428 - Help! I'm Lost in AI Implementation

0:00Ten years ago, I thought people came to conferences for information. I was wrong. You can Google almost any answer in 30 seconds while hiding in a supply closet. What you can't Google is skill. Skill is having hard conversation when you're exhausted, short-staffed, and the person across from you is upset. And that only comes from practicing with people who will tell you the truth when you miss. That's what Uncharted is. On Friday, January 15th in Orlando, the day before VMX opens, we're celebrating 10 years with a one-day conference built around leaders practicing hard things together. You'll get Dr.

0:37Peter Weinstein, the Uncharted team, and about a dozen mic drop talks from people in the community, people you know like Dr. Phil Richmond and Dr. Caitlin DeWild. I'm not going to tell you it'll be easy because it won't. But if you want to do the work alongside people who get it, come and join us. details are at unchartedvet.com. Register today. Don't miss your chance. Welcome back to another episode of the Uncharted Veterinary Podcast. I am your host, Maria Brita. And today I am sitting down with Adam Wysocki of Vet Software Hub. I brought in Adam specifically for this conversation because something that we have been talking about in the community often is implementation of PIM software or AI tools in general.

1:20Y 'all already know and Uncharted, We've been talking about that since 2022, a long time. But one thing that I found super interesting is that the AI usage in veterinary clinics has jumped from about 40 % all the way to 84 % this year. This is from a study that Digitale did with AHA. And I found it super interesting, especially because we have had a lot of people in the community talking about PIMS, talking about wanting to switch, talking about in general, like how do you pick the right tool? And also, how do I implement it with my team? There have been so many stories that we've shared. And I brought in a case study of a practice manager who I've been working with that genuinely, they were super excited about bringing in a new PIM system.

2:00And they brought it in with the team. It did not go so well. The team hated it. Everybody just was not on board. So they ended up going back to their old software and then took some time to really try to do things differently this time. And now they have this software that has all of these bells and whistles, and it's almost too big, almost too in-depth. And so I really wanted to bring in Adam for this conversation simply because he is so good at not only having resources for people available free online for this specific thing, but also in general, he does this for a living. So he talks to practices all the time about their PIMS implementation, how to pick the right software, how to pick the right AI tools.

2:39And I just feel like he is such a wealth of knowledge when it comes to this. I myself have gone through a couple of different switches. So I know what a headache it is to try and figure out like these tools. But I also know that if you have somebody dedicated to the transition, things can go a lot more smoothly. And so that is a lot of what we talk about. We talk about implementation. We talk about how to get teams bought into the changes. We talk a lot about like what to look for, how to make this happen in your practice. And so if that sounds like something that you need in your practice, go ahead and tune Tune in and let's get into this episode.

3:15And now, the Uncharted Podcast.

3:23I want to take a moment to talk here about something that hits close to home for all of us that are working in the vet clinic. We all know that veterinary medicine isn't just a career path. If it were just a job, we'd probably all have much cleaner clothes and way lower blood pressure. No, it's a calling. It's that thing inside you that keeps you showing up for your patients and your team, even on the days when the coffee machine is broken and the schedule is double booked. Well, our friends at Zoetis get that. They've just launched a new initiative called Care Is Your Calling. It's specifically designed to recognize and support veterinary teams, not just for the work that you do, but for the reason that you do it.

4:02And here's the thing. Hundreds of people at Zoetis are actually veterinarians themselves. They've been in the trenches. They understand the realities of daily practice, and they've spent the last 70 years working arm in arm with pros like us to push the profession forward. Everything Zoetis does is about strengthening that partnership, whether it's through clinical tools, reliable solutions you can actually trust in the exam room, or just listening to our feedback to build better resources for the future. They want to support your calling so that you can keep doing what you love. So do me a favor.

4:34Go check out careisyourcalling.com. Take a look at the resources they're building for you and your team. That's careisyourcalling.com. All right, let's get back to the show. All right, welcome back to another episode of the Uncharted podcast. I am sitting here with Adam Wysocki from Veterinary Software Hub, and I am super excited. Adam, how are you doing? I'm great, Maria. How are you? Good. I am so excited to talk to you because you shared something that absolutely blew my mind online. and in general I have gotten this question so much because I think AI when we first started talking about it Uncharted and it's really funny because when I first started at Uncharted back in 2022 was when we first started talking about AI within within the community and people had started using at the time it was like chat GPT and just barely started we had named chat Chad at Uncharted so we would be like oh yeah Chad helped you with this Chad helped you with that so they had kind of started in the insured community already using AI.

