Successful PIMS Selection and Implementation

(upbeat music) Welcome to the Veterinary Hospital Managers Association's Manager-to-Manager Podcast, where veterinary practice managers gain insights and strategies to elevate their practices and build supportive, high-performing teams. This series offers insightful conversations with fellow managers about real-world challenges. Join us to enhance your practice and thrive in this dynamic industry. Thank you for joining me for another episode of the VHMA Manager-to-Manager Podcast Series. Today's podcast is brought to you by Care Credit, and we are discussing successful PIN selection and implementation with Heidi Trailer, CVPM PHR. Heidi began her career in veterinary medicine in 1996 after always having an interest in working with animals. She discovered her passion for leading people and working behind the scenes after working her way from CSR to practice manager at Covena Animal Hospital. Heidi earned her CVPM in 2021 and her PHR in 2023. She enjoys at Covena Animal Hospital is more like a home than work. Heidi, thank you for joining me today. - Thank you. - So excited to talk about this. After meeting you at the management exchange, I decided to change my practice management system in my hospital, so this is very timely for me. So I'm ready to pick your brain and I'm sure all of us out there listening are too. - Great. - This is probably one of the most overwhelming things for a manager. It's the thing about changing the system that we use every day for every part of our daily workflow. How did you know it was time to look for a new software in your hospital? - So I was the last person in the hospital to actually want to change our pins because working here for so long, we only had one or only pins. Am I allowed to say the name of it? - Yes. - Okay, so we've been working with Infinity for the longest time. Going through all the upgrades with it, I knew the ins and outs of almost every aspect of it. So changing it was something I did not want to do. But when-- - Scary. - Yes. But when we started wanting to do things that Infinity could not do, there was, we started noticing a lot of different restrictions. And when we looked into potentially upgrading Infinity, we also had to upgrade our server, which would cost a lot of money. We also knew that our server was either going to be crashing soon or needed to be replaced soon. So we weren't sure if we wanted to change pins and go with cloud-based or get another server. So we decided to just start looking into it. But I got really frustrated one day when there was something that we really wanted to do would make our lives a whole lot easier, make our science lives a whole lot easier. And Infinity would just not allow us to do it. And I got fed up so I was like, okay, guys, let's start talking about the change. - You're like, I'm on board now. - Yeah. - I know, I think that is a struggle for a lot of the older management softwares out there is we are working now, what I consider like the speed of light compared to what we were doing 10 or 15, sometimes even five years ago. So for those new cloud-based technology driven AI driven management systems, they're just, you can't beat them. These old server-based systems just cannot keep up. And I am coming from the same management system that you did, which we talked about. And that's how this whole situation got started, 'cause I was feeling like, you are, you know, we did the server upgrade and we did by the $40,000 in-house server. And then one day that brand-new server that was less than two years old died. And on a Monday, five-doctor Monday morning, it was dead. And I was like, okay, we're gonna fix this. We're gonna do the warranty and we're gonna fix it. And then we are making a change. - Yep. - I think that's kind of how all managers get pushed into changes or like backs against the wall. Like that's it, we're done. - That's not the right time to figure it out. You should do it beforehand, but we're reluctant to do that. I know, I'm trying to be better about being proactive instead of reactive. That's like my goal for the year. - Yes. - So what steps has you taken choosing a system or systems to demo, how did you filter through all the different options that are out there? - So first, we met as a leadership team to figure out what is it that we absolutely wanna have in our new pims. So in order to figure that out, it's what are the limitations of our current pims that we want to have? What do we absolutely not wanna have? What are all of the integrations that we'd like to make sure the new system has? We also asked our team, what is it that they absolutely love about infinity? What do they hate about infinity? Which was a lot more. - Yeah, I bet this was really a lot. - What do they love? We wanted to make sure that the new pims was gonna be fast because we're tired of infinity just getting hung up on things. And then I did, I googled, I looked at some forums. The leadership as a whole, when we go to conferences, we would look at the different pims that were at the conferences to get some ideas. Even our, we call them team members, our employees. They, if they go to conferences, they would come back with, you know, I looked at this pims. So we took that into consideration. And then when I was looking to see