Digital processes dominate most businesses and that’s certainly true in veterinary practices. For example, software that manages patient records, tracks inventory, triggers invoices and more, can elevate patient care and save time. But, improving the patient experience and increasing productivity isn’t exclusive to digital solutions. Some manual processes are still essential to your operation. And to illustrate, here are 5 labels every veterinary practice needs to deliver effective patient care.

A Johns Hopkins study suggests medical errors are the third leading cause of deaths in the U.S. The Journal of General Internal Medicine believes the number of preventable deaths are just over 22,000. Regardless of which statistic you believe is more accurate, consistently executing effective patient safety remains an ongoing challenge. And although it’s embedded into the processes and procedures of all health systems, faculty at the Harvard School of Public Health characterized patient safety improvements in hospitals as “excruciatingly slow.” But, for patient safety improvements to occur, it's essential to identify the hot spots and define improvement steps. That's the purpose of the national patient safety goals.