Managing Veterinary Stress – Four Ways Practice Management Software Can Help

In this post, I’m straying from the how-tos of veterinary content creation to the topic of veterinary stress. It’s a complex topic with no straightforward solutions.

Unfortunately, and sometimes, tragically, we hear how trying today’s veterinary industry has become, and because of this, many vets are leaving the profession in droves.

Life, in general, offers up an almost infinite number of stressors, and for veterinarians, theirs are compounded by the nature of the work they do.
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Dealing daily with stressed clients (humans and animals), long hours, team dynamics, the business side of vet practice, and making the best decisions in difficult situations can rapidly lead to burnout and worse.

A common factor that contributes to stress

According to The American Institute of Stress, many of the stressors we experience in life can be directly linked to our inability to control them. And the more we seek control, the more frustrated we can become.

How we respond to a perceived stressful event is significant because it can affect us physically, mentally, and emotionally, influencing our attitudes and behaviors.

Fortunately, there are ways to manage overwhelming stress—good nutrition, exercise, meditation, prayer, and professional counseling.

But during your workday, these options may not be feasible.
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So, what can you do to avoid things spinning out of control? This is where your practice management software can step in and help.

Four ways practice management software helps you maintain control

1. More and more practice management systems are cloud-based. Cloud-based software stores data online instead of saving it to a physical server or a computer’s hard drive.

Storing data ‘in the cloud’ means you can access it wherever and whenever you have an internet connection. If your internet goes down, or you’re in an area with no reception, or it’s spotty, you can work offline and synchronize your data later when you get back online.

Cloud-based computing lets you control when, where, and how you access your data. It also frees you from the costs of maintaining physical servers and space requirements for housing them.

2. Time and how you use it is an area you can control. Any practice management software worth its salt will offer a flexible and efficient appointment scheduling module. Use it to schedule patient appointments and block out chunks of time for meetings, lunches, personal appointments, and daily administrative tasks.

Starting each day with a set schedule provides a structure for you and your team. It also provides a point of reference if chaos erupts. No one must stop and think about what to do next.

3. The financial side of veterinary practice can be a significant stressor. Fortunately, getting a grip on it is possible with systems that allow you to link patient accounts to invoices for services, inventory, treatments, and prescriptions.

This feature decreases the headache of missed charges and lost revenue. More robust systems provide reporting and data analytics options and integration with payment processor partners to capture credit card payments.

4. Client communications is another area you can take control of. Practice management software allows you to reach out to clients and vice versa in multiple ways, such as texting, email, phone, and mail.

Some systems allow patient-specific emails and text messages to be organized in a designated location, avoiding cluttered generic inboxes overflowing with emails or texts that take forever to sort through.

Organized communication allows you to establish protocols for a timely response which helps improve overall efficiency and decreases the chance you’ll miss client messages.

You may never have considered your practice management software as a means to strengthen your mental health, but if it adds efficiency and order to your workday, that’s certainly a welcome result.

If you’re contemplating purchasing or changing to another one, here are several practice management software solutions. There are many on the market, and sure to be one suitable for your practice’s needs.
 
I'm a content writer/consultant and former veterinary assistant specializing in the animal health and veterinary markets. I work with clients in both the pharmaceutical and technology arenas.
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