Customer Spotlight: Chanticleer Veterinary Hospital

When our veterinary customers experience success, their local communities reap the rewards, too — and we love to share the story. Chanticleer Veterinary Hospital (CVH) has been caring for animals in the Santa Cruz community since 1985. They became a DaySmart Vet customer in January 2024, after transitioning from their previous practice management software, Avimark. To help tell their story, we spoke with CVH’s practice manager, Ashley Benson.

According to Ashley, CVH has always been a small practice. Even after being purchased by Blue River Pet Care in 2016, they’ve consistently maintained just one to three doctors at the practice. Today, they focus on delivering veterinary services to companion animals only. Ashley says they pride themselves on providing a calm, welcoming environment, where every pet receives customized care. 

As manager, one of Ashley’s goals is to create a work culture that promotes growth, so she’s made it her priority to support her team with valuable tools. It’s no coincidence that CVH made the switch to DaySmart Vet upon her recommendation after she joined the practice. Having used the software for years prior, at a previous vet office, Ashley knew it would be the right move for her new team. “I felt in order to continue to grow CVH, and propel it toward our future goals, the switch was needed,” she said.

And Ashley was right. Among DaySmart Vet’s comprehensive set of features, Ashley’s team quickly discovered their favorites. The communication tools have helped to streamline client correspondence and minimize unnecessary back-and-forth. The seamless integrations, like Vetcove, have delivered a more complete experience. And when it comes to administrative responsibilities, the task management tools have helped to ensure nothing slips through the cracks. 

For Ashley’s role specifically, the inventory and reporting tools have simplified her supply ordering routine and overall management of the office budget. She also notes that, with the ability to access and update patient records outside of the clinic, the CVH doctors have been granted a more flexible work-life balance. 

Beyond the day-to-day management support, Ashley and her team also count on DaySmart Vet to accomplish other more long term objectives. “My goal for 2024 is to become paperless,” she said. “While we’re not there yet, DaySmart is absolutely paramount to reaching that goal.” With tools like online forms, Ashley plans to streamline processes to cut down on paperwork and boost efficiency. 

For other growing veterinary practices like CVH, Ashley’s best advice is to plan for the future. She stresses the importance of finding a software that can accommodate growth. “If your system works for 10 clients, will it still work when you have thousands?” she asks. “If it won’t be expandable, change your systems now.” 
Find a vet management software built to support your practice’s future. If you’re interested in making a system change, check out our Complete Buyer’s Guide for Making the Switch to a Better Veterinary Software. You can also discover more DaySmart Vet customer success stories here.

The post Customer Spotlight: Chanticleer Veterinary Hospital appeared first on DaySmart Vet.

Customer Spotlight: Dr. Donita’s Veterinary Concierge Services

After completing her veterinary training at Tuskegee University in 2015, Dr. Donita McCants decided to work for herself and open her own practice. But that got her thinking, how can she make her services convenient for herself as well as her clients, keeping everyone tail-waggingly satisfied?

That’s when she decided to take her practice on the road! Dr. Donita’s Veterinary Concierge Services is a fully mobile practice that initially opened in August of 2021 and expanded to a full-service Mercedes Benz sprinter van in March of 2022.

We spoke with Dr. Donita to learn more about her mobile practice and how DaySmart Vet software helps them save time and focus on what matters most – their patients.

“I love that we get to travel to different places and meet new people on a daily basis,” says Dr. Donita. “We aren’t trapped between four walls and every day is always a new adventure.”

Being a solo doctor practice and successful business owner, Dr. Donita is running her business from end-to-end. Juggling so many different roles, DaySmart Vet has become a valuable asset for Dr. Donita’s Veterinary Concierge Services.

“Anything that helps us save time is crucial,” says Dr. Donita. “The tasks within DaySmart Vet are a great feature that help us stay on track by not missing out on important calls and reminders that we need to make.”

The integration of DaySmart Vet has allowed Dr. Donita’s Veterinary Concierge Services to go completely paperless. Accessibility to the software at any time, on any device, has helped them stay organized, boost productivity, and provide exceptional care.

Not only has Dr. Donita’s team seen success and ease when using DaySmart Vet, but her clients have as well.

