Hidden Time Wasters in Veterinary Practices and How to Spot Them

Running a veterinary practice means juggling a thousand moving parts – patients, clients, staff, equipment, and technology, all competing for attention. With so much going on, time is your most valuable (and limited) resource.

But here’s the catch: in most practices, hours are lost each week to inefficiencies that hide in plain sight. They don’t look dramatic, and often they’re brushed off as “just how we do things here.” Yet over time, they quietly erode productivity, drain staff morale, and cut into revenue.

These are the hidden time wasters. And the first step to fixing them is learning how to spot them.

1. Double Entry and Duplicated Work

How many times does your team type the same information into different systems? A client’s details might be logged in your PMS, re-entered into an insurance claim portal, and copied again into a spreadsheet.

On the surface, each entry only takes a few minutes. But add it up: if four team members spend 20 minutes a day duplicating data, think how much time that totals per over a month.

Duplicated work isn’t just inefficient – it’s dangerous. A simple typing error can mean a claim is rejected, a reminder doesn’t get sent, or medical notes don’t match up. That creates rework, unhappy clients, and potential risks.

2. Clunky Workarounds

Every practice has them. Printing a form to scan it back in. Emailing files to yourself because the shared drive is unreliable. Using sticky notes to track callbacks.

Workarounds feel like clever fixes in the moment, but they’re a warning sign that your systems aren’t fit for purpose. Worse, they tend to multiply: once one team member finds a shortcut, it spreads. Before long, your workflows look like patchwork.

The result? A slower, more error-prone process that frustrates staff and confuses clients. Imagine the impression when a client sees you juggling paper forms or losing track of a note written on the back of a sticky note.

3. Waiting for Technology

Few things are more demoralising than sitting in front of a frozen screen or waiting for a sluggish computer to log in. These delays might seem trivial – just a minute here, a couple of minutes there – but multiplied across your team, they’re one of the biggest hidden drains on practice productivity.

And the damage goes beyond lost time. Constant disruptions break concentration. A vet who’s pulled out of the flow of a consult because their system crashes isn’t just annoyed – they’re less present for the patient in front of them. Over time, this builds frustration and stress across the whole team.

4. Interrupt-Driven Workflows

Veterinary practices are busy, unpredictable environments. But constant interruptions don’t just slow things down – they create chaos.

Picture this: reception is mid-call with a client when the second phone rings. A nurse is preparing a patient for surgery but gets pulled away to fix the label printer.

5. Unclear Ownership

Some jobs in a practice don’t have a clear owner – so they fall between the cracks. Restocking supplies, chasing lab results, following up on insurance queries… these “invisible” tasks often end up half-done, late, or picked up by whoever happens to notice.

The hidden cost is twofold:

• Time: It takes longer when people hesitate, double-check, or redo what’s already been done.
• Morale: Team members get frustrated when they feel like they’re picking up other people’s slack.

In the long run, a lack of ownership breeds resentment, inefficiency, and an inconsistent client experience.

Why Spotting Time Wasters Matters

These hidden inefficiencies aren’t just about losing minutes on the clock. They create stress for your team, frustration for your clients, and lost income for your practice.

The good news? Once you’ve trained yourself to spot them, they become impossible to ignore. And that awareness is the first step towards fixing them.

In next week’s blog, we’ll look at practical solutions you can put in place to eliminate these drains on time – and free your team to focus on what really matters: patient care and client relationships.