likely to see pressure on PMS systems to make life easier.
Developing UK standards for data exchange is also likely to continue to be an issue in the foreseeable future. The VetXML consortium continues to sort out the mass of proprietary standards for those involved in exchanging data between different computer systems. There’s now one standard for sending an electronic insurance claim, receiving a lab report, registering a microchip and so on, regardless of the PMS and companies involved. It’s very simple to understand the value of this and PMS suppliers will need to conform to the VetXML standards as they develop or be left behind.
Another area likely to see increasing attention is the integration of equipment, such as x-ray and in-house lab machines, with the PMS, while I can also see the increasing use of the PMS to market the business.
Focused emails, targeted mailshots, SMS text reminders. The increasing adoption of health/practice plans is likely to continue and without a good PMS in this area it can make the application of the different plan rules virtually impossible to implement and control, turning what sounds like a good idea into a financial disaster. Also, specialist marketing companies appear to be increasingly in vogue. Whether that’s reminding a client to give the cat a pill today or whether they are managing the marketing content to the veterinary practice client base on behalf of the practice, the PMS needs to be open to work with these specialist companies. Of course, there are data security issues, but these are relatively straightforward to resolve.
In conclusion, the next decade is likely to be a busy time for PMS systems to help practices control their IT costs, while keeping abreast of the changes and developments likely to take place.
