How Integrated Vet Clinic Software Can Help Improve Care and Checkout

Every day, you rely on practice information management software (PIMS) to handle scheduling, pet health records, billing and more. And it’s likely you also utilize external tools for diagnostics, client communications, payment processing and outside financing.

When veterinary software is integrated, it ensures all these systems can communicate smoothly, reducing duplicate data entry, window toggling and errors while speeding up clinic workflows. What’s more, by building financing and payment capabilities into your PIMS, you can make the process of financing treatment faster and easier, freeing up staff time to focus on care.

Benefits of Integrated Vet Software

Choosing software that works well together and integrates easily with your PIMS can benefit veterinary practices in several important ways.

Reduce operational drag

Connected software allows you to work in multiple applications from a single window. Without integration, routine tasks may require duplicate efforts and manual data transfer, creating opportunities for errors. Integrations can eliminate several of these steps, reducing administrative burdens that can get in the way of providing care.

Make veterinary estimates and payments easier

Building a financing solution directly into your PIMS facilitates a smoother flow from the pet care estimate to checkout. Clients can apply for financing, see whether they are approved and use their CareCredit credit card right away, which is helpful when they are making decisions about high-cost care.

Support growth without adding more staff

As appointment volume increases, so does the veterinary team’s administrative workload. Veterinary PIMS integrations that automate tasks, including payment processing, inventory alerts and appointment reminders, can help practices manage higher caseloads without incurring payroll costs for additional staff.

How Vet Software Integrations Work

Integrating additional software into your veterinary team’s PIMS can affect various aspects of the practice’s workflow, ideally freeing up staff time to focus on the all-important work of providing care.

What systems connect in a modern veterinary clinic or hospital?

Common types of software that you should be able to integrate with your PIMS include:

• Diagnostic labs
• Digital imaging
• Pharmacy
• Inventory management
• Client communication
• Payment processing
• Financing
• Reporting and analytics

The most common integration types

Veterinary software integrations can introduce various new capabilities to your PIMS. The most common ones include data sync and sharing, which allow multiple systems to exchange information automatically. For example, lab results can populate directly into a patient’s healthcare record without manual entry. Enabling single sign-on lets your team access connected tools without a login credential.

Embedded workflows bring another tool’s functionality, like payments or financing, into the PIMS, so the team can stay in the main system to complete a task. And reporting and reconciliation integrations pull transactions and financial data from various vendors and processors into the PIMS for end-of-day or end-of-month closing.

Estimates: Present clearer costs and next steps

When financing is part of the estimate workflow within the PIMS, clients can see their treatment costs and available payment options simultaneously. With an integrated financing option like CareCredit, clients can see if they prequalify with no impact to their credit score and complete their application within the PIMS during the same visit, helping them understand costs and take the next steps.

Payments and financing: Make it easy to say yes to recommended care

If costs are causing clients to hesitate when approving a treatment plan, seeing flexible financing options integrated into the estimate can help them move forward with care and pay for it over time.

They can also make payments within the integrated system. The transaction posts to the ledger automatically, so your team can avoid re-entering payment data or reconciling it separately at the end of the day.

Veterinary Client Financing and Integrated Workflows

Building an external financing workflow into your PIMS simplifies the financing process, making it faster and easier to manage and allowing your team to elevate the client experience.

Offer financing during the treatment plan conversation

With an integrated PIMS, the practice can present financing options alongside cost estimates during the discussion of the treatment plan. That allows the team to address any cost concerns about the recommended veterinary care proactively, rather than waiting for hesitation at checkout.

Improve approval-to-checkout flow with a consistent process

A financing process within the PIMS — from application to approval to checkout — ensures a consistent client experience and simplifies training for team members. Plus, it makes it easier to track client acceptance and financing usage.

Help clients move forward without adding A/R follow-up burden

With third-party financing like the CareCredit credit card built into your existing PIMS, your veterinary practice receives payment while the financing company manages the payment relationship with the client. This enables the client to move forward with care without putting the onus of collecting payments — including overdue payments — on the care team.

Create a better experience during emotionally stressful visits

Emergency visits and unexpected diagnoses can be emotionally difficult for pet parents. An integrated, fuss-free check-in and checkout process can help your team handle the financial portion quickly, easing cost concerns and keeping the focus on the pet during a stressful visit.

What to Look for in Veterinary PIMS Integrations

How do you know which integrations you need, and which will work best for your team? Here are a few things to look for.