5:34And then it kind of blew up since then. I mean, more and more companies started adopting AI. We started seeing AI in drive-thrus. We started seeing AI in, you know, Google. You can't Google without the AI option there. So it was just, there's so many ways that we started seeing AI. And I know, I just knew practices were implementing it. The only thing is that I, as I would talk to practice managers or practice owners or in general, like leads in veterinary medicine, a lot of the troubles that they would have would be like, well, I have the like, I can create documents and I can create this. But at the end of the day, like I haven't fully implemented it into my practice unless it's with, you know, a software of some kind, like a scribe or something like that.

6:15And I know immediately when that came out, I was like thinking about it. I was like, you really need somebody to manage those pieces because at the end of the day, you know, you're working back and forth a lot. And so recently, you shared a study on your LinkedIn that I thought was super interesting because it kind of, it painted a lot of this that I'm talking about now. And that immediately I was like, we have to talk about this on the podcast because the world needs to know about this. So why don't we start there? Why don't you tell us a little bit about you, Adam, who you are, Veterinary Software Hub and your expertise, because I feel like that's really important as far as like where your information comes from.

6:49And then also this study that you kind shared on LinkedIn? Yeah, for sure. So my background is I am a builder. I've been building software for 35 years, almost a decade now in veterinary software and spent a lot of time selling to practices and kind of trying to help them purchase through those sales processes. And then last year, I kind of went from the sales side, the software side to the practice side, and I started vetsoftwarehub.com. And initially the goal was to document all the veterinary software that I could find in the world to show practices what's out there, what tools are available to them.

7:29And then I started writing on how to evaluate it because your average practice manager or practice owner, they don't know how to evaluate software like a Fortune 100 company does. But that software is just as important to that practice as it is to that Fortune 100 company. Sometimes even more important because they're the maintainer and the implementer and the fixer as well as the user. So I really wanted to find a way to kind of even the playing field and let the small independents have the processes of the big corporations and find better decisions. So that's what I do now. I sit on the practice side of the table.

8:07I help with software discovery and evaluations. but everything I do working with practices, I also give away for free on my website because I don't want to gatekeep anything. And my goal is just to have practices have the best software possible for their workflows and how they operate. I'm pretty sure that's how I found you was Veterinary Software Hub originally. So back in the day, I feel like we had two major, maybe three major softwares, right? Like we're talking 20 years ago. We had like two or three, but then something happened when we started to see a lot more tech and we started to see a lot more softwares.

8:40And I felt that way in practice where I was like, I just don't even know what's out there now because there was always a cornerstone. There was always Avomark. Now there's EasyVet, there's Rhapsody, there was Shepard, there was all these different newer ones. And so I think I originally found you from that software hub. A lot of your LinkedIn posts, I thought were super informational as far as like how to pick up PIMS software, how to ask the right questions. I love that you share those resources online for free for people because I feel like that's really big and beneficial. But in general, I think that that's where I started to keep my eye on you and your expertise and all of these things that you've been sharing.

9:14And then I finally got to meet you in person and you actually did a workshop on this in the community not that long ago. Yeah, that was fun. Yes. And it was so funny because we all had such similar like stories around what happens where it's like, I brought in the software, my team hated it. So I had to bring in a different software only like six months later, cost us all this time. Or there's people that are like, I signed onto this contract and now I'm stuck here because of all these things. Or there's people who are just too afraid to leave their PIMs because they're like, I've heard what a nightmare it is to switch PIMs.

9:44And I just am not interested in that nightmare. How do I reduce it? And so I think that we ended up talking about so many cool things at that time. And now I feel like the game's changed even more. So that was like the tech boom, right? Like all these softwares. But now it's like AI has been the big thing, right? integrating AI into the PIMS, integrating AI into scribes. So what are you seeing in that AI space? Yeah, so I think AI really is breaking down into a couple different sections of the hospital, right? Certainly note-taking has really, you know, AI has changed the game. We used to just have the dictation software in the past.

10:20Now AI is, you know, putting in suggestions and capturing charges that are just spoken. Yeah. A lot of really cool stuff there. It's not perfect, still needs human eyeballs on it, but it is really saving doctors and staff tons of time in record keeping. But the other side of that, the other two pillars that I like to call out are operationally. So you're seeing AI at the front desk now helping compose collections emails and two-way text messages. And there's AI reception is starting to trickle out into practices. And there's two camps there. are like, I don't want my clients ever talking to an AI.

11:01And then there's, well, if my clients want to talk to an AI because they just need the hours and they don't want to wait on hold, let the AI do it, right? And practices can have that choice. I think the third one, and the one that I'm most cautious about is AI on the diagnostic side. Okay. So we're seeing AI in lab devices, in radiology tools. Radiology is the one that comes to mind, yeah. And it's a start, But the thing that I talk about there is veterinarians on the diagnostic side are just generally so good at their job, right? Their error rates are much higher, their error rates are much lower than human medicine.