which ones we actually wanted to spend time to demo, I made sure that as much as I could read about them, they had all the integrations that we needed. They had majority of what we really wanted, like we couldn't live without. They, they had that. And then I set up at least six different demos for our pims. We ended up narrowing it down to two as we have six people on our leadership team. So it was all of us doing these demos. I also got RIT people involved and asked them what, what should we look for or what do we need to ask as far as what they're concerned about? - I think it is such a long process for us, we started this process. Well, when I came back from the management exchange and it was all about technology and I was fired up and ready to go and I started scheduling demos and you get into these demos and they're great, right? Like they all look great because we're coming from something that we want to leave. So we're looking to something better going forward. And it's so hard to like sort out all that information from the demos and kind of getting a list of what you want and those must have like that. We cannot do without these things. So I think it's hard to manage all that information once you get it. What did you do with all the information? How did you narrow it down? What were some of your sticking points? - So I had a spreadsheet across the top. It was the name of all the different companies and then along the side it was all the questions that we had. I had the answers in the appropriate boxes and if it was an answer we didn't like, I put red on it, if it was an answer we liked, it was green or I just kept it white. There were some questions that we had that were like if this PIMS cannot do this, it's a no. Automatic hands down, it's a no. So there was quite a few of those that winded up just scratching off, don't even give it our time anymore. So we were able to narrow it down to the two PIMS. And ultimately when we made our decision it was because of customer service and our current PIMS has great customer service. - I think that's super important. And some of those older companies struggle with that. It's hard to get through to a real person. It's just like anything. I have to call my cell phone company today to deal with an issue and I'm dreading spending three hours waiting to talk to an actual person on the phone. So I think that personable, personalized customer service is a huge thing because when we go down, I mean you know just as well as any of us out there listening, those are dollars walking out the door, right? From a business standpoint those are dollars walking out the door. If our phone systems are down those are dollars and aren't calling in, their pets that need help, their people that need help, they can't get through to us and they're gonna go to the next list on the Google search if they can't get through to us or we can't perform like we want to because our management software is down. We can't get to our client list, we can't get to anything. So I think having that really good customer service is also one of my maker breaks because I need to be able to get to somebody to help me fix the problem. So when you asked your team, you know you asked your team, what do you want? What do you, you got good feedback from them? They were, they were willing to give you the information that you were looking for and wanted to be part of the process. - They were, they were very excited. Most of them were very excited that we were switching our pims and wanted it to happen sooner than later. Of course they were nervous 'cause it's a change. But they were excited because they knew that if we're getting their input, we're gonna take it seriously. And they will get what they want. Most of them will get what they want from the new pims and it'll just make their lives easier. Now that the switching part, their lives weren't so easy for a while, but we're doing great now, so. - Okay. So if they would have said no to the one that you and the management team had all said yes to, would that have changed your decision? - It depends on why they were saying no. - Okay. - But they didn't get to make the choice. - Okay. - They got to help us with the selection process as far as what they liked and didn't like about our current pims. So if our new pims could do x, y, and z, then great. But if it can't do x, y, and z, then that might make their lives more difficult. So we took all that into consideration. - Did you let them demo any of the softwares as you were kind of narrowing down your choices? - So part of our process was creating SOPs, standard operating procedures on how we do everything in this hospital when it comes to our pims. And we knew that there was going to be a few key people to help us create those SOPs. So we did let them demo with us. - Okay. - So most companies will give you what they call a sandbox to demo. So we allowed them to access that sandbox to play around with it to get their input. - Yeah, I'm, so where we are at in our path is, I started with four, I canceled the fourth one and demoed three eliminated one and now I'm down to two. And now we are at the point where I've created like a technology team, right? So I had originally it was going to be one doctor, one technician, one assistant, one receptionist, me as the