Every second counts in an emergency veterinary practice. The pace can go from slow to relentless in minutes, and one misstep in communication, documentation, or task tracking can derail the entire shift or put patients in danger.
Emergency hospitals need a practice information management system (PIMS) designed for speed, clarity, and collaboration.
In a 24/7 emergency setting, your PIMS is a record-keeping tool, triage board, communication hub, and safety net. Traditional server-based software might struggle to keep up with the evolving needs of emergency teams, making modern, cloud-based software the ideal solution.
Here are the top six PIMS features that can make or break your emergency practice.
The whiteboard is the heart of any veterinary emergency hospital. While a physical board might work for small teams in a relatively small space, manually tracking each patient becomes challenging in larger facilities and can lead to errors.
A digital whiteboard updates patient status automatically, ensuring everyone in the building knows what’s happening. The digital whiteboard may display:
An effective digital whiteboard is an essential PIMS feature that opens up new worlds of collaboration for emergency teams and can also help teams keep clients updated on patient status. Some systems allow for drag-and-drop adjustments so teams can change the whiteboard without slowing down.
Emergency visits and pet illnesses are stressful for pet owners. Being away from their beloved pet is bad enough, and the uncertainty of not knowing their condition can make it worse. Clients may frequently call to ask questions about hospitalized pets and treatment plans, and while answering them is critical, the task can take away from patient care and face-to-face client time.
Two-way texting with multimedia support is a PIMS feature that may be the answer that allows teams to stay in contact with pet owners and continue caring for in-house patients. These systems not only send messages but also allow clients to respond. Look for platforms that enable video and photo messaging, then automatically document communications in the patient’s chart.
Veterinary professionals who have experienced legacy systems know the pain of tedious processes slowing them down. An overly complex interface or slow, laggy performance means emergency teams may struggle to move at the pace required to help their patients. Emergency hospitals may also employ relief veterinarians unfamiliar with the system, and need an intuitive, easy-to-learn PIMS that allows them to hit the ground running.
Look for these PIMS features to streamline navigation:
Emergency veterinary clinics provide rapid and often life-saving care. Running out of medication or supplies can impact any clinic, but it’s especially dangerous in an emergency setting. Well-managed inventory starts with a PIMS that offers automated ordering features or integrates with a third-party inventory provider, such as Inventory Ally.
A solid inventory system continually monitors stock levels, placing items on lists or sending orders to distributors linked to your software. When software does most of the work, the hospital’s dedicated inventory manager can double-check orders and lists rather than creating them from scratch. This win-win keeps the hospital stocked while using less staff time, so they can focus on helping pets and their families.
While emergency practices nearly always see patients in person, telemedicine platforms can still play a valuable role in communication and care delivery. When large clinics get busy, clients may wait in their cars, enter the digital line at home, or step out while their pet undergoes treatments or diagnostics.
During COVID-19, many pet owners stayed outside while the team cared for pets inside, spurring the use of video-based telemedicine platforms to give clients a window into the exam room. This technology is still helpful for clients to see behind the scenes, receive updates on hospitalized pets, or have a quick “face-to-face” chat with their pet’s clinician or nursing team.
Emergency cases rely on rapid diagnostics, such as blood work or point-of-care ultrasound. Delays in processing or transferring results can slow down critical decision-making and increase the risk of patient complications.
An effective PIMS should solve this problem with seamless lab and imaging integrations. Systems that work with major laboratories show results in the patient’s main dashboard to reduce toggling between programs, while DICOM viewer compatibility stores and displays radiographs and ultrasound images without a separate log-in or tedious downloads.
Upgrade to Provet Cloud to avoid slowdowns
Emergency veterinary teams move quickly, and their software must keep up. Cloud-based systems like Provet Cloud don’t require you to choose between documentation and patient care, providing PIMS features that reduce errors, lighten the team’s mental workload, and promote collaboration.
Schedule a demo to learn how our modern software solutions support the ER team from triage to discharge.