11:39And the AI error rates are still very high. So AI is not yet doing a better job than veterinarians in diagnostics. it will one day. And I think that we should prepare for that coming, using it as a backup, using it as a second set of eyes on a case. But today I think it's just maybe getting information a little faster than sending out to the lab or validating a hunch that you have, but not relying on it as an actual diagnostic tool. Not yet. Yeah. Oh man. There's so much that I want to tactic there, just from such a practical standpoint on AI use. Do you think that the general public is starting to be more accepting of AI or are you still finding a lot of pushback?

12:23One of the things that I've noticed is like there's this conversation around, you know, what AI and the water usage and the environment. And so I feel like there's a lot of people who have just kind of dug their feet in their sand and they're like, this is bad for the environment. I refuse to use it. I will not use it. And so where do you think, like if those exist, where do you think are the disadvantages or advantages of that? Well, I think that what practices have to be mindful of is they're in the customer service business, right? In the end, their clients are going to dictate behavior. And if you're going to fight with your clients, you're not going to be very successful in your business.

13:04So I remember back, I'm old enough to remember before two-way texting was in every veterinary hospital. I remember those times too, yeah. And I, at the time, was trying to sell two-way texting to veterinary hospitals. And every practice owner I talked to would say, oh, I'll never do that. I don't want to disintermediate my clients. We want a personal touch. We don't want it to be through two-way texting. And then the millennials won't talk to anybody on the phone, right? They'll only talk. And then every hospital started rolling out two-way texting because their clients demanded it. If you don't have it, I'm going to go to the hospital down the road that does have it.

13:42I think over time, the same thing will happen with AI. There'll be a lot of objections now, whether it's environmental or whether it's losing the personal touch. But our kids now in school are using AI every day. We're raising a generation to live inside of AI. AI tools are rolling out onto phones and onto laptops and onto tablets and onto video games. people will want to interact with an AI just like they wanted to interact with two-way texting. And then you're going to have to make a choice whether that you want to be the hospital that makes them use the phone or you're going to let them talk to an AI agent because they just want to get something quick and be done with it.

14:25Yeah. Yeah. So this is super interesting. I think that I'm right there with you. I feel like this is very much, it reminds me, I didn't think a two-way texting, but I did think about online booking. When online booking came out, a lot of practices were super against it. They were like, no, no, I don't want my clients to have that kind of access. The truth is that the public wanted convenience. At some point, you end up giving in to what the clients really want. There's a great report about Taco Bell who tested AI in the drive-thrus in the city of Boston. And complaints went down by like 800 % on the AI.

15:06Yeah. People were just happier dealing with AI in the drive-thru than the regular people who were like, what do you want? And being rude and short with them, right? In that study, and maybe you don't know this, so it's okay if you don't, but in the study, did you see that there was a less margin of error in using AI taking the... Yeah, more accuracy in the orders. The AI would speak in people's native language when they came out. That's so cool. Right? Yeah. So it was just a greater level of customer satisfaction dealing with the AI. And this was not recent. This was, I think, a year and a half ago.

15:43I remember when they rolled out. So at that point, AI was still very stuttery. You get those pauses. And now it's really seamless. And it's sometimes hard to tell. Did they end up staying with that AI order taking or did they take it out? Like what was... I do believe they're working on rolling it out across restaurants. Okay, yeah. But that was just like a pilot with this one software. Yeah. I mean, I've seen it at other fast food companies already. So I know it's rolling out. So I wanted to bring a case to you specifically because I fear that we talked about this at the workshop that we mentioned.

16:15And I've been coaching a practice manager who I absolutely love. She is amazing. She had a few months back, they implemented a brand new like software in general, a brand new PIM system. And then had to go like, and then as they were implementing it, they obviously saw this like downside of the flow. There was a lot of pieces that they did not like. The team was kind of not, not loving it and it was causing a lot of problems. So they finally went back to their old one, then started searching for a new one. And then they finally found one that came with a lot of training and it came with like Like all of these bells and whistles, you know, it was a little bit more expensive, but they were like, obviously we learn what happens.

16:55You know, we need to invest in this. And so they decided to go into it. However, now there's too many bells and whistles. There's a thousand and one ways to do something. And in general, like they're finding that it's a great program for the practice. But because there's so many different ways to do the same thing, they're actually finding having to spend a lot of time managing it. And so the reason why I wanted to bring this case to you is because not only did we see this in the workshop that we were just talking about, but I'm fascinated by the study that you shared online, which was DigiTail and AHA, which I want to say that usage for AI in veterinary practices jumped from almost 40 % to like it's at almost 84 % this year, which is more than twice as much, right?

17:38Yes. is huge. And then this study also talked a lot about being, if you have somebody dedicated to the AI piece, you're actually a lot more effective or a lot more efficient. So I'm wondering if you can kind of tell us a little bit about that study that came out, the reason why, you know, I contacted you, and then also tell us a little bit about this situation and whether you see it regularly or not. Yeah. So the study is a good one. It was a follow-up. AHA and DigiTail did the same study in 2024, and then they did it again this year. And it really gave us some great insights into where AI is in hospitals.

