The phone call nobody wants to take
A client rings, upset. Her dog died three months ago, at your practice, and she has just received a cheerful text saying he is due his booster. The receptionist apologises. The client says she has had two of these. It is the worst kind of call to take and entirely preventable.
Other versions are less raw but still damaging: a vaccination reminder for a cat that was rehomed last year, a health plan renewal letter for a rabbit that died at home, a reminder addressed to an owner who moved away and whose pet is now registered elsewhere.
Why the records do not stop the reminders
Your practice management system decides who gets a reminder from the patient record: species, last vaccination, next due date, and a status field. If that status is not set to deceased, the reminder goes.
When euthanasia happens in your practice, the vet or nurse should mark the patient deceased. Often they do, in the clinical notes, but the status field is separate, and a busy consult room does not always get to it. When a pet dies at home, at another practice or in an out-of-hours clinic, you may never be told. And rehoming or moving away leaves no trace at all until a reminder bounces.
Cremation records, out-of-hours reports and returned mail all contain the information. None of them updates the status field.
What a wrong reminder costs
| Mistake | Consequence |
|---|---|
| Reminder for a deceased pet | Real distress for the owner and a hit to your reputation |
| Reminder for a rehomed pet | Confused clients and wasted messages |
| Inflated reminder lists | Response figures look worse than they are |
| Staff handling complaints | Reception bears the brunt of a data problem |
| Health plan renewals | Renewal letters for animals that are no longer yours to care for |
How we clean the list and keep it clean
- A record audit. We export patient and reminder data from your practice management system, such as RxWorks, Merlin, Provet Cloud or ezyVet, and look for patients who are likely deceased or lapsed: euthanasia or cremation charges without a deceased status, very old patients with no visits for years, clients with bounced messages.
- A review list for your team to confirm, so no status is changed without a person checking.
- Event links going forward. Euthanasia and cremation charges, cremation provider records and out-of-hours reports that mention a death are used to prompt a status change the same day.
- A pre-send check that runs over every reminder batch before it goes, removing patients with recent euthanasia or cremation charges, and flagging anything unusual for a person to look at.
- Bounce handling. Failed texts and emails, and returned letters, go on a list so contact details can be checked or the patient marked as moved.
- A lapsed patient process, agreed with you, for pets not seen in a long time, so reminders stop or change tone rather than continuing forever.
What we can connect to depends on your practice management system's API or export tools. We check that first, and where the system allows it, updates go straight back into it.
Reminders that reach the right people
Reminder runs go out with the obvious errors already removed. When a pet dies at your practice, the status is updated the same day, whether or not the vet remembered the field. Reception stops fielding upsetting calls about letters that should never have been sent.
Your reminder figures also become honest. With dead and moved patients removed, you can see how well reminders actually work.
Could your reminders be reaching the wrong people?
- Clients have complained about reminders for a pet that has died
- Deceased status is not always set after euthanasia
- You rarely hear when a pet dies at home or elsewhere
- Reminder lists include patients not seen for many years
- Bounced texts and returned letters are not followed up