DaySmart Vet’s reminder tool is perfect for helping to eliminate no-shows with automated text and email appointment reminders. Dr. Donita’s Veterinary Concierge Services uses reminders to help inform their clients on the next steps in their furry friends’ health journey. The reminder tool also allows specific documents to be sent directly to clients to review and sign before their appointment, saving time for both staff and clients.

Having run a successful practice for two years, Dr. Donita has some advice for fellow veterinarians looking to open their own practice. “Start slow, do all your research, and get an accountant fast! I didn’t receive enough knowledge and information on practice management in school, so the more you know before starting the better.”

No matter where the road takes them, Dr. Donita and her team know that DaySmart Vet will provide them with the ease and accessibility they need to successfully run their practice.

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The post Customer Spotlight: Dr. Donita’s Veterinary Concierge Services appeared first on DaySmart Vet.

Customer Spotlight: The Global Alliance for Animals and People

DaySmart Vet customers are passionate veterinarians whose love for animals is matched with a business acumen that drives their practices forward. Armed with the software’s capabilities, these vets have built supportive frameworks for themselves to focus on the animals at the heart of their roles.

We recently spoke with Elena Garde, Program Director of the nonprofit The Global Alliance for Animals and People (GAAP), about how DaySmart Vet has empowered her global organization to provide more accessible and higher quality care over the years.

Q: To start, we’d love to learn a little more about you and your organization.

A: My husband, who is Chilean/Canadian, and I came to Chile from Canada in 2009 with Vets Without Borders (VWB). When VWB closed its doors in Latin America in 2013, we started the GAAP to continue providing those services throughout the region. Our mission is to improve the lives of people and animals, and we do this through three core functions: vet services, conservation, and education. We mostly operate in South and Central America, but we have a few projects in remote northern Canada as well.

Q: What inspired you to start using DaySmart Vet?

A: We needed a way to manage our clinic in Chile online so that we could have people in other countries share data with us. Coming from Canada, keeping good medical records was so important, and so even if we only had five clients at the start, we wanted to manage them correctly. Finding DaySmart Vet was a stroke of luck; it was one of the first programs we found in our software search. We reached out to the team and they quickly became one of the first donors to the program.

A few years after opening the clinic in Chile, we also started a telemedicine project in Guatemala and adopted DaySmart Vet for that as well. We told DaySmart Vet about that project, and they immediately opened a second account for us so that we could keep the projects organized.

Q: What has been your experience with the software?

A: DaySmart Vet is the foundation of everything we do in the clinic. We use just about every aspect of it. While our Chile clinic is a nonprofit, we run it like a business, so DaySmart Vet helps create invoices for clients and manage inventory. Then, after we pay our employees and restock on supplies, the earnings go into our social programs.

We also use DaySmart Vet for communications with clients, which isn’t a common practice here. Even regular doctors don’t send out appointment reminders or follow ups to clients; the onus is on the individual. DaySmart Vet’s technical staff helped us translate all the automated reminders into Spanish to make this possible. As a result, clients are blown away by the care we provide.

When you’re a nonprofit that receives a donated product, sometimes you don’t receive the same level of service that would normally be included with it. That’s not the case with DaySmart Vet. They’ve never treated us differently than any of their other customers; they’re always available and understanding of our needs.

Q: How has the pandemic impacted the GAAP, especially clinic operations?

A: We’re actually seeing more clients than before the pandemic. Not only new ones, but old clients who are more proactive with their animals’ healthcare. That’s because people have been spending more time with their pets and therefore building stronger connections with them. For background, in Chile there’s a huge issue with roaming animals; people previously tended to keep very loose ownership over pets. That dynamic still exists, but people are closer to their pets now, so the owners started taking better care of their health.

Q: Tell us more about your project in Guatemala.

A: This was another project handed down to us from VWB. Once per year, we would visit this small Mayan community that experienced issues with canine attacks and rabies to run a vaccination campaign. It wasn’t great to parachute in once per year, but there’s no other vets or animal care providers in the area, so the people there were in a pretty vulnerable situation. When the GAAP took over the project, we wanted to figure out how to establish more regular access to care. Our solution was to build a training course in partnership with Dogs Trust Worldwide in England to teach a person in the community how to be a para-veterinarian.