18:12And the truth is now it's everywhere, right? Everybody is using it at least every day. Well, 84%, at least every day or once a week. It's not a rollout problem anymore. Now it's a how do we use it problem. And then what the study specifically looked at is exactly that. How are people effectively using it or ineffectively using it. And what they found when they were talking to these hospitals is that when somebody was in charge of how the software was going to be used, when there was something as simple as a one-page guidebook on how to do things in this software, whatever business outcome they were looking to achieve was 6x greater than the hospital that didn't have a plan, that just bought it, and people just started using it willy-nilly, right?

19:04And I think this goes back to your hospital that you're talking about when there's, you know, quote, so many different ways to do the same thing. And this is really common in software. I've been, you know, building software for 36 years. When you're building software, you have to build it for everybody. And in veterinary, that means this, you know, the same three doctor hospital, you know, GP gets the same software as the 24 doctor ER and specialty hospital, right? Rural is the same as urban. And because it has to fit all those scenarios, there are a lot of ways to do things. And what successful practices do with software to get past that is to really put an SOP in place around how we're going to use the software.

19:53If there is nine ways to book an appointment, the team needs to decide which way they were going to use. Yes. Right? And just like you have an onboarding process for a new client, or you have a surgical process for a dental, you need a check-in process in your software. You need a scheduling process in your software. You need a soap process in your software. And, you know, these things are very important with, especially with complex systems so that the team gets into this flow state where everybody is doing everything the same way. I did, I spent six years in the Marine Corps. And that's one of the things that I really appreciate from my time is like everybody cleans their rifle the exact same way.

20:44Right. And there is no like, oh, I forgot how to do this. you can lean on the person next to you and say, hey, how do you do this? You're going to get the same answer from everybody. It helps with workflows. It helps with training new employees on the team. It just helps all around and you're going to see more effective outcomes by doing it that way. Yeah. One of the things that I loved about this when it came out is just like the fact that having somebody directly involved in that can report up to six times better business outcomes. To me, I was like, the data is finally backing up. Something that I've been saying for years and it is get that practice manager off the floor so that they can focus on the growth of the team and the culture and the training and the implementation of all of this.

21:27Because I'm so right there with you. I'm a big fan of this is how we do things. You know, I'm a big fan of being able to say like, this is how we train. This is the format that we're going to use. We're all on the same page. We can ask all the right questions. We can answer all the questions. But I do also think that when it comes to implementation of AI or PIMS or anything like that, there's generally going to be people who are scared. Like we talk about how people don't like change. And a lot of people are going to be nervous about whatever you're bringing in. Like the AI or the software, somebody needs to be having conversations with those individual team members.

22:01We need to be able to make sure that we're addressing their fears, that we're making them feel confident in the software, that we're explaining the why behind all of those things. And I feel like that that's really the power of the practice manager, right? Not only do they help get the team bought in on it, they also are the ones overseeing those other pieces, the admin pieces, making sure that it fits for the workflow, making sure that we're training, making sure that we have a protocol around it, making sure that we have a protocol that is easily found if somebody for some reason wasn't there for the training that one day that we did it.

22:33All of these things are so important. And so I feel like sometimes we have to, in general, Like we have to learn the system. We have to learn the AI software, but that part takes time. And we oftentimes have to go slow in order to go fast. Otherwise we start to try and do everything at the same capacity that we were at when we had this other system. And it's like, there's a learning curve right now. Like maybe we need to block some appointments while we're, we're going through this process of a new PIMS or a new AI system. Maybe we need to make sure that somebody's keeping an eye on these pieces that might fall, but no matter what, there there's some sort of system here that's happening.

23:08So the practice that did all of the vendor training and still kind of isn't seeing a return on their PIMs, what do you think is missing there? And what do you think the manager should think about so that they stop feeling like they wasted money, the money? Yeah. So I think, you know, in my experience, vendor training teaches you how the buttons work, right? It doesn't teach you how your practice is going to operate in the new software. And I think this is, again, this goes back to, you know, who's the lead? Who's in charge of making decisions? One of the things that I really like to do when I'm helping practices onboard a new software is if it's, you know, something like a PIMS that touches all the teams, is you should have one well-trained hero per team per shift.

24:00So somebody from the front desk, somebody from the techs, one of the associate DVMs, right? These are the people that get a little extra time with the vendor, and then they work with the practice manager to figure out how the hospital's workflows are going to work in the PIMS with that training. They write those one-pagers. This is how we book the appointment. This is how we take the subjective. This is how we do the prescriptive, right? And then they are the kind of go-to for each team for each shift, and the practice manager doesn't have to carry all of that themselves. And they are coordinating with these, you know, these heroes or these champions on the teams, on the shifts, understanding what the friction points are and helping resolve them.

