About a year ago we undertook an exercise to define “personas” – descriptions of semi-fictional users of our Elements software that get used as part of marketing discussions and other customer-focused conversations internally. They were based on a number of interviews with current TOPAZ users. It was an interesting exercise, particularly when it came to understanding the objectives and challenges facing our customers.
One of the common threads was the desire to use software to better serve “internal customers”. This might include improving communication, billing accuracy or protocol review turnaround time for PIs, but for many of those we talked to, their most important customers were the animals. Using software to improve the lot of our animals can occur in many ways – more timely communication, reducing stress and turnover of vet and vet tech staff, improvements of record keeping for analysis and diagnostic purposes to name just three, and it is interesting to note how these motivations and solutions align with both the letter and the spirit of the AAALAC program.
This became apparent as we assisted one customer to implement the VM module in response to some desired improvements in their compliance. The flexibility of the VM module allows customers to target whichever areas of the AAALAC program make sense for them.
By way of some examples related to the Program Description, Veterinary Care section;
A1 – Animal Procurement.
If desired, customers may establish VM tasks that allow staff to record assessments of arriving animals. These can be left quite flexible, text based, and/or be closely controlled via pick lists and conditional questions. The ability to attach files such as vendor health reports or clinical pathology data ensures that these records are retained securely and are searchable.
B1 – Animal Biosecurity.
One customer is using VM as part of their sentinel program, to help ensure that sentinels are sampled on schedule and results are processed and stored appropriately.
C – Clinical Care
All the customers who have implemented VM make use of the email trigger system to alert vets, vet techs and researchers when illness or abnormal behavior is observed. Use of the My Tasks Dashboard, appropriately filtered, can provide “to do” lists for monitoring, treatment and checks by vets.
C3 – Clinical record keeping.
The flexibility of the VM module allows customers to maintain their medical records easily, despite the variation in procedures and specific practices at different facilities. The module is easily set up to track clinical lab results, diagnoses, to prescribe and track treatments and keep searchable medical progress records.
D – Surgery
The power and flexibility of the form designer within VM means that full details of surgeries may be recorded in the module. Current customers use forms to track surgeries and other non-surgical procedures including anesthesia details, personnel involved, monitoring results and recovery. The ability to include attachments and links as part of the form template means that procedure documents or SOPs can be on hand at all times.
Compliance always involves documentation – “if it isn’t documented, it didn’t happen” – and using the VM module can ensure that documentation of the care given to your animals is a natural outcome of your daily work.
For more information on the Veterinary Management module, including a Case Study and discussion of the module’s flexibility, click here. If you are already an Elements customer, you may already own this module, so contact us to discuss implementation services!