We would not be able to do this project without DaySmart Vet. When the para-vet responds to a call, he takes the animal’s full history and makes a medical record for them in DaySmart Vet. The platform then takes him through how to conduct a medical exam, with questions for the owner. Our team then sees those answers and, together with the technical information from the para-vet, makes a diagnosis. We then guide him through how to administer care from there. There are strict guidelines for what his limits are. For example, he can’t do surgery or make a diagnosis, but he can do a host of day-to-day procedures, vaccinations and even emergency euthanasia under our guidance—or he refers owners to our partner clinic for any care required that is outside of his training. We’re now training a second para-vet so that we can expand our reach into more rural areas.

To learn more about how DaySmart Vet can support your practice, contact us here. If you’d like to donate to the GAAP to support their care efforts, you can do so through their website.

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Customer Spotlight: Canine Assistants

DaySmart Vet customers are passionate veterinarians whose love for animals is matched with a business acumen that drives their practices forward. Armed with the software’s capabilities, these vets have built supportive frameworks for themselves to focus on the animals at the heart of their roles.

We recently spoke with Dr. Kent Bruner, the lead veterinarian at Canine Assistants in Milton, Georgia. The nonprofit raises and trains service dogs to be paired with individuals in need across the country, at no cost to the individual, so that they can improve one another’s lives. Keep reading to learn how DaySmart Vet helps him make this mission a reality.

Q: To start, we’d love to learn a little more about your practice.

A: My wife, Jennifer Arnould, started the program in 1991 and I joined three years later to help grow it. Now we have about 30 employees who raise and teach the dogs, as well as our volunteers who help raise the funds needed to make the program possible. We always have about 130 dogs on our farm, and then there’s around 900 of our dogs currently placed.

Our goal is to make sure people who really need a service dog receive one, even if they don’t qualify for aid and can’t afford care and food. We continue to sponsor the dogs once they are placed, so if people need care they can always come back here.

Q: What inspired you to start using DaySmart Vet? What’s been your experience with the software?

A: Five years ago, we reached a point where we needed to replace our software at the time and knew we wanted our next program to be on the cloud; that was a very attractive feature given how often we need to access records, and ultimately, it’s what drew us to adopt DaySmart Vet. Truthfully, we hadn’t been super vigilant in backing up our old system, but now we don’t have to worry about losing any dog or owner’s information.

We use the software to manage medical records more than anything else, though we also use it for scheduling and printing prescription labels. Since we retain ownership of dogs, we keep a continuous medical history of each of them even once they leave our care, like information from weigh-ins and checkups. DaySmart Vet makes sharing and maintaining these documents much easier than sorting through piles of paper.

The mobile access is also helpful because other clinics across the country will often reach out for records once the dogs are in their new homes. Given the time differences, those requests sometimes come late at night for us. With DaySmart Vet, I can pull up and send those records without having to physically go into the clinic. I really can’t explain how nice it is to be able to talk to a vet in Texas or even Canada and have those records easily accessible.

Q: How has the pandemic impacted your practice?

A: The dogs still had needs, so our day-to-day operations continued throughout. That said, we closed our buildings to all outside people. We have a process for the dogs to learn where they are going to shine, which includes camps six times per year, in which around 10 to 12 prospective owners will come to the farm and stay for two weeks. The trouble is, these people are exactly the type of individuals who shouldn’t be traveling during a pandemic due to their medical needs, so this part of business had to shut down completely. We tried to do modified, one-on-one camps over Zoom instead for the time being.

Our breeding program has also been impacted, because there’s been the roadblock of getting dogs to leave. Whereas everyone seemed to get a dog during the pandemic, our numbers went the other way. The need is still there, but we’d never want to be responsible for people getting sick while picking up their dog, and people were unwilling to come themselves. We’re just now getting back to normal for placing dogs.

Q: How have you used DaySmart Vet over the past year-plus to keep business moving amid disruption?

A: We kept using DaySmart Vet as we did before, to communicate remotely and smartly. What we needed out of the software before was exactly what we needed during the pandemic—and it’s what I foresee us needing in the future.

To learn more about how DaySmart Vet can support your practice, contact us here.