24:47You know, it's, you are a team, right? And I think putting all of that on one person who already has 45, 50 hours of work to do in a 40-hour work week is too much. but I guarantee every team and every shift has somebody who's a little more excited to try the software. They're a little less resistant to new things and they would gladly step up and kind of take the lead and help the people that they're sitting next to and working with get through the rough patches. Yeah. And I think that's how you create some buy-in, right? Like way to make your team feel heard. The fact that you took their opinion into consideration, the fact that they understand that they're the boots on the ground, as you say, and be able to figure out how the AI system or the PIM system is going to work with the practice.

25:40I feel like it's so great from a trust-building perspective. Yeah. Yeah. And think about the group of folks sitting at the reception desk, right? Do they have to run to the practice manager if something goes wrong? Or is the person sitting to their left or their right the person who got the extra training and has made some of these decisions? Yeah, the cheerleaders. And they just work through it together. Yeah, exactly. Right. It's easier to get buy-in from people who feel supported. Yes. Right. And the further away that support is from them, the more nervous that they get if something goes wrong or they don't understand how to do something.

26:13Yeah, absolutely. I will also say too, I think that oftentimes, and you know what, this is something that I thought was really interesting. The practice manager that I was kind of talking to about this, they very much said that that was their first mistake in the first time. When I was like, well, what do you think went wrong the first time? And they're like, well, you know what? I didn't really get the team's perspective on it. And I feel like they weren't as bought in before we got it. It was kind of like we got the system. I interviewed. I did all of the things that I was supposed to do from a practice management standpoint.

26:42But that's what I'm going to do differently is this time I'm going to have them sit with the vendor. And I was like, I think that's a great idea. Yeah, I have actually – I need to put it on my website because I have a script that I give practice owners and practice managers to read to their staff when they kick off the process. We're going to start looking for a new PIMS. Yes. You know, when I'm working with them, they say, you know, we've brought in this consultant to help us as a team make a selection. Your input is important. You're going to be involved in the whole thing. We're going to make sure that you have the training resources you need to be successful.

27:16Like that's day one. You read that to everybody at the team, at the all hands, right? Yeah, at the all hands. Wow, beautiful. What a way to feel like seen, right? As a team member. And then also I will say oftentimes for the individuals that might have been in the situation where like, oh, that happened to us. We tried to implement a system and it didn't work. Just know that these are all learning curves. Like we've all made these mistakes in general. Like I know that I've implemented. I actually, when you said two-way texting, that's the thing that comes to mind. I implemented two-way texting without letting my team, you know, have a say in which one we were going to do or anything like that.

27:49And they were very resistant. Luckily we got through the hump and we were fine and they loved two-way texting once we were there. but I do remember like we all have to learn that lesson you know what I mean at some point yeah we just we just do and and and like you're not alone right if you're feeling overwhelmed you're feeling like you're getting beat up by the team or you're feeling like the vendor did you dirty I I did put you at two three hundred other practice managers or CSRs that are feeling the same way yes right yes I'm I'm actually I'm working on a book about PIMS you know choosing a PIMS at a practice and I'm adding stories from practice managers and owners who have been through the ringer.

28:25Oh, well, there you go. Yes. So that people can kind of hear and say, okay, yeah, that sounds like something I went through too. Yeah. I guess, you know, I didn't get it wrong. This is just something that happens. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. I love that. Well, I'll be very excited when that comes out because I'm definitely going to get that. For sure. I will send you a copy for free. Oh, thank you. Thank you. That's wonderful. And for any of you listening, obviously, now you know you've got that script, too. We'll make sure to put that in the show notes to help you out. Yeah. If you're looking for that kind of switch.

28:54Well, there are so many things that I want to ask you from an Action Steps perspective. Do you want to take a break right here? Sounds good. Awesome. You believe that Uncharted is turning 10? That's right. Uncharted Veterinary Conference is celebrating 10 years, and you're going to want to be there. It is happening on January 15, 2027, and registration is open right now. UnchartedVet.com. Hope to see you there. All right. Well, let's get into some action steps here because I'm sure people are going to be very excited to hear from you on this because I just know you're just a wealth of knowledge for all of this.

29:26So for a manager who doesn't know where to start, what is a realistic first 30 days and how much time should they expect to put in whenever we're looking at implementing any kind of AI tools or in general softwares, things like that? Yeah, so I think a realistic first step, I always start with, I call it the ones, right? So, you know, you pick one person to own it, a one-page document of what you want to accomplish for one workflow. Make it simple at first, especially when you're talking for AI tools, right? Like, you know, you look at something like an AI scribe. And maybe it does post appointment follow-up notes for the client or writes appointments to somebody.

