IT for Veterinary Practices: Keep the Clinic Running

A dog is on the table, the owner is waiting and the practice management software has stopped responding. The nurse restarts it. Four minutes later the consult picks up again and the whole afternoon is running behind.

Nobody writes it down. The nurse mentions it at smoko, the vet shrugs, and the same four minutes disappear again on Thursday.

Those four minutes repeat. Across three vets and a full appointment book they turn into consulting time the clinic never gets back, and the first place anyone notices is a day that keeps finishing late.

IT for veterinary practices is a specific job. A clinic carries imaging volumes closer to a small radiology unit, a counter that takes payments, a waiting room full of visitors and a vet on call who needs the full record from a ute at the end of a gravel road.

The rules that apply are ordinary business rules. Client contact and payment details sit under the Privacy Act 2020, which replaced the Privacy Act 1993, even though the patient is a labrador.

What Does IT for Veterinary Practices Cover?

IT for veterinary practices covers the practice management software and everything it leans on, from the network and the imaging storage through to the access a vet needs on a callout. A 15-person clinic runs more separate systems than a 50-person office, and most of them were bought by different people at different times.

The practice management system, usually shortened to PIMS, sits at the centre of it. Nurses are in it all day and vets touch it between every patient, so five minutes of downtime stops every consult at once.

What does a companion animal clinic run on?

Six systems, and they have to hand data to each other without anyone retyping it.

• Practice management software, the PIMS. The clinical record, the booking diary, the dispensing log and the invoice in one database. New Zealand clinics commonly run ezyVet, VetlinkPRO, Provet Cloud or RxWorks.
• Digital imaging. Radiography and ultrasound, stored as DICOM files, short for Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine, and usually held in a PACS, a picture archiving and communication system.
• In-house lab analysers. Haematology and biochemistry units that push results back into the patient record.
• EFTPOS and payment plans. A card terminal at a counter that doubles as reception.
• Client communication. Reminder texts, vaccination recalls, online booking, review requests and telemedicine consults, often through a second cloud product.
• The Controlled Drugs Register. A statutory register that may be electronic, and has to be reconciled every month.

Why is a vet clinic harder to support than an office the same size?

File sizes and tolerance for delay, which is why veterinary IT support is treated as a specialty. A single set of radiographs can run to hundreds of megabytes, and it has to open while the animal is still on the table.

An accountant will wait 30 seconds for a file to open. In a consult with an animal under anaesthetic, 30 seconds is a long time.

The kit takes a beating as well. Keyboards get wiped down with disinfectant and tablets get dropped, while the reception PC runs from 7am to 7pm with a queue in front of it. Budget on a three-year replacement cycle.

Why Does Practice Management Software Freeze During a Consult?

Almost always because the network, the server or the database underneath it cannot keep up, and the application is the only part anyone can see. Check the plumbing before changing the product, because a new PIMS on the same tired switch behaves the same way.

The usual culprits are a switch still running at 100 megabits in a clinic that has doubled its imaging, and a database last tuned on the day it was installed.

Wireless comes second. Consult rooms often sit behind a thick block wall from the single access point in reception, so the tablet in room three drops out whenever the vet moves to the far corner.

Staff carry this cost first. Nurses retype what the tablet dropped and vets stay late finishing notes, while the client in the waiting room forms a view of how the practice is run.

What internet connection does an imaging-heavy clinic need?

Enough headroom to send a full imaging study while the clinic keeps working, which for most companion animal practices means fibre with at least 100 megabits of upload. Referral centres and specialist radiologists pull data out of the building, and so does a cloud archive.

Ask the provider to confirm the upload figure in writing, because business plans lead with the download number.

When does a clinic still need a server on site?

When the internet connection cannot be relied on, which in practice means rural and mixed practices on the edge of coverage. Keep the database local in that case and replicate a copy off site every night.

Everywhere else, a cloud PIMS takes the server, the nightly backup job, the Sunday morning restart and the operating system upgrade off the practice manager’s list. Exodesk prices both routes side by side as cloud solutions work.

Where Should a Clinic Store X-rays and Lab Files?

On storage sized for what the clinic produces in a year, with a second copy off site and a restore that has been tested. A busy small animal practice or after-hours animal hospital generates several hundred gigabytes of imaging a year, and none of it can be deleted when the drive fills.

Clinics meet this the year the old drive fills. The usual fix is an external disk at reception, which leaves one copy of the imaging sitting in the same room as the original.

Records get asked for years later. An insurance claim or a complaint to the Veterinary Council will land two years after the consult, and the whole file has to be produced with the images attached.

What does the seven-year rule mean for storage?

It means storage has to be sized on years of accumulation, not on this year’s volume. Guidance in the NZVA Recommended Best Practice, hosted by the Veterinary Council of New Zealand, says patient records should be held for seven years after the last consultation, and the Controlled Drugs Register for four years after the last entry.

Keeping a file and being able to open it are different problems. A study from year one has to survive a server replacement and, in many clinics, a change of practice software before anyone asks for it.

