How is Your Risk Management in the Veterinary Office?

By SK Sherman

An emerging issue for veterinary practices today relates to Risk Management.   Controlling risk can be a daunting task under the best of circumstances and busy veterinary practitioners can overlook this very important element of business management. One could say the ideal way to control risk is to eliminate it or not allow risk in your practice. We know however, that you cannot simply eliminate risk but you can be aware of it and implement processes to manage it.  Accurate real-time communication helps resolve issues before they occur.

This is where Veterinary Pharmacy Reference (VPR) can be a very valuable tool.  VPR will print out a Client Information Sheet (CIS) to give to the guardian that confirms the medical treatment being provided for the patient.  The CIS documents the name of the medicine; the dosage; the reason for the treatment; precautions; special treatment considerations; side effects; drug interactions; approved species; what to do if an overdose occurs and the washout period for the medicine.  Additionally, it has your contact information in the heading. VPR is integrated in AVImark.

Give your medical team and clients a greater sense of comfort by being proactive.  Download a fully functional demo of VPR at www.vpronline.com or call 866-639-3866.

SK Sherman
VPR

VPR clients say it best!
"It amazes us that so much pharmacology is available with just a few keystrokes. The cumulative history feature helps assure us that we are providing the very best care for our clients/patients. Standardized treatment is supported by the Interaction of the Prescription History, Washout Period checking, the Dosage Calculator and the Interaction matrix checking. VPR is an amazing time saver and quality checker."
Kate Christman, DVM

"I'm impressed with how easy it is to find information on medication, dosages and interactions.  This is definitely a valuable resource we use in the Veterinary Teaching Hospital Pharmacy."
Barry Grodsky, RPh, Veterinary Pharmacist, University of Illinois
Veterinary Clinical Medicine, Teaching Hospital Pharmacy

Analyzing Practice Profitability with AVImark Reports

By Barbara Betsch


Provider productivity (or provider production) is one of many variables that impact the profitability of your practice. But in order to improve a variable like provider production, you have to measure it first.

In AVImark, provider production is measured by analyzing services performed and/or items dispensed, and it can include payments applied. AVImark provides two ways to measure production data, or the productivity of each doctor in your practice:

• Paid Production

• Charged Production (Paid or Unpaid)

Paid Production

When doctors are paid a commission based upon paid production, you can use the Income by Provider report for determining these amounts.

On this report, the Amount column is the amount of the payment that was applied. Since AVImark pays the oldest accounting transaction first, the amounts may not be the exact amount shown in the client’s accounting window.

The Profit column is the amount of the transaction paid minus the average cost of items/inventory used.

In running this report, you may see the following NOTE on the bottom:

“NOTE: Returned treatments/items and Account adjustments having a negative amount are reported as payments received”

It simply means there were negative amounts reported in that time period.

When this message is displayed, you will need to find the returns and adjustments that have not been satisfied and deduct that from the income.

Charged Production (Paid or Unpaid)

When commission is not a factor for reviewing the production and you want the analysis to include all charges, paid or unpaid, you can use the ‘Period Totals’ report.

The section called Production by Provider will list each doctor along with his or her total charges (invoices can be closed or open), number of closed invoices, average invoice amount, and percentage of production (out of 100%).

Analyzing production can be a key factor in measuring productivity. As your trusted partner, we are committed to your success, and we strive to provide business tools that will help your business grow.

Barbara Betsch is a senior technician at AVImark. Barbara can be reached at barbarab@avimark.net .

Using AVImark's note glossary feature

By Barbara Betsch

In AVImark veterinary software, the note glossary feature allows you to create and store note templates. These templates help streamline the process of producing consistent notes throughout several of AVImark's "tools."

The glossary categories and entries can be added in the Work with Menu, under the Glossary option. The glossary entries are easily accessible in most note fields within the AVImark program by using F7, or choosing Glossary from the top of the note window then selecting "View Glossary". Select the appropriate notes then choose the "Done" button.

Another option to enter notes from the glossary is to use a "hot key" function. From the note window, type in the Code of the glossary note entry, and then use the SHIFT and SPACEBAR keys; this will pull the text from the glossary.

These templates are also handy tools for duplicating text from one area of the program- such as Work with, Hospital Setup, or Reminders- to another area, such as the Information Search or the E-Mail Message Text option found in the Advances Tab of The Hospital Setup.

The glossary templates are easily accessed in many notes areas of AVImark, including the Follow-Up List, Client and Patient Instructions, Item Notes, Q & A Notes, and Medical History Doctor's Instructions.

Barbara Betsch is a senior technician at AVImark. Barbara can be reached at barbara.betsch@avimark.net.

Creating business strategies with AVImark

By Barbara Betsch

Is your company's portrait depicted by intermittent facts, figures and sporadic data? Is it difficult to get a complete and comprehensive picture?

This can be a frustrating experience when you're trying to develop the right business strategies to grow your practice, but when all of your data fits together like a puzzle, a complete picture emerges- making the right objectives and strategies clear.

Fortunately, you can use AVImark to complete your puzzle and fine tune your business strategy.

The first step is to identify the pieces of data that are important to your business environment, such as client retention rates, customer service quality, security, most performed services, and production by providers.

After identifying the pieces to your puzzle, researching and pulling meaningful data and trends becomes the key factor. Using AVImark to assist in this step will not only save time but also will identify weak areas and save resources. Running some of AVImark's pre-set reports can help:

Reports found in the Practice Analysis:

• Client Retention
• Top Performance Services

Report found in Work with Inventory:

• Inventory Stock (found on the Inventory Report)

Report found in Work with Reports:

• Production by Provider

Report found in Work with Users and Security:

• Security User Groups and Functions

Once identification and research is complete, the final step is to solidify the individual aspects to complete the final objective, and create the complete picture of your company's strategic plan.
Suggested implementations could include:

• Using V Surv (an AVImark Partner) to measure client satisfaction for your clinic
• Optimize data using Data Wrench, an MSS solution package
• Measure profitability with production by provider report
• Modifying auditing options in AVImark
• Adjusting staff security levels for AVImark
• Adjusting staff security levels for AVImark
• Gathering other pertinent information via AVImark's information search feature

Barbara Betsch is a senior technician at AVImark. Barbara can be reached at barbara.betsch@avimark.net.