The Cloud has a great deal to offer veterinarians and their businesses. Only when pigs fly will all PACS, image viewers, and veterinary image management solutions be created equal. The proper integration with a Cloud solution can make or break your practice. While everyone has individual needs for the best solution for their situation, there is always room for improvement. Here are five reasons why you need to take your veterinary business to Cloud.
1. SAM
At Purview, we are all about SAM: the sharing, access, and mobility of images. While this is something that we encourage for physicians treating humans, it is actually significantly more convenient for our veterinary clients in many ways. Let’s walk through it. First, you have Cloud enabled sharing of veterinary images. This means no more physical films, CDs or DVDs being shipped. That in itself cuts the cost of postage, along with the price of the publisher and wages you are spending on your staff burning the images onto the media. Instead of all that hassle, you click one button and “Bingo was his name-o”!
Then there’s access - anytime anywhere - so long as you have an internet connection. Let’s not kid ourselves, that’s pretty awesome. However, if you recall, I just mentioned that SAM is highly relevant to veterinarians; and it’s due to the mobility feature. Unlike with human healthcare, veterinarians are often on the go, especially if they are not in a traditional clinic setting. Our equine clients in particular have raved about the flexibility SAM’s mobility has brought to their businesses. Due to Cloud enabled mobility with veterinary images, veterinarians can view imaging on any device anywhere. Unlike with your standard desktop DICOM viewer, with the Cloud you don't have to have to be ball and chained to a single physical location.
2. Seeing More Patients
Everyone knows that while technology has enabled us to move mountains, it can also clog up the que. When records are not where they are supposed to be when they are required, we end up canceling appointments and surgeries last minute. When you don’t have the right solution implemented in your infrastructure, appointments get pushed back, and you are not able to see patients that might really need to be seen urgently. Overall, the Cloud - while it’s great for your business model - is really a great thing for your patients.
3. Saving Money
Remember those cancelled appointments and surgeries? We did the calculations, and depending on the severity - you’re looking at a deficit of tens of thousands of US dollars. That’s a lot of money that is lost on account of a solution that is not up to date. The Cloud helps veterinarians save costs by ensuring veterinary images and records are where they need to be when they are required.
4. Improve Quality Of Treatment
So this one goes back to SAM. Having the ability to share and collaborate live on veterinary images enables veterinarians to be able to diagnose an ailment faster than the alternative of getting media in the mail. This immediate access can possibly even lead to an improved medical outcome. After all, animals cannot verbally communicate their symptoms. So, we as their caregivers and veterinary care providers need to take the measures to ensure these critters are getting the best treatment possible.
5. Reliable Backup
This is probably a more recent need in the veterinary world. For the most part, having a reliable backup for patient records and images has been a vital part in human healthcare due to protected health information. However, today anyone who brings in a cat, dog, horse, or box turtle is a pet parent not just some random person to the animal. These animals are a part of our families and make home….home. We cannot imagine our lives without them. We protest against those who threaten to hurt their way of life. In fact, some of us even vow to never eat a living creature, or their bi-products. So, is it really that outlandish if you keep records of all of your patients in the event of a crisis? Is it really that odd to consider the wrath a pet parent would bring down on your practice if you lost all of Bingo’s veterinary imaging: from the puppy package days to the tumor removal to the scans revealing progressive arthritis. Honestly, if people are willing to pay for animal insurance, it’s probably a given that they would be upset to learn that their veterinarian did not have a sufficient backup.
Final Thought
Taking your veterinary business to the Cloud is a plus for you, but a really big benefit for your patients and pet parents. So, if you are still using paper (seriously, why?); burning CDs and DVDs; using a local desktop viewing station on its own; or perhaps stuck with a local PACS, consider what the Cloud can do for your veterinary business. Get anytime, anywhere, any device access to those images where you need them, when you need them.