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Customer Spotlight: The Trusty Paws Clinic

Today, we’re proud to share the story of The Trusty Paws Clinic. Founded in 2014 by Dr. Ruby Shorrock, The Trusty Paws Clinic is a charity that serves the pets of the homeless and vulnerably-housed communities of Glasgow, Scotland and London, England.

“During my final year as a veterinary student in Glasgow, I heard of a clinic for the pets of the homeless run by Nottingham Vet School,” said Dr. Ruby Shorrock. “I did some research to find that there was nothing like this in Glasgow, and that no hostels in the city allow dogs, forcing many of the homeless to either be rough sleepers or give up their beloved companions. That’s when I decided to start a clinic offering free basic veterinary services and routine health care to the dogs belonging to the homeless and vulnerably housed of Glasgow.”

The clinic ran once a month out of drop-in centers in homelessness charities. Everything was provided for free – vaccinations, micro chipping, flea and deworming treatments, even pet food, coats, leashes and collars. Most of the supplies were donated. “We made sure to provide a friendly and informal environment to make the dogs and people feel safe,” added Dr. Shorrock. Final-year veterinary students (under the supervision of a qualified veterinary surgeon) provided all of the services. Word spread quickly. To help meet the growing demand, a second clinic was opened in London in 2016, and a third will open in Liverpool by the end of 2017.

As the charity grew, it began to encounter a few logistical challenges. “We were using a paper records system – hand written clinical exam sheets, and client info documents organized into large binders,” said Dr. Charis Lorenz. “I was stock manager at the time, and our paper records system was outdated and tedious. We wanted to find a professional software that would establish us as a credible program, and make our record keeping and stock/drug/vaccine management as effortless as possible.”

All of the charity’s trustees, including Drs. Shorrock and Lorenz, are veterinary surgeons with full-time jobs outside of organizing and managing the charity. While committee teams of final year veterinary students run the clinics, the trustees needed a way to oversee the students remotely without interfering with the day-today operations of the clinics. And although the charity has a base that it operates out of, records need to be available to other veterinarians that take in some of these patients for further testing or treatment. That is why the charity turned to a cloud solution.

“I browsed veterinary forums and web searches looking for a solution that would meet our needs, and also be financially sensible for us as a newly established charity at the time,” added Dr. Lorenz. “DaySmart Vet has allowed us to easily keep track of stock supplies and reorder them as necessary without having to enquire with the vet students who are also busy themselves with studying and placements. We can review records and make sure everything is in order to protect ourselves and meet RCVS (Royal College of Veterinary Surgeon) and VDS (Veterinary Defence Society) standards. We can forward histories to our associates, if a patient needed an emergency operation, or routine care that we could not provide. And we can easily send clinic reminders to our clients via the texting service. There are many excellent programs out there, but none could match what DaySmart Vet offered at the price we needed.”

To learn more about how DaySmart Vet can support your practice, contact us here.

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Customer Spotlight: Ark Veterinary Services

Today, we’re proud to share the story of Ark Veterinary Services LLC (AVS). AVS was founded in 2016 by Dr. Sarah Blackwell, native of Matthews, North Carolina, and Lauren Cathey, native of Charlotte, North Carolina.

The mobile practice serves farmers in rural areas of North Carolina and South Carolina that did not previously have access to veterinarian services. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) identified the counties that AVS serves as having over 126,000 livestock but no full time large animal veterinarian. With Dr. Blackwell’s passion for large animal medicine and surgery, combined with Ms. Cathey’s B.S. in Business Administration and ten years of experience as a veterinarian receptionist, their family ties lead them to these underserved communities with the goal of helping people and animals.

“I knew that my business would require that I travel to very remote locations,” said Dr. Blackwell. “I knew that other veterinary programs that I had used during veterinary school and internships were not going to work for my mobile business. I knew I wanted to be as paperless as possible, since my office is a truck and limited on space. My mentor recommended DaySmart Vet.”

“I chose DaySmart Vet because of its mobility,” added Dr. Blackwell. “It travels with my clinic and is easily accessed on every device! I have never been without DaySmart Vet. I love the cloud-based aspect. As a single doctor practice with part-time staff, DaySmart Vet makes it easy for me to focus on the medicine while it sends reminders, confirmations, and easily populates official documents. It saves me so much time. DaySmart Vet’s integration with my supplier makes ordering and inventory stress-free. Lastly, I know that if I have any problems, tech support will resolve it accurately and efficiently. It’s great to have a system where issues are fixed in real time. DaySmart Vet has everything I could want for my business plus more. I am more than satisfied and am staying with DaySmart Vet for the long run.”