practice manager and then my assistant who helps with a lot of the hardware technology support and she's really good at that stuff. And so I put it out, who wants to be part of the technology team like this is the basis and I had 13 people respond and I was like, okay, do I pick who I think is going to give me the best information or do I let these people who want to be involved in this change being involved in the change. So I decided I was like, all right. If you put yourself out there that you want to take this extra time to watch these demos and help me and write SOPs and write documents and all that stuff, then sure. I'm going to take you on the team. So we're in the team is playing in the sandbox and doing the demos and stuff now and it's so funny because like I can tell what phase they're in. They're in like the amazement phase right now where they're like, oh my gosh, this is amazing. Look at what I can do and you can do this and this and this and look at the colors and I'm like, yeah, I was there. I was like, keep going and make sure like I gave them essentially your spreadsheet, but on a piece of paper, you know, asking does it do this, this, this, this, what's your thought on this? How's the layout? Does it look easy to use? Does it look intuitive? I was like, you know, yes, the platforms are beautiful and they're well organized and they're appealing to the eye but get through to the nitty gritty because these are the two we're choosing between so we need to say, does it really work for us? And they're kind of, I can, 'cause I have already made my choice, right? I have already made my choice, 90% that's what we're gonna go with unless my practice owners have some horrible like response to it. They have not demoed yet, but they're supposed to by Monday. So, you know, if I had three or four people who were opposed to that, I don't think it would change my decision because as managers, right, we have to see the big picture, we have to kind of look into the future and say, okay, yes, this software may be an easier switch. It is not quite as technologically advanced as the other so it's gonna be less overwhelming, but in the big picture, is it gonna grow with us? So that's where we're at is we're looking for something that is growing and has that great customer service that if I said, hey, we really wanna do this, I wanna hear back, we'll make it work. Like, we will do what we can. Let me get that to a developer, like, whatever. I don't wanna hear, nope, you can't do that. - Yeah, exactly. That's part of why we went with who we went with. They are constantly growing. You can submit tickets and they're like, yeah, we're on that. Okay, let's make this, make this happen. So there's a lot of things have changed since we've heard of them. We've outlined who you left, so tell us who you came to. - We decided to go with digital. - Okay. - There's a lot of AI involved in it. Our doctors have not completely grasped the AI yet. They're still-- - It's a little overwhelming. - It is, but we just got used to the whole system. Loing nicely, we're actually at the point where we're no longer just keeping our heads above water. We're starting to think, okay, now, how can we utilize the software to make our processes in the hospital a lot smoother, quicker, you know, and still benefit our clients. It's really cool, the amount that we've already implemented and what we can do with this software. - Have you had any pushbacks since you started? Like, I hate this program that's terrible, and it was so, how'd you deal with it? - So we did have a couple individuals in the hospital who wanted to badmouth the system so much, just because they were so used to infinity. And change is very difficult, which we understood. But we just, you know, we did have to talk to a couple individuals, not negatively, just reminding them that there is a growth, there are growing gains, and we understand that. But all of leadership team knew how to use the software very well before we launched. So we were there to support the team constantly on the floor with them. So they needed help, we're right there to help them. And if we didn't know how to do it, or like, great, let's figure this out together. But we had all of our SOPs written out beforehand, with how we were going to use the software for what we do. So they have a reference material. If they come across something like, I do not know how to do this. Let me look up the SOP on how to do this. If there wasn't an SOP written, they'd let us know. And I have two great operation managers that would write those SOPs for how we're using it. - Okay. - But we just kept a positive, reminded them that, you know, there's gonna be growing pains. We'll get through it. It's gonna take a while, deep breaths. We've got lunch a lot of times, we've got coffee at the times. - Sometimes, I know there's that whole stigma of the pizza party in vet med, but sometimes it just eases the day enough that you can just get through it and people, I think it helps clear them out a little bit. And they're like, okay, let me take a breath. Let me drink this coffee or eat this breadstick and kind of bring myself back down. - Yeah. And, you know, your reps are amazing. They would probably love to sponsor lunches and stuff. - That's a great idea. - We have a few amazing reps