The owner who rang three times
A vet takes bloods on Monday and sends them to an external lab. The results come back on Wednesday, by email or on the lab's portal. The vet who took them is off on Wednesday. The results are there, but nobody is looking at them.
On Thursday the owner rings. Reception can see a result in the system but cannot interpret it. They take a message for the vet. On Friday the owner rings again. By the time the vet calls back, the owner has lost confidence in the practice, and possibly the pet has waited longer than it should for a decision.
Why results fall between vets
Results arrive in several ways: in-house analysers, an external lab's portal, an email with a PDF, occasionally a phone call. Some practice management systems import results automatically, some do not, and many import them without telling anyone they have arrived.
Results also belong to a person, the requesting vet, who is not always in. Without a rule for who reviews results when that vet is away, they wait.
And there is no record of the step that matters most to the client: has the owner been told? That lives in the clinical notes, if it is written at all.
What unseen results cost
| Gap | Consequence |
|---|---|
| Result not reviewed | Decisions about the patient wait longer |
| Owner not contacted | Repeated calls and a loss of trust |
| Vet away | Results wait for their return with no cover |
| No overview | Nobody can see which results are outstanding |
| Lab queries | Samples that were rejected or need repeating are missed |
How results are interpreted and what is done next is entirely a clinical matter for your vets. We only organise the routing and the tracking.
A results queue with ownership
- Result capture from each lab's feed, portal export or email, and from your practice management system where results already import.
- Matching to the sample request, patient and requesting vet.
- A results queue for each vet, showing new results, and a practice-wide view for results waiting longer than your set time.
- Cover rules you agree: when a vet is off, their results go to a named colleague or to a daily review list.
- Owner contact tracking with a simple step to mark that the owner was contacted and how, so reception can see it when the owner rings.
- Lab problem alerts for rejected samples, insufficient samples or add-on requests, so they are acted on quickly.
Results that reach a vet and then the owner
When a result arrives, it appears in the right vet's queue. If they are off, it goes where you decided it should. Reception can see whether the owner has been called and what they were told to expect, so the answer to "any news?" is informed.
The practice-wide view gives the head vet or clinical director a way to see whether anything is waiting too long, without having to ask each vet.
Part-time vets and locums benefit most. Their results no longer wait for their next shift, because the cover rule sends them to someone who is in. And when a vet returns from leave, their queue shows what was reviewed in their absence and by whom.
Do results sit unseen in your practice?
- External lab results arrive by email or portal with nobody notified
- Results wait for the requesting vet to return from leave
- Owners ring several times before hearing about results
- There is no record of whether the owner has been told
- Rejected samples are noticed days later