30:12But you don't have to do all that day one, right? Like the essence is save time on keeping records current. So like, hey, we might start just having the techs use it to take subjective and then put a pin in that, right? And make sure that's working well for a couple weeks. So I would say start there. I, depending on the size and scope of the software, whether it touches, you know, your whole practice or just a team in your practice, you know, it could be a commitment of four hours a month to as much as 12 to 18 hours a month. It just really depends on the scope. I think something like a, like a simple AI tool to help improve workflows, you know, you can get away with just an hour a week, you know, defining here's what we want to accomplish this week.

30:59Here's how we're going to measure it. And measuring is very important. You know, how long does it take the techs or the assistants to do the subjective typing versus talking into their phones and having the scribe, you know, enter it into the PIMS. And measure that for a week. Do you get a better performance or is it the same? If it's the same, it's not worth it. Yeah. Right? Yes, yes. It's not worth those changes. So I think when you're starting to think about rollout, those are the important things. And the other thing I always recommend is looking at all of your existing tools in your tech stack and writing them down and doing kind of like an audit.

31:39You might have a tool that already does some of what you're looking to do. And now if you bring on another tool and you're not using the first one, you're paying for two things. And maybe down the road not using both, which is crazy. So I always like to do that audit. It takes about 90 minutes. I have an article on my website about how to do it. We could put that in the show notes too. Yeah, definitely will. I love that you started there because you immediately brought me back to, so in my practice, and this was, mind you, this was a long time ago. It was early 2010s. So most practices did not have email yet, believe it or not.

32:12And so you know what I'm talking about, where it's just like the whole world has email. What do you mean? There was still faxing a lot. A lot of clinics still had paper records, not digital. And so it was the 2010s is what I'm getting at. And so at the time, I wanted to implement two-way texting. And one of the things that I had noticed was that we were paying a separate company for faxing. We were paying a separate company for our phones. We were paying a separate company for our voicemail and on-hold messaging. And we were paying a different company for something else. I can't remember what it was.

32:43But in being able to audit those pieces, when I was looking for two-way texting, it made it so much easier to find the company that I did because I was like, wait a minute, why am I going to get this other two-way texting company and only have two-way texting when this company actually offers faxing and it offers the on-hold ability and all of these different things? If I go with this one, I can actually remove these other four services that we're paying for and it actually ends up evening out and I'm not actually spending any more money because I'm no longer paying for these services. But I only found that out because the audit that you're talking about.

33:15So I genuinely love that you said that. Yes. It's super important. And I, you know, something that I help practice with and we find software all the time that's still being paid for and nobody even remembers the last time it was used. I believe that. I so believe that. Yeah. It breaks my heart. Yeah, I know. But I'm glad you're there to help him out with that. I had pretty much the same exact thing for this one. It's so funny. It was almost word for word. I was like, hey, pick a problem, one feature, and one metric. You know, whether that's the phone volume, whether it's the soap notes, whether it's the charts in general, like pick the problem that you're trying to solve.

33:54Start with the why, because that's going to be something that's really important. And I also had make sure that you've been measuring or measure first. Because if what you're trying to do is like reduce the phone backup, right? Like we have all these phones ringing all the time. Do you know how many calls you're getting in 60 days? Do you know how many, what percentage of those are getting answered? What percentage are getting missed? how quickly we're answering those, because that's the data that you're going to want to compare to after you have the software. Because if you're spending$200 a month on the software and you're still receiving the same number or volume of calls, you have no idea whether the software is working or where to even help it.

34:30Like maybe it is that the software is working, but we need to train the team on using the software more. We don't know that unless we have kind of these metrics to look at. So I'm right there with you. Pick the problem. The other thing I like to throw in there to expand this, especially for practice managers and their crazy schedules is, you know, block off the time every week, whether it's 30 minutes, 20 minutes, an hour, because it's so easy for other things to overrun. And now you end up paying free trials over. You still haven't even looked at, evaluated, measured, and now you're paying for it.

35:04Yeah. Right. Yeah. So block off the time on your calendar for that thing to measure it and review with the staff how it's working. and then give yourself a backup block in case on the block off time day, a tech didn't show up for work or called out sick or that great Dane came in and had a seizure in the lobby and everybody's running around like crazy. Things happen, right? But when you're evaluating things, you have to prioritize the time. Otherwise, it just will slip away from you. Yeah, and I'm a big fan of those reminders, right? Like, hey, we're two weeks away from when this trial ends and you have not looked at whether it's working.

35:42Like you need to look at that. I love your idea of that backup time. I'm a big fan of narrating your leadership. And so a lot of it is also communicating with the staff, right? Like, hey, I'm going to be taking this time to really focus. I want to make sure that we pick a good tool for you guys. And in order to do that, I need to make sure that I focus this time on that. But that way, whether you're putting it in the schedule, whether you're actually talking to the team, we're helping to protect that time because that's the real value in the tool, right? is do we know that it's working? Do we know how it's working and how it's going to integrate within our own workflows?