Workflow fit for your practice type

A general practice, a 24-hour emergency hospital, an urgent care facility and a mixed-animal clinic each have different operational needs. When evaluating integrations, consider the specific workflows your team relies on to handle everything from triage and walk-ins to boarding and routine visits.

Ease of use for CSRs, techs and veterinarians

Integrations with short learning curves tend to see better adoption by the entire team — an important consideration in an industry where staff turnover can be a challenge. The easier the PIMS and the integration are for a new veterinary team member to learn and use, the sooner you’ll see benefits. For reference, setting up the CareCredit integration in ezyVet takes less than one minute.¹

Reliability and customer support

When choosing a PIMS and integration provider, evaluate onboarding, including the implementation timeline and the setup process. A straightforward rollout can help your team avoid disruption to daily operations. Reliability is a must-have, but you also want responsive customer service when troubleshooting is needed.

Reporting features

A fully integrated software program should enhance your PIMS reporting capabilities, especially for financial reporting. To help with compliance, ensure the veterinary PIMS can pull data to create accurate reports covering appointments, revenue, payments and financing usage.

Security and privacy considerations

Any integration that handles payment or financing data should use encryption and follow established data protection standards. Veterinary practices handle sensitive client financial information, and maintaining security is important for preserving client trust.

A partner ecosystem

PIMS platforms that support a broad range of integration partners give practices more flexibility as their needs evolve. When evaluating these programs, consider how widely and how well they connect across all possible integration needs, including lab results, appointment reminders and payments and financing.

How CareCredit Fits Into Veterinary Payment Workflows

The CareCredit credit card financing platform is fully integrated with most major veterinary PIMS platforms, so you can start using it right away without waiting for custom integrations or additional development.

CareCredit as a client financing option for veterinary care

The CareCredit credit card is a health and pet care financing option accepted at more than 27,000 veterinary locations. It allows pet owners to pay over time for veterinary services, including routine care, emergency visits and specialty procedures. Clients can apply quickly and use their card immediately once approved.

Partnership ecosystem and integration pathways

CareCredit integrates with ezyVet, Covetrus Pulse, Cornerstone, Avimark, Impromed, Neo and Digitail, among others. It is currently the only third-party financing option with direct integrations across these major veterinary PIMS platforms.

Learn More: See the full list of partnerships here.

With these integrations, your team can process CareCredit transactions and refunds directly within the PIMS. There is no need to open a separate browser window or use separate login credentials. Transactions processed through the integration post to the ledger automatically, reducing data entry errors.²

Client familiarity and servicing support that protects your team’s time

As a widely accepted and recognized financing option, CareCredit can feel familiar and trustworthy to many pet owners. Clients who already have a CareCredit card can use it at their next visit without submitting a new application.

CareCredit also manages the billing and servicing relationship with cardholders, and your practice receives payment within two business days, eliminating the need to handle billing follow-up or collections, with no recourse to the practice if the cardholder defaults.

Practice enablement: Training, scripts, signage and rollout support

To support adoption and ongoing use, CareCredit provides training materials, suggested scripts for care conversations, in-clinic signage and digital tools like QR codes your team can use to give clients the flexibility to see if they prequalify or authorize payments on their own devices. These resources can help your team feel prepared to introduce financing as a natural part of the treatment estimate and checkout process.

Get Support for Vet Software Integration and Client Financing

By pairing a PIMS with a financing solution that integrates with your existing workflow, you can quickly and easily help clients enhance the healthcare their pets deserve. A system that introduces efficiencies rather than adding tasks to team members’ plates can mean less time worrying about payment logistics and more time providing the pet care you love.

A Veterinary Financing Solution for Your Clinic

Looking for a way to help your clients be prepared for the lifetime cost of care that is needed for their pets? Consider accepting the CareCredit health and pet care credit card. CareCredit is a flexible financing solution that allows cardholders to pay for veterinary services over time, while you get paid within two business days.

When you accept CareCredit, you can provide an all-digital financing experience called the Custom Link that’s personalized to your practice. Clients can access it by scanning a QR code or clicking a unique link to see if they prequalify with no impact to their credit score. Those who apply, if approved, can take advantage of flexible financing on qualifying purchases.* The entire process is fast and friendly, leaving you free to focus on providing the care pets need.

Learn more about the CareCredit credit card as a veterinary financing solution or start the provider enrollment process by filling out this form.

Author Bio

Angela Beal, D.V.M., has more than 20 years of experience as a veterinarian. Leveraging her background in private practice and academia, she uses her writing to provide veterinarians with strategies for making practice life more efficient and less stressful.

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