Ask what happens to the archive if the clinic changes practice software. Export format and how far back a migration reaches are worth settling before a contract is signed, because the obligation stays with the clinic when the vendor changes.

Set the retention period inside the system so it applies without anyone deciding, and look at the backup rotation at the same time. A cycle that overwrites at twelve months will delete the record the clinic is required to keep.

Sizing this is arithmetic. Count last year’s imaging studies and allow five years at that rate, then add the analyser results and the practice database. The disk at reception was never going to hold it.

How do you protect imaging files from being lost?

Three copies of the data, on two kinds of media, with one held off site, and a restore tested at least twice a year. Backup plans get sized on the practice database and the imaging is added afterwards, which is how clinics end up buying storage twice.

Ask how long a restore takes and get the answer in hours. A clinic that can bring the PIMS database back inside two hours can run one day on paper and catch up. Three days means cancelled surgery lists and a reception desk working from a paper diary.

We cover the mechanics in Backup as a Service, including how imaging volumes change the sizing and what a tested restore looks like.

How Do Vets Get Safe Access on an After-Hours Callout?

Through a clinic-managed device with multi-factor authentication, reaching either a cloud PIMS or a published remote desktop, so the vet on call sees the full record from anywhere. IT for veterinary practices has to assume the building is locked and the vet is 40 kilometres away.

It goes wrong the same way every time. The on-call vet cannot reach the record, phones the nurse at home, and the nurse reads out the history from memory.

The clinical risk is obvious. A client’s record has also just been read out over the phone from somebody’s kitchen, and the visit gets written up the next morning.

What should an on-call vet be able to reach from the ute?

The full clinical record, the dispensing history, the client’s contact details and the balance owing, on a phone or tablet the clinic owns. Add the ability to take a payment on the spot, so the callout is invoiced before the vet gets home.

Large animal and equine practices need one more thing, a connection that works at the gate. Coverage on a farm race is its own problem and we cover it in IT for Agriculture.

How do you keep after-hours access from becoming the weak point?

Multi-factor authentication on every account that can reach patient data, and clinic-owned devices enrolled in management so a lost phone can be wiped.

Remove shared logins first. A single nurses account used by nine people makes the dispensing log useless as evidence, because the trail stops at the account name.

Does the Privacy Act Apply to a Veterinary Practice?

Yes. The animal is the patient and the client is a person, so their name, address, phone number, card details and account history are personal information under the Privacy Act 2020.

The distinction is easy to miss. The clinical notes describe the dog. The file they sit in holds the owner’s address and the card they paid with.

Information privacy principle 5 requires security safeguards that are reasonable in the circumstances, protecting against loss and against unauthorised access or disclosure. For a clinic that means access controls in the PIMS, encryption on laptops, a reception screen that locks itself and a password nobody has written on a sticky note.

Human clinical practice carries health-sector obligations on top of the Privacy Act. A veterinary practice works to the general Act, and we cover the human side in Healthcare IT.

What happens if a clinic’s records are locked by ransomware?

Losing access to information you hold counts as a privacy breach, and the Office of the Privacy Commissioner names a ransomware lockout as an example. A breach that has caused or is likely to cause serious harm must be notified to the Commissioner and to the people affected as soon as the clinic is practically able.

Then add the operational cost. A clinic with no bookings and no clinical history cannot open, and every appointment for that day has to be phoned and moved.

Who in the clinic should be able to see what?

Vets and nurses need the clinical record. Reception needs bookings and accounts, and the administrator account belongs to two named people.

Most clinics run every staff member as an administrator because the software was set up that way years ago. Fixing that takes an afternoon.

How Do You Give Clients WiFi Without Exposing Clinic Records?

Put visitors on a separate network with its own password and no route to the clinical systems, using a guest network or a VLAN on the same access points. A virtual local area network keeps two kinds of traffic apart on shared hardware.

Waiting rooms make this urgent. Owners sit for 40 minutes with a nervous animal and the phone comes out in the first two.

Name the guest network something obvious and print the password on a card at reception, so the staff password never gets handed across the counter.

The setup is a half-day job and we cover it fully in Guest WiFi. The analysers and the imaging modality belong on their own segment too.

Where should the EFTPOS terminal sit on the network?

On its own segment, talking to the PIMS through the provider’s certified integration. Reception counters double as consult overflow and the terminal sits where anyone can reach it.

Card numbers should never be typed into a client note. Payment plan providers hold that data on their side and the clinic keeps the reference.

What Does IT for Veterinary Practices Cost?

IT for veterinary practices is priced as a monthly fee per person for support and cover, with a separate one-off for any network, storage or migration work needed at the start. What moves the number is the state of what is already installed and how much imaging the clinic produces.

Two clinics of the same size can sit a long way apart, and these are the things that move it.

