Paper treatment sheets have worked in veterinary hospitals for decades. They’re familiar, easy to grab, and woven into the way many teams move through a shift. But paper also asks a lot of the people using it. Someone has to keep the sheet current, make sure changes reach the rest of the team, update the whiteboard, reconcile charges, and hand everything off clearly before the next person takes over.
That’s why we created The Veterinary Hospital’s Guide to Going Digital: A Readiness Checklist for Replacing Paper Treatment Sheets, a free guide to help hospitals figure out whether paper is still working for them, what to look for in a digital treatment system, and how to plan the transition.
When Paper Starts Creating Extra Work
A paper treatment sheet can only be in one place at a time, but patient care rarely is. Over the course of a busy day, that can mean tracking down the clipboard, relaying an order change verbally because someone else has the sheet, or realizing the whiteboard and treatment sheet no longer match. Sometimes a missed charge only gets caught at discharge, after the treatment has already been given.
Most hospitals find ways to work around those moments, and over time, those workarounds just become part of the day. So the question isn’t whether paper can work. It’s how much extra work your team is doing to make it work.
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What Changes With Digital Treatment Sheets
Going digital shouldn’t just mean putting the same treatment sheet on a screen.
With a digital treatment sheet, several people can see the current plan at once. Instead of scanning a clipboard to figure out what’s next, the team can see what’s coming up, what’s due, what’s been completed, and what’s overdue. When an order changes, the updated plan is there for the next person who looks at it.
Digital systems can also put more of the tools the team already uses during patient care in the same place, from patient boards and medication calculators to drug information, anesthesia monitoring, and charge capture.
Not every hospital needs the same setup, though. An ER that manages hospitalized patients around the clock may have very different priorities from a smaller practice with only occasional inpatients. Before comparing feature lists, it helps to look at how your own team works and where paper creates the most extra steps.
What’s Inside the Going Digital Guide
This interactive guide helps veterinary hospital leaders assess whether paper treatment sheets are still working, understand what changes with digital treatment tracking, and plan for a transition. It includes:
- A quick readiness check to identify where paper may be creating extra work
- A paper-versus-digital comparison showing how common hospital tasks change
- A digital treatment-system checklist covering treatment status, patient boards, medication safety, anesthesia, PIMS compatibility, cloud access, implementation, and support
- A hospital audit worksheet to map where information lives, how changes are communicated, and where staff rely on unofficial workarounds
- A transition-planning worksheet to identify goals, stakeholders, training needs, concerns, and timing
You don’t have to be ready to leave paper behind to take a closer look at how it’s working. The guide helps you see where extra work is showing up now and what you’d want a digital system to do differently.