36:17So getting to this point of like, okay, we've got the 30 days, we've picked some problems that we want to solve. We've done kind of an audit of our systems. We've talked about our workflows and kind of where these tools will integrate. How do you get buy-in from a team that has already been burned by software change? Because I think that's a little different from how do you get buy-in from a team that hasn't been through this yet, right? Like they're usually pretty excited. The ones who have been burned, a little bit harder. Yeah, you know, I think that a burned team isn't resistant to change.

36:52A burned team is resistant to being experimented on. Ah, yes. So I think that the first thing that you have to do in a leadership role is be honest and just get up in front of the team and say, look, we screwed up, right? It did not go the way we had hoped. And share with them the lessons that were learned, why you believe it didn't work, it went off the rails. And then make sure they understand what's going to be different this time. Yes. And I think that also it's very important to communicate with them, this is how you are going to check in with us to tell us what's going right and what's not going right with the software.

37:39Whether you get a new mini whiteboard to leave notes on, whether you're using, if you're using like a Slack tool internally, create a channel for that feedback, right? So, and this is their safe spot to say, hey, time out, right? I'm starting to feel like the last time. Let's stop and reassess. And I think that, you know, good leaders are comfortable with anybody on the team raising their hand and saying, we've got to pause. I don't like the way this is going. Let's regroup as a team and work through it. Yeah. And then again, I think it goes also goes back to the one, one, one, right? One task, one workflow, one thing you're going to measure at a time.

38:22and seeing the steps play out like that is really going to help turn that team around that maybe previously you just kind of threw new stuff at them and said, hey, good luck. Yeah. Yeah. Looked easy to me. Yeah. I am so right there with you. I think there's a lot of power and vulnerability and being able to admit that we're all growing and we're all learning things. And for me, one of the things that I've noticed is like, if there's been a situation like this, I am so happy to say, you know, like, hey, guys, I realized that the last implementation didn't go the way that we had planned it, and we wanted it to go way smoother.

38:58I don't believe that we always fail. I believe that we either win or we learn something. And so we learned a lot of what not to do. And we learned a lot of the guardrails that we need to have. And so I want to talk to you guys about that, that specifically, what did we learn from the last implementation? What tools do you feel like would have been really helpful? How should we organize ourself for the feedback? What are some things we learned from the implementation process itself that would make you guys feel more comfortable as we start exploring the new systems or the different systems? But that way they're like, they understand, they're like, yeah, you're right.

39:29That last one was a train wreck. And I appreciate you acknowledging that. And also I would love to make sure or feel confident that we're doing things a little bit differently so that this time around, I'm not feeling as stressed. And that alone lowers my stress so much. Okay. So can I share a real curve ball story that I had to deal with? Yeah. So I'm helping a two location practice with a PIMS change. The owner practices at one of the locations. They picked a cloud PIMS. They are very miserable at that location. The other location loves it. They're dialed in. The whole team doesn't want to go.

40:10And when I first met with all of them, I was talking to the one location that's not having a great experience. And I was like, are we replacing both hospitals or just this one? And they were like, oh no, both hospitals. And then when I talked to the other hospital team, they were like, we don't want to switch. So I had to go back to the owner and say, look, you've got to be open to the idea that if they're not wowed by what we're evaluating, looking at, let them stay. Is it worth a PIMS transition for a team that everything is going well? Because a PIMS transition is painful. It is painful, yeah.

40:46And she took that feedback from the team and they are open to the idea of having two different PIMS at the locations. But you just have to listen to your team. You have to understand how everybody's working and what's going to be best for the operations of the hospital. Yeah. I'm so right there with you. I'm also a big fan of setting those usage rules early. Who's going to review the AI generated notes? What client data goes where? I think that clear rules, guidelines, audit processes kind of help lower some of that anxiety that's being felt with like, well, what if there's errors? What if there's mistakes?

41:22Which you obviously addressed so beautifully earlier in the episode, the AI tools for medicine aren't exactly where we want them to be. So what are we going to do about that if we are bringing them in? And then I'm also a big fan of making training fun. So for example, you can make a Jeopardy board with Google Slides now. Why not make it your new PIMS Jeopardy board or your new AI tool Jeopardy board? You could do a relay where it's like a race to see who can check in a new client on the new PIMS system fastest you know what i mean and then the next race is whoever can you know close out an invoice or check somebody out the fastest but either way it's kind of like a relay race where it's just like everybody's moving from one task to the other task but you're making it fun or in general like the practice running a pre-recorded ai phone call right like what does that look like what does it sound like if we are going to bring those in like what are we going to be doing but either way you're making the training and the practice a fun fun situation right whether it's like you're going to play Dungeons and Dragons, but it's pins and AI tools, right?