To learn more about how DaySmart Vet can support your practice, contact us here.

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Customer Spotlight: Animal Medical Center of Watkins Park

Today, we’re proud to share the story of Animal Medical Center of Watkins Park. Animal Medical Center of Watkins Park was originally a satellite clinic of a large hospital in Washington, D.C. called Friendship Hospital for Animals. In 1992, Dr. Sue Maturo and her husband at the time purchased the clinic and turned it into a full-service animal hospital. For the past 26 years, the practice has been thriving under her leadership.

Here’s Dr. Maturo’s story in her own words:

“We were using an old software system for reminders, invoicing, and scheduling, but our medical records were 100% paper. I wanted to solve two big issues. First, I didn’t want to be a paper-based practice anymore. I thought we were way behind the times in our manner of recordkeeping. Second, we had a big issue with inventory control. I knew that our inventory system was not ideal (neither was our pricing structure), and I wanted to get a better handle on that.

By the time I decided that we were going to enter the 21st century, I knew that I would go with a cloud-based software system. I spent quite a bit of time reading and re-reading the Veterinary Information Network discussions about the various cloud-based software systems. It wasn’t really a slam-dunk decision. There were pros and cons to all of the systems. Knowing that DaySmart Vet had been in existence longer than some of the others was important to me, as well as the knowledge that, if I was unhappy with DaySmart Vet, I could retrieve my data and move on. My practice management consultant, Jeff Sanford, also recommended DaySmart Vet as one of his suggestions to improve practice profitability and workflow, and this weighed heavily with my decision-making. I should also mention that a large corporation recently purchased one of the contenders, and this definitely factored into my decision-making. My DaySmart Vet demo was really the clincher. The software looked intuitive and one that all of my staff could work with and learn.

Since we made the switch to DaySmart Vet, we have improved our workflow and inventory control. Our inventory is tight! Also, the ability to text or email clients with their reminders is awesome. Clients seem to prefer these methods of communication to our phone calls. It is also so nice for all the doctors to be able to see what their schedule for the upcoming days looks like, from the comfort of home. In the past, one doctor would call the office every day to see what time she started. Now she just goes on DaySmart Vet and has her answer, which frees up our receptionists to tend to their clients at the front desk. It used to be that if I wanted to email or call a client after I left the office, I would have to have remembered to write down the client’s email address and phone number and take it home with me. Now, all I have to do is get online and sign into DaySmart Vet. Everything is right there for me, including lab results and old, scanned documents. I love the fact that I can access records from anywhere. If a client emails me after hours, I can speak intelligently about their pet, because all records are accessible!

Initially, our biggest stumbling block was that some of my staff members wanted to compare our old system to DaySmart Vet. Yes, this new system is different, but this does not mean that the old system was better. It simply means that we have to learn how to work with the new system to make our lives easier. This is only human nature, I know, and the great thing is that we know that we can call customer support at any time (and we do!) and a friendly, knowledgeable person will walk us through our issue. We’re still learning something new every day, and we’re doing things better every day.

The most important reason that I would recommend DaySmart Vet to a colleague would be that the support is EXCELLENT! From the moment I “took the plunge” and signed on, the support team was phenomenal – and our data migration was a big deal! I had endless questions, and the DaySmart Vet team was always patient and happy to answer. Given that I am anything but a tech-savvy veterinarian, I felt that I understood how the process was going to work. The training was also very good for my staff and me. Lastly, I feel that DaySmart Vet adds value to any veterinary practice, if one is thinking about selling a practice in the future.

If I had to sum up my relationship with DaySmart Vet in a few words, I would say ‘even dinosaurs can learn DaySmart Vet!’ The software is intuitive and the customer support feels like a real partnership.”

To learn more about how DaySmart Vet can support your practice, contact us here.

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The post Customer Spotlight: Animal Medical Center of Watkins Park appeared first on DaySmart Vet.