As the name suggests, The Unusual Pet Vets caters to the weirder side of the animal kingdom. Founded in 2012, the Australian-based multi-site practice is made up of eight state-of-the-art clinics dedicated to providing the very best in exotic pet medicine, surgery, and husbandry.
One of those practices is the Peninsula Clinic, which has been serving the greater Melbourne metro area since 2018. We caught up with the Peninsula Clinic team to learn more about how ezyVet empowers them to work more efficiently, deliver outstanding care, and collaborate effectively with other practices in The Unusual Pet Vets family.
New practice management system required as business grows rapidly
You won’t find any cats or dogs at any The Unusual Pet Vets practice. While many companion animal practices predominantly treat felines and canines and provide exotic care as an auxiliary service, Unusual Pet Vets focuses on exotics exclusively. That includes birds, reptiles, rabbits, and frogs, along with less common critters such as axolotls and invertebrates. There was also that one time a goliath stick insect was brought in for surgery after being partially squashed in the sliding glass doors of its owner’s terrarium… but that’s a story for another time.
Treating exotics and exotics alone might sound like an unusual business model. But according to Peninsula Clinic Veterinarian Dr. Shane Simpson, demand for exotic veterinary care is soaring.
“Exotics are the fastest growing segment within pet ownership. Particularly through the COVID pandemic - the ownership rate of rabbits, birds, and reptiles went nuts, absolutely nuts. We now have 130 staff across all of our clinics. It’s a big group, and it’s grown a lot faster than anticipated,” said Shane.
Before ezyVet, The Unusual Pet Vets used a server-based system. However, as the business grew, it soon became evident that managing records and sharing information across multiple clinics with a server-based system would be impossible.
The limitations of the system prompted The Unusual Pet Vets to explore cloud-based solutions. The search led to ezyVet, a cloud-based platform that not only offers powerful practice management tools but also resonates with Pet Vets' business philosophy.
"I wanted to get it right and not have to change again," Shane recalled. “I really researched the program and had some fantastic meetings with some of the sales guys at ezyVet. I really liked the business philosophy - not just the software, but the reasoning behind how it works. When I sat down and used the program in the demo stages, it just clicked with me.”
Templating system ensures consistency across practices
For Shane, one of the key advantages of ezyVet is its templating functionality. Templating ensures uniformity and consistency in documentation across all patient records, which has become increasingly important as Unusual Pet Vets grows.
“When you’re dealing with multiple vets across multiple clinics, trying to get the way histories are written up consistently can be a challenge. Being able to set up templates and have our histories consistent across the clinics saves everybody time,” said Shane.
The templates are linked to billing triggers and products, which allows the team to automatically add billable products and services to the client’s invoice as they write a patient’s clinical notes. Frontline staff can quickly access predefined templates tailored to specific use cases, saving them valuable time during consultations and record-keeping.
“Having templates for all of our consults and a lot of our procedures really helps,” said Peninsula Clinic Veterinarian Dr. Kiara Simonis. “With templates, a lot of my notes are already prewritten for me, which means that it only takes me a minute to write my notes instead of half an hour. It definitely makes it quicker.”
Sharing specialist exotic knowledge via real-time communication tools
ezyVet has also unlocked new ways of communicating. As a cloud-based system, ezyVet allows for real-time communication between team members, which makes it easy to share knowledge and collaborate on cases.
This is particularly important in the world of exotics, where veterinarians accumulate extremely niche knowledge of specific species. Shane, for example, is known as The Reptile Doctor, while Dr. Hamish Baron, another veterinarian at The Unusual Pet Vets Peninsula, is one of only five registered practicing avian specialists in Australia.
“We've got very experienced staff all around the country,” said Shane. “There are cases that I might have seen a hundred times, whereas one of the junior guys might have never seen it. They can share a picture or an X-ray [within ezyVet] and I can just say, ‘Oh, it’s this, here’s what you need to do.’ And vice versa. Bird medicine isn’t my strength, but I’ll sit in on the bird cases. I’m always learning, just by having such a good team with varied interests.”
In addition to enhancing internal collaboration, improving communication also helps from a customer service perspective. As Practice Manager Erin Pridgeon explained, ezyVet allows every member of the team to share updates and patient progress on the fly, which front-of-house staff can then communicate to clients without disrupting the flow of the practice.
“We can be in any area of the clinic - in reception, in the office, or in the surgery field - and anyone can answer a question, which we can use to give feedback to a client. For instance, a client might want to know if they should continue giving medicine [to their pet]. Instead of interrupting a consult or surgery [to ask the vet], we can leave a communication on the patient’s file. Then, the vet in question, or maybe even another vet, is able to answer that question without us having to seek them out in person,” said Erin.
Saving time by going paperless
The Unusual Pet Vets’ former practice management system relied heavily on paper records, which needed to be scanned and attached to clients’ files. The process was slow, prone to human error, and - understandably - immensely unpopular with whoever happened to get lumped with the task.
“At the end of the day, we would have this pile of paperwork that needed to be scanned and attached to people's files,” said Shane. “We would have a staff member a couple of hours a day sitting there, scanning and attaching records. It was just a waste of their time and it was a waste of resources. I would much rather have them spend that time doing something that's actually going to really benefit the patient.”
Thankfully, since moving to ezyVet, the days of manually scanning paperwork are well and truly over. ezyVet has enabled The Unusual Pet Vets to digitize its paper-based documents, including vaccination certificates, consent forms, anesthetic charts, and more, which all attach to the patient file where they can be easily accessed.
Another area where ezyVet helps The Unusual Pet Vets save time is inventory management. As Erin explained, ezyVet has revamped the practice’s inventory strategy, allowing the team to monitor stock levels, purchase inventory, and process payments directly within their practice management system.
“In my role as a manager, I've been able to set up a lot of ordering that's sent straight from ezyVet. It helps with inventory, so you can track what you're selling, track what you're buying and it's easier to order that way, instead of jumping to websites, adding [items] to your shopping cart, and paying,” said Erin.
Conclusion
The Unusual Pet Vets' adoption of ezyVet showcases how cloud-based software can unify multi-site veterinary practices. ezyVet’s powerful templating system has helped The Unusual Pet Vets achieve consistency across its locations, while real-time communication tools have enhanced internal collaboration.
Want to see what ezyVet could do for your practice? Book a demo today to discover how ezyVet could help your clinic save time, drive revenue, and better serve your patients.