42:24And like you create a board, whatever it is, make it fun. I had a practice who was doing a contest every week to see who could find the most ridiculous mistake the AI scribe made in a note. I love that. Yeah. And they would write it on the whiteboard and they had a little gong. So like they would gong when they found it and they'd run out and they'd write it on the whiteboard. And at the end of the week, whoever won on that list got like a$25 gift card or something. That was really cool. That's what a fun way to celebrate the fact that we are, you know, finding these things and implementing and learning and growing.

43:00And so I love that. And everybody's looking now, right? Everybody's going through the notes, looking for these things because they want the$25. Because they want the$25. And the bragging rights. Yeah. So what, okay. So I know that some of the things that we've talked about is like writing down the processes, picking one problem and that kind of thing is super important. What do you do if a practice doesn't have their processes written down? Like, can they still, do you think that they can still sit and analyze all of these tools that are available to them? Or do you think they, that that is like a must, like you do really need to have most of your processes written down before you even start looking?

43:33I do think, I don't, I don't know that the answer is most of your processes. So if you have nothing written down, right, I would get together with the team and, you know, everybody gets five slivers of paper, right? And on each one, you write, what do you think are most important, five most important processes are? And then you towel them up, right? And so then maybe you go in with five processes or eight processes or 10 process or whatever you can stomach built from that list that the team assembled together. It's, if you go in with nothing, right? You'll have no basis to compare tools because really the best comparisons when you're doing an evaluation are your processes seen in each tool, as opposed to just letting the vendor show you the paths that they do day in and day out every day of the week, that they know work, that don't ever crash, that don't ever have bad, you know, that don't take 90 clicks.

44:40You want to see at least some of your processes being done in that tool. Yeah, I absolutely love that. I think the fastest way to write a process is to really like, for me, record yourself doing it anyway. So like, whether it's like assigning those out to the team and being like, hey, let's just do this process on Zoom where they're going to record it and we can pull out the transcript and make a protocol out of it, right? Like figure out, like, can you use those tools to create your processes too? I'm a big fan of Loom, Tango, Zoom, all of those will record it and then kind of create a protocol out of it.

45:16Yeah. And then, well, and then you can take those transcripts and put them in chat GPT and say, make me an SOP. Yeah, absolutely. Right. Yeah. 1000%. And now when you get that PIMS where there's 20 ways to do things, well, you know how you do things and you've just got to adapt that one part of the SOP to the new PIMS. And honestly, once you have your new PIMS, if you do it again, you can easily create training videos that way, right? So now you've got a little link. Somebody like new in the practice can open up. This is how you check in a client or this is how you input a new client in. So I love all of that.

45:49Well, this has been super, super helpful, Adam. Thank you so much. Is there any other final things like from an action steps perspective that you think a practice manager should really put in when we're talking about these AI tools or PIMs and implementation in general? Yeah. So I always start small, right? Don't try and climb Mount Everest the first day. The tools can be very helpful. but if you just expect them to solve all your problems without any kind of plan or evaluation or measurement, I promise they're not going to work out for your hospital. So pick one small problem, solve that, and then move on to the next one.

46:29And that's the best advice I can give with any of these tools. Well, thank you so much, Adam. Where can people hear more about you? Vetsoftwarehub.com. You can find me on all the socials. I'm at Vet Software Adam, TikTok, Instagram, LinkedIn, all that stuff. Fantastic. Well, thank you so much for sitting down and having this chat with me. I really appreciate you. I just knew you were going to just fill my head with all this knowledge and all these pieces that I think are going to really help the audience as well. So thank you so much for being with me today. Thank you for having me. I always have so much fun talking to you.

46:59Me too. So this was awesome. I'm sure I'll see you at the next conference. Thank you so much. Absolutely. And that's it. That's what we got for y 'all. I hope you enjoyed this episode. I know I certainly did. Adam is just so fun to talk to. I genuinely love chatting with him about all sorts of PIM stuff. He is my go-to whenever I have any questions around PIMs, just because he is so well-connected and he's so just happy to share resources. And I love people that are just so willing to help others that they are putting out these resources for free. So I'll make sure to link all of those in the show notes.

47:27And for those of you that have not registered for Uncharted 2027, where are you at? What's happening? How come you haven't seen your name pop through? You know we're going to have tons of fun and you're going to get super FOMO and you don't go. I want to see you register for Uncharted 2027. We're celebrating 10 years and I hope to see you there. Thanks everyone.

47:49Are you a medical leader who has not invested in themselves recently? Guys, don't miss your chance. The 10-year anniversary of Uncharted Veterinary Conference is coming up in January. January 15th, the day before VMX. Come to Orlando, have an incredible time with us, and then stay for the conference. Don't miss it. UnchartedVet.com