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What Services Do You Offer?
We are a Telehealth omni-platform that allows your veterinary practice to cater to your client’s and patient’s needs 24/7. When you leave the office for the day, GuardianVets is on call to speak with your clients and provide urgent support. Your client will speak with a credentialed veterinary technician or a licensed DVM who will help assess the situation in a professional manner. We respect your VCPR and will not diagnose, prescribe, or treat your patient, but simply determine whether the situation is emergent. We also provide DVMs within your practice a Telemedicine platform to communicate with pet owners through an IOS or Android application. You set your own Telemedicine fees; clients are charged prior to initiating a consultation. In addition, GuardianVets provides a communication platform through which owners can text the practice, request appointments and medication refills, and select veterinary products from a curated list that your practice generates.
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Is After Hours Care Really That Big Of An Issue?
Yes. The fact that you’re asking indicates that you’re both interested in improving customer service and likely not actively tracking the single most important lifeline for your business—your phones!
Think about how much you invest in obtaining new clients (e.g., ads, postcards, events, etc.) and maintaining existing clients (e.g., front office staff to answer the phone, send out appointment reminders, etc). Easily $50,000+ per year when you remember the staff costs, right?
Now think about this… What happens to that investment if a client tries to reach you and you’re unavailable?
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How Will This Benefit Me And My Practice?
A summary of our benefits is provided below:
Service Quality: As pet owners ourselves, we know firsthand how difficult it can be to have a health-related question at night or during the weekend and only have the emergency clinic or a Google search as a resource. Our platform is an invaluable tool that provides your clients with peace of mind when they need it most. Also, it is a great way to differentiate yourself from the other veterinarians in your area!Financial Return: When a pet owner is referred to the emergency clinic for non-emergencies, that is a missed opportunity for your practice to see that patient. Because our services work while your practice is closed, we help create new touchpoints for patient engagement and allow you to generate new appointments. By logging in to your dashboard, you can easily see what new appointments were generated while you were closed.
Work-Life Balance: It is exhausting to be on call every night, plus weekends and holidays. You miss a lot of your personal life and often have very little financial gain in return. Let us help you by handling your after-hours calls. YOU can decide if you want to be reached in case of an emergency.
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How does Teletriage work?
After signup, you will receive a call from one of our onboarding specialists to have an initial consultation. This is important for us to understand your greeting preferences, where you would like us to direct actual emergencies, any special holidays or deviations from your normal hours of operation, etc. We also will ask you to send us your logo so that we can begin customizing your outreach program to your patients. We prefer to do this over the phone rather than automate it online because it gives you an opportunity to ask any remaining questions before going live.
At the completion of onboarding, we will mail you customized postcards that you can distribute in your practice. We will also coordinate all your social media/email notifications and ensure your phone lines are properly set up. If you’d like, we can even provide you with a custom application so your patients can have video-on-demand consultations! Once the platform is set up, you will have access to an administrative dashboard where you can view key statistics such as: who called, when they called, what they called for, and how many appointment requests were generated.
When a triage team member answers a call, they first identify themselves and confirm they are answering for your hospital. The medical inquiry is then triaged using a systematic, comprehensive questionnaire, thus determining whether the issue is emergent or non-emergent. Emergent cases are referred to your ER of choice or your on-call doctor. Non-emergent cases are either scheduled with your hospital the following day OR a request is generated to have your hospital contact the client the following business day.
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How do you ensure high quality Teletriage service?
It is in our mutual best interest to make sure we only hire and retain the highest quality licensed veterinary professionals (as well as team members in general). If you are interested in our services and would like to learn more about our team or speak directly with one of our DVMs, please let us know! We have also spent considerable time developing evidence-based protocols and clinical guidelines to assist our team members during the triage process. These protocols are in place to provide a consistently high standard of care. Last but not least, we routinely reach out to regulatory bodies to establish industry best practices. -
Does Teletriage Violate VCPR Regulations?
No. We have carefully worked with our legal team and various regulatory bodies to make sure that our Teletriage services do not establish any VCPR. Our doctors do not in any way provide diagnoses nor are we a substitute for a physical examination. Our triage team does not provide a prognosis or prescribe medications. To be clear, our Teletriage team DOES NOT provide Telemedicine. We do, however, provide triage support, assist owners in determining emergent versus non-emergent concerns, and assist with scheduling appointments with the practice the following day.
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What are some appropriate ways to use Telemedicine?
Telemedicine MAY be appropriate for the following situations, provided that a valid VCPR is in place and that professional services can be safely provided to your patient:
• Recheck exams
• Post-operative follow-ups
• Behavioral consultations
• Nutritional consultations
• Certain dermatology concerns
• Certain orthopedic concerns
• Daytime triage to determine the need for a physical visit
• Hospice care -
Are there any legal considerations when providing Telemedicine to my clients?
Yes! Please refer to your state practice act and current regulations and follow those established Telemedicine guidelines. If an established VCPR is lacking, a veterinarian may only provide general advice. This advice should not contain a diagnosis, prognosis, or treatment, and should be non-specific in nature. You should also ensure proper malpractice insurance is in place.
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Do you document and record everything?
Yes! All calls are recorded and the audio is made available to you. Every triage consultation is documented via email as well and sent to designated email addresses as soon as the call concludes.
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What is Two-way Chat and how does it relate to Telemedicine or Triage?
The basic definition of Two-way Chat is any communication that is done over the Internet. GuardianVets provides an all-encompassing digital communication platform through three tiers of service.
1. We provide Teletriage with our credentialed veterinary technicians and DVMs to serve a practice’s client base after hours.
2. We also provide a Telemedicine platform for practice DVMs to communicate directly with their clients through text and/or video.
3. Lastly, we provide Two-way Chat, which is a central communication hub, that allows CSRs and other office personnel to communicate with your clients during the day via chat or by phone.