that are like, yeah, I understand you guys are going through this. We don't have to do a lunch and learn, but at least let us buy you lunch. - Yep, I do too. I have some amazing reps out there too. And I agree. If you're like, hey, this is what we're doing. Like we're trying really hard to work towards this positive change. Can you help us out a little bit? They're usually like, oh, share, what do you want? - Yep. - So what type of timeline did your practice have set up to make all these changes? If you're, I mean, the SOPs alone take a long time. What was your timeline from? We're gonna change to it's here and up and running. - So our timeline was about a year. And then it was a year to start demoing figure out what we wanted. Then once we chose the system, we gave ourselves six months before launching. So in within that six months, it was starting to create all the SOPs, starting to train the team using the sandbox. And then they were able to give us our own site before going live. So we can start playing around with it and setting it all up before doing the data transfer, which is a whole nother ballgame. - Yeah, that's what I'm curious about. - Once you go live, you want to give yourself like another four to six months to fully understand and make sure that your team is fully trained. If you wanted to be as painless as possible, it does cost a lot of money and time as far as investing in your team to get them trained properly. So we have a leadership team. And on the leadership team, there are two individuals that we have a front office operations and then we have an operations manager. Both of them, I gave them office hours, at least they work, we do four tens here. So they had at least two or three days a week where they're doing office hours. And in those office hours is the times where they're creating all the SOPs. So we did make a huge time commitments in order to make sure that we were well prepared for the change. - Yeah, and that's, I think, where I'm at, right? My goal was end of the year. So we got a little over six months to go and we're in the demo phase and looking to, I mean, like I said, I've already made my decision and I will tell you, my decision is the same one that you made. They've been great, fantastic to work with the response time, the customer service is just, it blew me away. - And it doesn't stop. - Good, I'm glad to hear that because that's the hard part. Is there like, okay, we got you. See you later. - Yep. - What would you say was your biggest struggle and if you could go back and do it differently, what would you do? - The biggest struggle was the team training. So as much as we were prepared with SOPs, we had team meetings and department meetings to make sure that we at least tell them the basics of the program, get their hands on it so they can see it all, but still training all of them. We had 35 plus team members to train. And then also what we would do differently is trying to figure out the invoicing, like get more familiarity with invoicing before launching. With PIMS, it's very difficult to do that because you don't have the payment systems ready yet, you know, we went integrated. So it was, we couldn't learn the payment systems other than what they showed us, but we can actually get our hands on it and be able to train it. So we would want to do that. - Did you close and have like, you know, training days or mock days or whatever you want to call it? - We did not. - Okay. - Because we had time to, during our department meetings, we shut down for the last two hours of the day and have our department meetings or our team meetings. And we use that. I think we did one or two of those with our team. And then we just went live the day of which I would do differently. We would definitely not have appointments either for the first half of the day when you go live. So our team can get into it, play around with it and make sure that the data transfer was correct because there was a lot that was mixed up. So investing in that day would have, we definitely would have changed, so we ever do it again, which we don't plan on doing it anytime soon. We would definitely shut down for a day or half a day to make sure that we can get used to it. - I think that is definitely my plan is to be down, down one day and then the next day kind of have that gradual return to normal function before we hit the ground running. Like launching this on a five doctor Monday for me would be a complete train wreck. So we plan to try, right? That's the opportunity to close and be as prepared as we can before we have clients come in the door 'cause I hate nothing more than looking like we don't know what we're doing, which is, you know, we all hate that. - Yeah, and if you explain to your clients, hey, we just switched our practice management software. We're still learning this, please bear with us, but we'll try to get you taken care of as quickly as we can. - Yeah, I think letting them know ahead of time, like, hey, this is why we're closing. Like these are our goals with us. We hope to be more efficient. You know, we have these amazing integrated payment options for you online booking, you know, paint that, that pretty, pretty picture. So they're like, okay, yes, let's give them that day to get this in place 'cause it's gonna make it better