5 Veterinary Time-Saving Tips That Will Boost Productivity

There are only so many hours in a workday and always plenty to get done. How you utilize those hours will go a long way in determining the happiness of employees in your practice, productivity, and overall well-being. Instead of hoping you had more hours in the day, search for ways to save time without cutting corners.

Initiating some of the below veterinary time-saving tips help increase the productivity of you and your team members. They can also help reduce stress in the workplace. The less stressed we all feel, the better care we can provide our patients.

Free Download: 5 Veterinary Time-Saving Checklists

1. Dedicate specific times for tasks

Schedule in time during the day for you or your team to tie up those loose ends that can quickly unravel. This means paperwork, callbacks, ordering products, and other administrative duties. Try to avoid cramming tasks into lunch breaks or other scheduled breaks; try to ensure they take place at their dedicated times.

Not only will this allow you the time to complete tasks with no need to burn the midnight oil, but it can also make clients and team members happier. Clients will appreciate a quicker return time for callbacks and fewer mistakes on billing than when you’ve done a rush job of charting. And your team will appreciate a more reliable flow in their daily activities.

2. Spread the workload

Veterinary employees of different roles have a lot to take up: treating patients and providing customer service, payroll, equipment maintenance, managing inventory, and ensuring the smooth running of the practice, to name a few.

It isn’t realistic for each employee to execute everything without overwhelming them. That’s where delegation comes in. Splitting the work across individuals and roles leads to efficiency improvements.

Assigning specific tasks to each team member will lead to more accountability and increase work satisfaction. It also leads to time-saving, as it provides an opportunity to delegates certain tasks to those who are best or most efficient at performing them.

The practice manager may do a better job at managing payroll, while your lead technician may be in charge of equipment maintenance and issues. An associate vet can handle the inventory needs, while a receptionist may be best to deal with difficult customers. Find the strengths of your team and embrace them.

3. Upskill your team

Investing time in training for your team members may be the most worthwhile time saver that there is. While training may initially cost more time and potentially money, employees that are well trained and know their jobs will work more efficiently.

Not only will this allow your practice more opportunity to help more patients in less time, but it will also improve the level of service offered drastically. Highly trained team members are also more likely to feel satisfied with their job, being more invested and less likely to look elsewhere. 

4. Focus on communication

Nothing can slow down progress more than having to repeat instructions or plans to each person individually. Having team meetings, message boards, or communication apps in which you can outline plans with your team members quickly and efficiently will be a big time saver. 

Communication with clients is also a critical veterinary time saver. The more knowledge and understanding of procedures, illnesses, and preventatives that you can instill in your clients, the fewer phone calls, unnecessary rechecks, and emergency appointments you’ll have to undertake.

Make sure your entire team communicates the same message with the clients. You can do this by writing up instructions for surgery discharge, medications, vaccinations, and have your team follow these guides so that clients get the same instructions every time.

5. Stay organized with tools

Organization plays a huge role when it comes to saving time. However, being organized doesn’t come naturally to all of us. This is where the smart usage of tools comes in.

One of these tools that can help you get more organized and save time are checklists. You can use them to manage recurring tasks. Imagine a morning opening checklist for receptionists, including tasks such as turning on computers, sending out appointment reminders, and flagging urgent emails. Following this will ensure everything’s covered.

Similarly, a checklist for running lab tests, shipping specimens, preparing for surgeries, and closing out the day could be used by veterinary surgeons or technicians.

Just as creating your own checklists help you stay organized, repurposing pre-made templates from a similar clinic will help you save time that you may otherwise have to spend on creating your own. There are plenty of easily accessible templates on the internet that you can either use straight away or customize to meet your needs. In fact, we’ve created 5 Veterinary Time-Saving Checklists that you can download and use for free.

Another category of tools that facilitates organization is software. Implementing software that automates repetitive tasks such as online booking, taking payments, or sending reminders is a sure-fire way to staying organized and on top of everything.

Check out 5 veterinary software tools that will boost your team’s productivity.

Final thoughts

Make more time for yourself and your team by implementing the five veterinary time-saving tips mentioned above. You’ll notice productivity improvements and increased happiness across the practice.

If you want to measure the levels of happiness among your team, feel free to download our veterinary employee happiness survey template – it’s an easy way to measure employee happiness!

Take the proactive step towards a more streamlined practice and enhanced well-being. Book a demo today to explore these tips further and witness the positive impact on your veterinary team’s productivity and happiness.