Tick-tock, tick-tock! It’s another hectic day at your clinic and there never seems to be enough time to get everything done. We understand the importance of finding clever new ways to save time on your veterinary operations, but what about the hidden time-wasters that could be holding your productivity for ransom?
Incorporating time-saving hacks is great, but effective time-management also means eliminating time-wasting habits. That’s why we sat down to identify key areas where you may be sinking time at your practice.
Once you rid your clinic of these sneaky setbacks, you can better cultivate a healthy work environment for your team and improve the pet care experience for your clients.
Refusing to delegate
Veterinary care is a team effort. While it may sometimes seem like the only way to get things done is to do them yourself, the opposite is often true when it comes to running a practice effectively. Failure to delegate can lead to fatigue and burn out—quite the dangerous combo for a veterinarian.
There’s no shame in reaching out and delegating tasks based on the unique skill set of your team members. Too busy to write new blogs every week? Nominate the hidden wordsmith behind the front desk to take over! Need a hand performing treatment on a nervous rabbit? Ask the veterinary technician who regularly trims bunny nails for assistance. When everybody does their part, your team will operate more cohesively.
Manually combing through reference materials
Trying to fly solo on diagnostic decisions is also problematic, so reliance on reference materials is essential. That said, think of how long it takes to manually sift through hard-copy textbooks and medical journals. How can you speed up the process?
When you need clinical resources to confirm illnesses, injuries, and treatment—you need access fast. Using a decision support tool like LifeLearn Sofie can optimize your workflow by providing instant access to over 40,000 pages of veterinary textbooks, medical journals, and conference proceedings. Plus, it’s all conveniently stored in a massive online database accessible whenever, or wherever, by desktop or mobile. How perfect is that?
Perfectionism
In veterinary medicine, perfectionism is as pervasive as a bad case of fleas. When you’re working with beloved pets, the stakes are high and the margin for error is small. Outside the operating room, however, perfectionism thwarts productivity so give yourself a break!
Not everything needs to be perfect and waiting for the smallest, insignificant details to be just so is a surefire way to waste time at your practice. When you keep pet health first and prioritize customer service, chances are most things will fall into place.
Non-digitized administrative upkeep
Relying on manual data entry to maintain patient records, client contact information, and scheduling is an entirely imperfect organizational system. The upkeep is tedious and there are a lot more important things your administrative team could be focusing their attention upon.
We live in an increasingly digital age and your clients expect efficient service now more than ever—going digital is your clinic’s best means of thriving. When you embrace automation, your team and your clients will enjoy state of the art technology to deliver digital appointment reminders, speedy appointment booking, and accurate, accessible patient files.
Goodbye wasted time, hello efficiency!