for everybody in the long run. - Yes, yes, we sent out a newsletter for our clients, letting us know that we were gonna be making that change. We also had it on our phone system during the hold music. - That's a good one. I always forget about the hold, like message thing, but that's a really good one to get out to. Lots of people with literally not even trying. Like you're just, they're just hanging out on hold for a second while we're getting back to them. - Would you have asked the onboarding team or during the demos, any other questions that you didn't that may have uncovered some hidden things? - I did ask them this question. However, I wish I would have gone into it a little bit more. And it was all the reports that they have in the system. So being in California, we have to report to Cures, our control drugs, and they do not make it easy for me. So that is the one drawback is I have to use their control drug report, but then I have to go into each client's account to get their birthday and all the other things that I need. So I would have, I would have kind of worked with them a little bit more closely on that to make sure that they could get that report for me. Whether they could or not, it wasn't a deal breaker. - Right. - Make it work with whatever I have. But yeah, definitely a headache right now. - I bet, that's not like a headache. - Although I had that one spreadsheet when we were doing the demos, it turned, all of our questions turned into three or four different documents because there was multiple hands in the bucket, you know, writing all these documents. And I think if we would have just put it all on one shared document. - Yeah, locations or so we have all the answers in one spot. - Yeah, that way everybody can see what each hand's doing and kind of come together and answer the questions in one way, that way you don't have those conflicting SOPs and conflicting training. - Yeah. - Yeah, 'cause that's super frustrating for the staff when you're like, "No, that's not what I said." And they're like, "Well, this is what the document said." I'm like, "Wait, that's Kang on. Let's go back and reverse that." - Yeah. - Do you have any other tips for our managers listening out there ready to jump into the scary PIMS change? - Yeah, I would just say, I mean, we're managers. So we know this already, but just be patient with your team. Everyone learns differently and at different pieces. Just allow the different ways for your team to learn the new software. So we have SOPs that are written. We have videos that they can watch. - Yep, and we did one-on-one instruction. Once we did the one-on-one instruction, we were able to see who needed more help with certain SOPs and who had it, and the people that had it were willing to help train the others. So it just be patient. - Yeah, I think that is across the board, anytime you're making changes in the hospital, is realizing that their reaction isn't because they don't want to change or they don't believe in what you're doing. It's fear and anxiety. They don't want to fail. They don't want to mess it up. So being present and being that support, I've also seen somewhere where they were talking about making sure you have like an EAP, employee assistance program. So for those people that are feeling overwhelmed from the change, they can talk it out with somebody outside the clinic to really make sure that we are putting our best foot forward every day. - Support is very important. It is, it is, and we know that as managing people is difficult and stressful for us, but their jobs are stressful too. And if we can do our best to get everything outlined ahead of time and then be there to support them before, during and after the changes, then that's what we're looking for. Well, thank you so much for joining me. I am super excited to go back and continue on with my quest of changing over PIMS. And I think this was a lot of great information for managers who may or may not be going through this change or looking to make the change. So I really appreciate you spending some time with me this morning. - Yeah, thanks for having me. - Yeah, it was great. Thank you for joining me for another episode of the Manager to Manager podcast series. I look forward to next month when we get to meet more amazing managers and have a little fun along the way. See you next time. - This VHMB webinar is brought to you by CareCredit. For more than 30 years, veterinary teams and pet owners alike have counted on the CareCredit health and pet care credit card as a budget friendly payment solution for every moment of care. It's fast and easy for pet owners to apply on their mobile device and get an instant credit decision. And if approved, they can manage their care on the CareCredit mobile app. Plus, with CareCredit features built directly into most practice management software systems, it's fast and easy for veterinary teams to save time with every payment. In moments that matter for pets, clients, and teams, CareCredit is there to make the experience friendlier. - Thank you for tuning into VHMB's Manager to Manager podcast. We hope you gain valuable insights that you can apply in your practice. Stay with us for more expert advice and discussions, tailored to veterinary management. Until next time, keep leading with passion and purpose.