For pets and their owners, the veterinary waiting room experience is stressful.
For a client who comes to an animal hospital to deal with a pet emergency, waiting is hard—especially when they have no idea how long the wait will last. Even with an appointment, being seen on time isn’t a certainty. Sometimes, pets with more urgent needs jump the line, while clients with appointments struggle to keep their companions calm.
As a busy veterinarian, you can’t promise clients that every appointment will start on time, or that walk-ins will be promptly treated. What you can do is streamline the check-in process, optimize queue management, and provide helpful communications throughout the waiting process. All you need is the right software.
In the sections below, we’ll make the case for adopting a digital queue management system to improve check-ins, waiting, and client communication at your veterinary clinic or animal hospital.
Queue Management in Vet Care: Challenges for Staff, Clients, and Patients
The entire appointment queuing process poses challenges for pet owners, starting with booking or checking in to an appointment. If a pet owner’s only option is to call the clinic, this can be inefficient. The line may be busy, or a number of issues can complicate phone calls, such as bad reception, speech problems, or the slow nature of transmitting information over the phone.
Once an appointment is booked, the pet owner must arrive on time. If the clinic is having a busy day, the wait might be long—but the client won’t get the memo until they’re stuck in a crowded waiting room full of anxious pets.
According to a study by the American Medical Veterinary Association, 15% of veterinary appointments have waiting room times over 30 minutes.
Long waits are sometimes unavoidable, but the traditional waiting room system isn’t helpful. A paper-based system keeps clients out of the loop, involves lengthy intake paperwork, and forces pets and their owners to remain on-site for the entire wait. That’s a stressful situation for all parties.
How Veterinary Queue Management Software Improves the Appointment Process
Queue management software digitizes and automates the process of checking in for appointments, completing intake procedures, and progressing through the patient queue. Here’s a rundown of a few key features of queue management software.
Express Check-In
Express check-in, or mobile check-in, is a streamlined appointment check-in process that clients can complete on their phones. To check-in for an appointment, a pet owner completes these simple steps:
- Accesses the check-in platform via website, app, or QR code
- Completes a brief form providing info about the pet and the reason for making an appointment
- Opts in or out of receiving text notifications
Next, clients are automatically entered into a virtual waiting room. They immediately receive info regarding their position in the queue and the estimated start time of their appointment. Then, they can plan accordingly.
Digital Intake
The traditional paper-based intake process for medical appointments isn’t ideal for modern vet care. Paper forms can’t be completed remotely, and thus tend to slow down the patient queue. They’re also unhygienic, waste-making, prone to human error, and create time-consuming data entry tasks for staff.
With queue management software, intake goes digital. On the same platform where they check in for appointments, clients can quickly complete patient registration forms and sign consent forms. These paperless processes can be completed remotely in advance of the appointment, so there’s no delay when they arrive at the clinic.
Virtual Waiting Rooms
After checking in and completing intake forms, pet owners and their companions enjoy a flexible waiting room experience. Because they’re kept informed regarding their exact position in the patient queue, they don’t need to spend their entire wait on-site.
With virtual waiting, clients and pets can pass the time at home or out and about while they monitor their position in the queue. Then, when their appointment start time draws near, they can wait in their car in the parking lot or in another comfortable nearby location. Without being stuck in the waiting room, clients enjoy a more flexible appointment process—while pets avoid the stress and anxiety of a crowded waiting room.
Improve Queue Management at Your Veterinary Practice
Queue management is a major challenge in veterinary care, but the right software makes a world of difference.
At ER Express, our queue management system streamlines check-ins and creates a more flexible waiting room experience for clients and pets.
Ready to see the transformative effect of great queue management software? Contact ER Express today for a product demonstration.
