It's time to radically rethink the way we prescribe and dispense

OVS Insight - Rethink Dispensing
Re-examining A fundamental part of veterinary life

Prescribing and dispensing medications is a huge part of veterinary life, but have you ever considered just how many hours are spent generating and fulfilling those prescriptions? Take a moment to calculate the time spent per prescription, from the prescribing vet to front of house, from the ordering of stock, the picking and packing, to phoning the client and taking payment. It quickly adds up.


We’ve come to accept this; it’s how it’s always been done. Fortunately, technology has continued to evolve and can now help to radically improve this workflow, liberating hours per week for stretched practice teams' time which can be better spent on hands-on patient care.

Auto-assisted prescription management


Given that vets are perhaps most under pressure of time and only they can prescribe, this sort of technology is set to revolutionise the dispensing process for both them and the wider team.


Until now, sign-off of prescriptions has been on an ad hoc, piecemeal basis but our smart technology let's vets pre-empt prescription requests and automate the repeat prescription process. Let’s take an example of a patient on your pet health plan, who you’ve just seen for their annual vaccinations.


You could choose to pre-authorise three repeat prescriptions of a three-pack of their flea & tick medication, as you deem appropriate for that patient (in line with the new RCVS ‘Under care’ guidelines) and set an expiration date of 12 months. This eliminates the need to go through the same process at months 3,6 and 9. Once the number of repeats or the time limit has elapsed, the vet will be prompted to review the treatment plan.

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Imagine the cumulative time saved when applying this approach to all your health plan customers and those requiring regular mediations. It could truly be a game-changer for you and your clients.


Two other important factors when considering prescription technology: ensure that it integrates with your practice management system and provides secure trackability for prescriptions, so vets can feel confident that they are fully RCVS compliant. And a secure process to keep your clinical notes updated is essential.

Harnessing the power of e-commerce in dispensing


But what about dispensing and fulfilment; can technology liberate time there too? Perhaps you view e-commerce with trepidation, but OurVet.Shop makes light work of using e-commerce to dispense and deliver products to your clients. And it’s something you cannot afford to miss out on.


The pandemic proved to be a huge catalyst to e-commerce, seeing the demand for online shopping and home delivery skyrocket, including in the pet care market. Although consumers now have a wide choice, from online pharmacies to direct-to-consumer parasiticide or food subscriptions, they still trust their vet’s advice above all else.  But how many vet practices give them a convenient option for getting what they need?


You can make it work for your practice. Our veterinary-specific e-commerce enables clients to self-serve online, with home delivery direct from your wholesaler. Your team won’t even need to see most orders, let alone pick and pack or manage stock. It’s lightening their workload on a literal level too, as no one likes to lug 12kg bags of food to a client’s car!

A good service also incorporates electronic prescription verification, which works for you automatically in the background, saving you more time.


And it’s important to pick a solution that is branded and tailored to your practice. You benefit by boosting your clients’ perception of your service, which fosters loyalty and crucially enables you to gain a greater share of your pet owners’ spend; clients get the convenience of online shopping from their trusted vet!

Extending your healthcare offering with a seamless experience


Leveraging e-commerce allows you to expand your practice’s product offering, giving you access to a Tardis-like virtual stock room. It means you can offer a wider range of products, from parasiticides to pet foods and nutraceuticals, and generate repeat deliveries and subscriptions with ease.


You need to transform the whole dispensing experience for your team and clients, with one seamless ecosystem from practice management system to your wholesaler. After all, convenience is king! This is exactly why we created OurVet.Shop, for the benefit of practice and client alike that ultimately means more pets get their essentials.