• Imaging volume. How many studies the clinic produces in a year, and how many years of them have to stay instantly available.
• Where the practice software lives. A cloud PIMS takes the server and its nightly backup job off the bill. An in-clinic server keeps both, along with the operating system patching that comes with it.
• The state of the network. A clinic already segmented and running current switches needs support. A flat network on ageing hardware needs a project before monthly support makes any difference.
• Consult rooms and coverage. Every room that needs a tablet to hold its connection is an access point and a cabling run.
• After-hours cover. How many vets need full remote access, and how fast somebody has to answer when the on-call vet cannot get in.
• Restore expectations. The faster the clinic needs its database back, the more the backup design has to carry.

Ask any provider to price the support and the project work separately. A low monthly figure with a large project sitting behind it is a different commitment, and the two are easy to confuse when they arrive as one number.

Exodesk scopes this as a clinic review. We walk the practice on a working day and quote the monthly cover separately from the one-off work.

Where should a clinic start?

Work through it in this order.

1. List every system the clinic touches in a week, including the analysers and the payment terminal. One page is enough, and it becomes the brief you hand any provider.
2. Time two things: opening a set of radiographs, and loading a patient record at the busiest hour of the day.
3. Ask for a restore test on the PIMS database and watch the clock.
4. Separate the clinical network from the visitor network before spending anything on new hardware.
5. Set the seven-year retention rule inside the system, so it applies to every new record.

A clinic that does those five things has removed the common causes of a bad Monday, and a clinic review can size whatever is left.

Book a Clinic IT Review

Exodesk has supported South Island businesses since 1989 and works with clients across Canterbury, Otago and Southland from offices in Christchurch and Dunedin. We handle IT for veterinary practices end to end, from the consult room network and imaging storage through to after-hours access and a restore we test in front of you. We start by walking the clinic on an ordinary working day, when the problems are easiest to see.

Contact us today to discuss how we can help your business or connect with us on LinkedIn to stay updated with more insights.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a practice management system in a vet clinic?

A practice management system, usually shortened to PIMS, is the database a clinic uses for bookings, clinical notes, dispensing records, invoicing and client reminders. Every other system connects to it, and staff are in it from the first appointment of the day to the last.

How is IT support for a vet clinic usually priced?

Most providers charge a monthly fee per person for support and cover, with separate one-off costs for network, storage or migration projects. Ask which of the two any quoted figure refers to, because a low monthly rate with a large project behind it is a different commitment. Get the after-hours cover and the restore commitment written into the same quote.

Should a small clinic move its practice software to the cloud?

Yes, for most companion animal clinics, because it takes away the in-clinic server and the weekend restarts. Rural and mixed practices on an unreliable connection are the exception, and they should keep the database local with replication off site. Test the clinic’s internet upload speed before making the call.

How long must a veterinary practice keep patient records in New Zealand?

Veterinary Council of New Zealand guidance points to holding patient records for seven years after the date of the last consultation, with the Controlled Drugs Register kept four years after the last entry. Set that period inside the practice management system so the rule is enforced by the software.

Who is responsible for a privacy breach at a veterinary clinic?

The veterinary practice is responsible, as the agency holding the information. The Privacy Act 2020 requires serious breaches to be reported to the Privacy Commissioner, and to the clients involved, without unnecessary delay. Outsourcing the IT does not move that duty to the provider, though the contract should say who does what during a breach.

What should I check first when the clinic system is slow?

Check the network before the software. Time the same task on a wired reception PC and on a consult room tablet, and if only the tablet is slow the problem is wireless coverage. If both are slow, look at the switch and the server.

Is upload speed more important than download for a vet clinic?

Yes, for any clinic sending imaging to a referral centre, a specialist radiologist or a cloud archive, because those transfers push data out of the building. Ask the internet provider to state the upload figure in writing, because business plans usually advertise the download number.

Can clients use the waiting room WiFi safely?

Yes, once visitor traffic sits on a separate network with its own password and no route into the clinical systems. A guest network on the existing access points, or a VLAN, achieves this in most clinics without new hardware. The payment terminal and the lab analysers should also sit on their own segment.

What backup does a veterinary clinic need for X-rays and lab results?

Keep three copies of every study, on two different media, with one copy stored off site. Prove it by running a restore twice a year and timing it. Imaging volumes grow every year, so buy storage against several years of studies. A backup that has never been restored is an assumption, so book the test into the calendar.

What is the risk of shared logins in a clinic?

A shared login makes the dispensing log and the clinical audit trail unusable as evidence, because several people sit behind one name. It also means access cannot be withdrawn cleanly when somebody leaves. Give every staff member their own account and put multi-factor authentication on anything reaching patient data.

Which vet software do New Zealand clinics run?

New Zealand clinics commonly run ezyVet, VetlinkPRO, RxWorks and Provet Cloud, alongside newer front-desk products. Cloud systems suit a clinic with a dependable fibre connection and enough upload for imaging. On-premises systems still suit sites where the connection drops. Exodesk does not sell practice software and supports whichever system the clinic has already chosen.

Can Exodesk support a veterinary practice in Christchurch or Dunedin?

Yes. Exodesk works with clients across Canterbury, Otago and Southland from offices in Christchurch and Dunedin, and has supported South Island businesses since 1989. We provide veterinary IT support as one piece of work, taking in the clinic network, imaging storage, after-hours access and tested restores.