Making a clinic look more technology-oriented--the easy way!
Dr. John Weale, Suburban Animal Clinic 
Columbus, OH
"Our practice looks more modern, more technology-oriented," thanks to Vetstreet, says Dr. John Weale, co-owner of the AAHA-accredited Suburban Animal Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. "It provides a good upgrade in the client's mind about the services you offer."
Finding a simple way to keep his practice's image up to date was Dr. Weale's original goal when the clinic started with Vetstreet in early 2004. Since then, they've experienced additional benefits.
"It's very convenient. Not only for us, but for the clients," explains Dr. Weale, "because they can use [the Pet Portal] whenever they're thinking about it," even when the practice is closed.
Pet owners welcome the convenience of online communication. "They really like it. They like being able to get online at any time, to make a request for an appointment or a prescription refill," says Dr. Weale.
"Having access to their pets' information makes it more personal." For certain clients, the Pet Portal is "how they always communicate with us about refills."
Receiving requests and updates via the Pet Portal is "more efficient than answering a phone call," says Dr. Weale. "It decreases the amount of time because pet owners need to be able to verbalize exactly what they want, when they contact you that way. They don't get off-track."
Because he recognized from the get-go that responding to clients' Pet Portal requests is "no different than answering a phone call," Dr. Weale assigned his reception team the task of checking the Vet Portal (the practice's side of the service) once or twice a day. "We trained the staff and they do it very well. It's an efficient use of their time, rather than using the telephone." And when the practice is not as busy, "people can find something to do. They check the Vet Portal."
It was easy to get the clinic staff on board with the Vetstreet: "We went over it in some meetings and the staff really liked it," Dr. Weale recalls. "We tried to encourage each staff member to get their own Pet Portal, so they could become more familiar with it and recommend it to our clients."
Vetstreet's automatic reminder postcards are the most recent addition to the practice's suite of communication tools, and they are "working really well," according to Dr. Weale. The cards "are done very professionally," and it just makes sense to "save the time and expense of paying for people to print reminders in-house."
Looking to the future, Dr. Weale sees the Vetstreet's services playing a key role as his practice keeps up with the evolving communication needs of its clients. "I think it's going to become more and more important to be able to communicate with clients this way. It's going to be expected by clients. Our better clients actually expect this type of communication today."