Veterinary Teaching Hospital makes transition to ezyVet electronic medical record system

Replacing four previous computer systems with one sounds like a frightening task to have started on Halloween, but as the winter holiday break approaches, all seems to be merry and bright about the Veterinary Teaching Hospital switchover to ezyVet.

Kimberly Ascue, director of information technology for the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine, says a new hospital information system has been desired for two decades when the teaching hospital has been using a “homegrown” system as well as other unconnected systems.

“All of those systems are being rolled into one system,” Ascue said. “It will be much more efficient for all of the users to have one single system where they can find the information.”

Now, appointments, billing, pharmacy, labs, imaging, clinical inventory, and patient medical records have moved to a single cloud-based system, enabling smoother transfer of information helpful to clients, clinicians, and support staff.

“I'm very excited about the potential that ezyVet holds for the VTH,” said Anthony Grafsky, hospital administrator. “EzyVet is not only an electronic medical system, but it also unifies our inventory management and billing/financial management systems. Already it's allowed us to automate parts of our client communications, digitize forms and requests, and improve visibility into patient care across services.”

“We can electronically send documents to people ahead of time for treatment authorizations,” Ascue said. “They can sign them at home, saving time when they get here. We are able to send text reminders to clients just like your normal doctor's office instead of having to call everyone. It’s going to be a huge, huge time saver.’’ 

The Veterinary Teaching Hospital was the last of the three Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine hospitals to make the switch to ezyVet, as the Marion duPont Scott Equine Medical Center in Leesburg, Virginia, and the Animal Cancer Care and Research Center in Roanoke, Virginia, had already implemented ezyVet in the last three years.

“Going forward, I expect we'll continue to realize additional system and process efficiencies that will allow us to redirect that energy into the VTH's mission of delivering excellent care and supporting the training of aspiring veterinary professionals” Grafsky said.

The new system will also give veterinary students experience in using a hospital information system similar to those they will see at many other veterinary clinics and hospitals.

EzyVet was founded in 2006 “out of the desire for intuitive, affordable and customizable software that could cater to veterinary practices of all shapes and sizes,” according to the company’s website. Over 3,000 veterinary hospitals in 18 countries use the ezyVet system.