A manifesto is “a public declaration of policy and aims.” I cannot think of a better word to describe what we’re about to get into here.
Anything one does in life is guided by a core set of values. Those values create your intentions, your actions, and how you live your life. And so it is with software development.
At the heart of each high-volume, spay/neuter clinic (HVSN) or wellness clinic is the desire to do as many animals as possible. The central question we grapple with daily here at HQ is how to do as many animals as possible and keep everyone safe and happy. By “everyone,” we mean your staff, clients, and the animals you serve.
We’ve developed a set of guiding principles that every new feature must meet. It does not matter if the feature has to do with scheduling, drug logging, or reports. This set of principles is our ethos, our north star. We call this our “manifesto.” A manifesto is “a public declaration of policy and aims.”
OUR MANIFESTO IS CALLED THE S3.
All activities must meet three criteria:
Safety =Increase safety
Speed = Increase speed
Stress Reduction = Increase stress reduction
Key strategies to achieve our manifesto are the following:
Strategy #1: Stress Reduction for Safety & Care
A 2017 landmark study found a mild amount of stress improves memory, learning, decision making, and judgment. However, once a stress threshold is reached, there is a quick, steep decline in memory recall, ability to learn, judgment, and decision making. The threshold is different for every person. Since stress, after a certain threshold, negatively affects memory, learning, decision making, and judgment, a stress reduction will improve memory, knowledge, decision making, and judgment at your clinic. Stress reduction will improve your team’s ability to care for patients, increase staff safety, and make a more enjoyable experience for all humans and animals.
So how can software aid in stress reduction related to the world of high-volume spay/neuter?
If animals and clients are waiting around your lobby, this is a safety concern and ramps up stress. The animals get worked up, the staff gets worked up, and their owners get worked up. So anything we can do to speed up the process of check-in, check-out, and everything in between will help reduce stress. It will also help to improve safety. Here are some tools to speed things up:
Enable e-Consent forms
Having clients fill out this form outline many good things that happen all at once.
Pros of this approach:
1. Your check-in time is radically improved.
2. Clients can read the consent form at their leisure which is a legal requirement of “informed consent.”
3. Clients get an electronic copy of the signed consent form emailed to them.
Key HQ Features that support this tactic: e-consents, volume client portal, tablet signing in person.
Owners Stay in Vehicles
The safest and least stressful place for owners and animals is in the owner’s vehicle.
Pros of this approach:
1. It’s often cooler in the vehicle with the air conditioning on.
2. The owners can reassure their pets.
3. Noise and scent reduction inside the vehicle. They are not smelling fear pheromones from other dogs.
4. Reduces infectious disease by limiting nose-to-nose contact.
5. Reduces bite risk on every level
6. Reduces flight risk.
7. Reduces stress for all.
Key HQ Features that support this tactic: e-consents, volume client portal, tablet signing in person, e-Pay, e-Lobby, texting via e-Lobby HQ services auto-responder.
Use the Volume Client Portal (VCP)
The VCP is a unique tool that allows your volume client partners to sign consent forms and do data entry for their animals. They can also pay invoices in the VCP. The VCP also warehouses all paperwork for their animals.
Pros of this approach:
1. One place partners can go to pre-sign consent forms.
2. Your partners do all the data entry related to their animals. Huge timesaver for staff.
3. They can pay invoices here and have access to billing-related information.
4. They can look up rabies certificates and other animal paperwork.
Key HQ Features that support this tactic: Volume Client Portal.
The term “friction” describes the degree to which a typical workflow is difficult, time-consuming, or irritating for a user to complete. Friction creep is a constant problem at spay/neuter clinics. The philosophy and goals we actively perpetuate at HQ are ones that reduce friction. Often friction is created by too many micro-deviations in clinic flow. A typical example of this is having two (or more) different surgical consent forms. Sometimes clinics will have one surgical consent for cats and one for dogs, and sometimes even one for feral cats versus owned cats. Although this may initially seem like a good idea, it introduces numerous overall “friction points” in your flow.
In a system with more than one surgical consent form, staff has to make sure the right animals get the right consent forms; then, often, treatment sheets are tied to those consent forms, so staff is looking at different consent forms and treatment sheets during every interaction with the paperwork. In the case of feral versus owned, the “type” of the cat can certainly change as new information comes in. This would necessitate re-signing the consents, etc. It is a better approach to have ONE surgical consent form. This will reduce friction throughout your flow. Same with cage cards (not doing pink versus blue) and neck collars. There are hundreds of things in your clinic’s daily flow that removing the friction point of multiple choices will speed up your day, make staff less frustrated and improve overall flow.
Key HQ Features that support this tactic: One surgical consent for sn/wellness, all paper-reduction tools, patient flow, short medical notes, client communication field, emailing take-home documents.
The faster your check-in, the safer everyone is. To achieve the quickest check-in, you can do the following with HQ:
1. Pre-prep packets that include a consent form that has already been signed and filled out, a treatment sheet, a neck collar (for dogs), and a cage card.
2. Send a pre-payment link so they can pay before they get there.
3. Before pick up, email the take-home instructions to save time and paper.
4. Scan your roster and consent forms and call any client who may have indicated an issue with their animal.
Strategy #2: Excellent Drug Protocols for Safety and Speed
We unequivocally support and espouse the ASPCA Spay/Neuter Alliance (ASNA) drug and exam protocols and methods of pre-medication. This process is as follows for dogs. Dogs are brought into the lobby one at a time, immediately examined, and given a pre-medication of Acepromazine and Hydromorphone. The exam/pre-med takes less than two minutes. Our Patient Flow supports and expects this flow for clinics. We know this to be the safest and most humane way to prepare dogs for surgery. It reduces fear which increases safety and leads to better surgical outcomes.
Patient Flow does many helpful things simultaneously. It’s an electronic drug log, it’s a dose calculator, it’s a medical note blaster, it’s a visit summary creator, and it’s a client communication tool. It makes it possible to process hundreds of animals, or “flow” them, through your system daily. It can be used for spay/neuter, as well as vaccine clinics and other wellness appointments.You will know exactly where each patient is in their process through the day!
Strategy #3: Client Communication for the Health of the Animal and the Dignity of the Client
Client communication begins the moment the client browses your website. They might click the link to make an appointment, and from there, we’re off to the races in terms of communicating with the client. Our goal here at HQ is to enable quick but specific communication.
We have built tools that enable you to collect much of the information you need before an appointment without requiring staff time. You can also collect a payment, send a receipt, email paperwork, and text back and forth with the client. HQ can send out appointment reminders, as well as send out vaccine reminders by email and text. It is designed to do all this communicating without one minute of staff time.
We put so much effort into our communication tools for two reasons. First, it’s what’s best for the health of the animal. When your clinic can provide specific directions, information, and observations about a pet, this will ultimately benefit the pet. Second, we believe it’s important to give the same level of care and respect that a “traditional” veterinary hospital would provide. For many of these animals that come through HQ, this will be the only time they ever see a vet. And for many of the owners, it’s the only interaction they will have ever had with a veterinarian. We believe in preserving the client’s dignity and the patient’s health.
All of these tools help to communicate early and often.
The values we’ve laid out here are what guide our development of the software. Most of the tools we create meet all three criteria: Improve safety, Improve speed and Improve stress reduction. Once a year, we conduct a development survey. This is where clinics tell us what tools they would find most helpful. These suggestions guide us all year long.
