You can have better appointments and less paperwork right now.
I am in love with AI scribes and think (almost) every veterinarian should be using them starting right now. I’m serious.
People talk a lot about innovation in veterinary medicine, and most of it is pretty ephemeral. They refer to innovation that has brought us a new drug that we will use in either dogs or cats and only for a specific type of presentation. They talk about new ways to try to get pet owners to pay attention, or how the most modern veterinary practices lay out their swanky buildings to accomplish a specific goal (efficiency, low patient stress, etc).
All of this is great. I love to see our profession evolving and moving forward in every aspect of practice. It keeps things fresh and interesting, and it makes me proud to be a part of a profession that is driving forward into making a bigger impact for more pets and people.
None of these innovations, however, are going to have the impact of AI scribes. None of them.
I’ve been using an AI scribe for the last few weeks, and I’m never going back. I am also making it my personal mission for 2025 to get as many veterinarians and vet clinics as possible using them as quickly as possible. I don’t care what brand you use. I don’t care if the other vets around you are using it. I am going to try to convince you to pick a brand and give it a try immediately.
Let me back up for a second. For those who don’t know what I’m talking about, there are a number of veterinary-specific companies that have created AI apps that listen to medical conversations and then generate medical records from those conversations. The app lives on your phone and is linked to a website you can open on any computer.
Imagine pressing a record button on your cell phone and then having your technician give you the patient history just like he does now. Then, you carry your phone into the exam room, ask the pet owner if it’s okay to record for medical notes (not one person has said no to me so far), and set your phone on the counter. You ask whatever questions you want to the client, talk about life outside practice, tell bad dad jokes (maybe that’s just me), talk through your physical exam findings, and just do everything you usually do in in the exam and treatment rooms. When you get back to your laptop, all of your notes are already in and ready for you to review and approve them.
Why do I think it’s so important for veterinarians to give this a try?
Here is my experience so far using an AI scribe: I have cut probably 3-5 minutes off of every appointment I see because I’m not typing a complete record when I’m done. My records are much better than they have ever been in the past because they are better organized, bullet-pointed for clarity, more complete, and more detailed. I also enjoy being in the exam room more because I’m not trying to remember everything and am giving the client and patient my full attention, and my client communication is better because I’m getting an AI generated summary email that I send out with the record through our PIMS system.
I don’t know if 3-5 minutes per appointment sounds like a lot, but think about it for a minute. If I see 15 appointments in a day, that’s 45-60 minutes I have freed up AND I am getting better records than I have now. How many vets are staying an hour after their shift ends to type up charts? Way too many! Those people could be done when their shift ends starting tomorrow. Isn’t that worth investigating?
What AI scribes screw up: I’m only really familiar with two of these services, so please know I’m speaking only from my own experience here. Yes, AI scribes make mistakes. You absolutely must review what they create and not just trust that it’s perfect. Skimming your chart (especially when it’s well organized) takes a fraction of the time it takes to write a chart up, but it does have to be done.
The AI scribes I have used tend to make mistakes most often around:
- Clinic Slang – If your team talks about “kitty combos,” “COHATs,” or things like that, the AI might mess this up and think you said something else.
- Multiple Conversations – If one of my techs is giving me a history and another tech starts asking me about a case I saw yesterday, the AI often gets that wrong and you need to delete those bullet points.
- Clients Jumping Between Pets – If the client starts telling you about a different pet at home, that can cause confusion for the scribe.
- Drugs that Sound Similar – Simplera, Simplicef, Sentinel, and Simparica… When you review, always check your drugs.
Once you are aware of the pitfalls, it doesn’t take long to adjust your language to clarify what’s happening for the scribe. I found myself naturally shifting how I said things after just one day (because I saw what was happening when I reviewed each chart).
How to get the veterinarians on board: Veterinarians are notorious for their dislike of change, especially around how they work in the exam rooms. In this case, I don’t think they are generally a very big obstacle. If there’s one thing that motivates veterinarians, it’s seeing other veterinarians having success. Also, if one veterinarian in the practice wants to keep working without a scribe, that doesn’t hurt anyone else or hold back the other doctors. Complete participation isn’t required to move forward.
When I started using a scribe, I was moving faster, the technicians were happier because they weren’t being asked to help capture information, and my medical records were easier for the other doctors to grab and read. I started using an AI scribe without any support from the clinic or PIMS system, so no one was inconvenienced by my own trial. I just signed up and started by copying and pasting between windows on my laptop. The other doctors quickly noticed and a lot of them saw how the technology would benefit them. That’s how the ball starts to roll.
What it costs: Prices seem to be all over the board right now, and I see programs ranging from $50 – $250 per doctor per month.
Which one should I get: I really want vets to look at this technology to make their lives better, and I worry if I shout out a specific company people will think this is all some kind of advertisement. For that reason, I am definitely not telling people to pick one service over another. The two I have experience with are ScribbleVet and VetSOAP, and I have liked them both. There are other well-known brands out there, but I simply haven’t tried them. Every service should give you a few weeks free to try their product, so it’s not hard to shop around.
If you are a veterinarian or if you manage a clinic, I hope you’ll give AI scribes a chance. I truly believe they can increase efficiency, improve medical quality, and benefit wellness and wellbeing for tired vet professionals. They are ready for clinical practice right now and only going to get better.
