Start the process of determining what your Software Classes should be by creating a list of information you would like to know about the profit and compliance of your products and services, the changes you might like to make with respect to pricing or production pay, the standard of care services on which you would like feedback, and the streams of revenue in our industry that are tracked in benchmarking. Below are some ideas of what to classify in your practice and why, however as of 2016, we built a standard classification list that we recommend to our clients. This list is very close to what many in the industry are using and what a growing number of benchmarks are built around. Any difference between ours and others can be attributed to the way we choose to pay out production. In some cases, certain parts of services (monitoring fees for example) are paid out a lower amount or not at all, so these are moved to a separate class of their own. In other cases, we use a subset of a category (annual exams for example) as a way to measure compliance to other services, so they are separated out.
You may view our classification table here. The download is organized into four columns. The two on the left represent services and the two on the right represent inventory. We organized it this way so that it’s easier to know how to create classes in a software like Cornerstone. In the second and fourth columns we have added sub-classes, again a possibility with Cornerstone. The sub-classes we recommend on our list assist with tracking certain services in greater detail or help us to pay out doctor production more accurately.
Anesthesia/sedation: Many practices choose to price surgery based on time spent in the OR. This category gives you feedback on a doctor-by-doctor basis on time spent in OR and success of the charging protocol. There is also benchmarking on this class |
Bathing/Grooming: Typically priced as a shopped service and with it’s own set of expenses, this category helps us determine our ROI with this line of our work. There is also benchmarking on this class |
Controlled Substances: Most software have the ability to manage controlled substances, but the controlled substances must be isolated into their own class to maximize the software’s usefulness |
Dental: Reflects our standard of care. Assists us with ROI. There is also benchmarking on this class |
Dental OTC: Reflective of our success in educating clients about dentistry |
Annual Exams: Helps us with determining compliance |
Exams: Helps us understand productivity and compliance to standards of care |
Final Care: Used for ROI purposes |
Flea/Tick: Used for ROI purposes. Informs us of our success with our Standard of Care (SOC). There is also benchmarking on this class |
Heartworm: Used for ROI purposes. Informs us of our success with our SOC. There is also benchmarking on this class |
Heartworm testing: Gives us feedback on ROI of wellness blood packages and our SOC |
Hospitalization: Gives us feedback on individual doctor performance and ROI. There is also benchmarking on this class |
Hospitalization No Production: Used to distinguish hospitalization services on which we would like to pay a different production bonus |
Hospital Supplies: Used for inventory management purposes and ROI |
Injectables: Used for ROI and pricing. There is also benchmarking on this class |
Lab Outside: Used for ROI. There is also benchmarking on this class |
Lab Inhouse: Used for ROI |
Lab Chronic: Used to gauge doctor performance, success of reminders and client education, and our SOC |
Lab Wellness: Used to gauge doctor performance, ROI, and our SOC |
Rx diet: Used to gauge doctor performance, success of reminders and client education, and our SOC. There is also benchmarking on this class |
Professional Services: Main classification for all other services that haven’t been distinguished otherwise |
OTC products: Use for pricing and tax purposes |
Pharmacy: Used for ROI and pricing. There is also benchmarking on this class |
Administrative Fees: A way of organizing and reviewing all of the admin fees we charge and to separate these out of doctor production |
Communication: A way of organizing our communication codes |
Surgical Services: A way to gauge doctor performance, ROI, and pricing. There is also benchmarking on this class |
Spays and Neuters Feline: A revenue center that we are concerned may be eroding. A way to determine the retention of our new kitten clients. ROI and SOC |
Spays and Neuters Canine: A revenue center that we are concerned may be eroding. A way to determine the retention of our new puppy clients. ROI and SOC |
Core Vax: Used to see what our baseline of client compliance is. There is also benchmarking on this class |
Non Core Vax: Used to gauge doctor performance, success of reminders and client education, and our SOC |
Radiology: Used for pricing, to gauge doctor performance, ROI. There is also benchmarking on this class |