Covetrus | PIMS/Rx Integration
Covetrus’ customers want efficient, simple, easy to use workflows
that are centralized through their practice management software.
Challenge
There was no way for practices to manage prescription requests for the Online Pharmacy within any PIMS (Practice Information Management System). Most customers complete 2 workflows. First, in their practice management software to ensure the prescription recommendation is properly documented. Secondly, someone will go out to the prescription management platform and create, renew or approve the prescription request.
This causes unnecessary workflows, disjointed experience for users of Covetrus products and a completely inefficient process for the practice. Creating prescriptions for home delivery is a multi-step process with a high degree of friction navigating between multiple applications, that could be alleviated for customers.
Role
I led the UX strategy for implementing a solution using a newly adopted SAFe Agile process. I conducted the initial round of interviews with internal and external clients to gain insights that would help in prioritizing the feature set, facilitated design thinking workshops, led design reviews with IC's, worked with researchers to shape the research plan, and presented solutions to stakeholders and leadership.
Discovery
Research Plan
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Conduct internal stakeholder interviews to gain a better understanding of the value proposition and competitive edge.
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Conduct external client interviews to gain qualitative insights around practice workflows and identify opportunities, and validate assumptions
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Facilitate exercises with Veterinarians, Practice Managers, and Veterinary Technicians at Western Vet conference to help prioritize feature desirability, validate proto-personas and understand workflows.
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Design Thinking workshops with POs/PMs.
What We Learned
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An integration of the Rx and PIMS platforms is the most highly desired feature requested by veterinary practices.
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Prior PIMS releases provided a “magic button” that would send prescriptions directly to the Prescription Management platform. This is what users want, but it wasn't feasible due to the manual effort and cost involved in having customer service agents curate carts in our storefront.
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Practices needed to have defined user roles for writing prescriptions
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Practices prescribing decisions vary based on practice size and workflows. Some prescribing in the Exam room, some outside of visits, and some in bulk at the end of the day.
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“Ideally, we’d be entering the prescription in while we’re in the exam room. Do it all in front of the client.”
“When veterinarians don’t have time, they often resort to written scripts.”
“Have customers review you and share what they had to say. Click to edit and add their testimonial.”
Define
Customer Journey
Workflow
Design
Initial low-fi wires were created and used for testing scenarios. Throughout the prototyping process, designs were iterated and based on usability testing results and stakeholder feedback.
Hi-fi designs followed the SAFe Agile continuous delivery pipeline process with continuous exploration and integration.
Integration Alpha Testing
12 Week Alpha Test Metrics
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The goal was to have 10 practices between AVimark and eVetPractice participating in this round of testing. 8 practices engaged in using the integration.
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Of the submitted Proactive Rx scripts, 12% are from AVImark practices 88% from eVet practices via the integration, all practices are still using the PX platform as well.
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Lower utilization than expected
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Change management is hard when practices have a lot of other tasks to complete.
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The log-in is a barrier for AVimark users.
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For some practices, it was a low-volume month for appointments.
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Key Improvements Identified
Through a second round of interviews with practices we identified a number of key improvements and adjusted designs in the following areas:
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Participants said the workflow is faster, they like that it’s on one screen and they can create a new prescription directly from their PIMs. Overall, participants believe it will save time
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Updated the linked product flow to allow users the manage their links
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Removed inactive patients from the search functionality
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Created a "sticky header" to improve navigation
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Search usability improvements
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Improved on-premise log-in flow
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Updated error messaging and verbiage to improve usability
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Increased UI size within eVet for improved usability
40%
800
have tried the new integration
Practices activated in eVet Practice
20%
submitting proactive prescriptions
"This integration is very simple and intuitive which saves us time by making the prescription creation workflow much faster. With the information being on a screen embedded in out software, it’s easy to compare products and write a prescription recommendation in just a few quick steps."
Outcomes
'The PIMS/RX Integration continues to improve with each iteration and although missing the mark on some initial desirable requests, teams were able to implement and deploy quickly.
Business goals were reached by streamlining workflows, allowing prescription creation, approvals and renewals between a practice management software and Covetrus Prescription Management.
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Successfully aligned Covetrus products and services into integrated platforms.
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Create a service that will help drive customer loyalty and increase utilization and revenue by making the online pharmacy an embedded part of a practices day-to-day process.
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Developed a long-term scalable solution that can be expanded to any PIMS, globally.
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Created a customer-focused iterative plan for executing prescription management workflows and processes.
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Brought awareness to utilization and revenue, by exposing the possibility in the workflow(s) or through screen design.