Q1 2026 at Instinct was defined by one question: What does it actually take for a veterinary practice to run well—clinically and operationally—for the providers, front desk, practice manager, and pet owner waiting at home?
From giving pet owners a window into their pet’s health to making chronic prescription management feel less like a scavenger hunt, here’s what our product team shipped this past quarter and why we’re excited about it.
Less Phone Tag, More Self-Service for Pet Owners
For too long, the practice-client relationship has been maintained through phone calls and paper discharge summaries.
Enter Instinct EMR’s Pet Owner Portal. It gives clients a secure, self-service way to access their pet’s health information: upcoming appointments, active prescriptions, medical records, and preventive care reminders. And the best part? No passwords to forget—a magic link is sent straight to their inbox to log in.
Practices stay in full control with an on/off toggle, along with sharing settings that determine exactly what’s visible. Just flip it on when you’re ready.
The Pet Owner Portal is our first step toward building exciting new features, including online booking directly for pet owners, and a big part of how we’re deepening our focus on general practice.
Learn more: Extend Your PIMS to Every Client With Instinct EMR’s Pet Owner Portal
Read: 5 Red Flags When Evaluating Veterinary PIMS (& What to Look For Instead)
A Smarter Way to See the Full Patient Story
No one should have to click through five screens to get up to speed on a patient before walking into an exam room.
The new Patient Snapshot page on the chart lets providers choose how patient information is organized based on the type of visit ahead—Wellness, Clinical, or Follow-Up. It’s all the patient data you need prioritized based on what matters most to you. This is the place to get the full picture, and fast.
We’ve also made it easier for teams to capture what was done, when, and where all in one place. As we’ve expanded to support general practice, one of the biggest gaps we’ve heard is around onboarding new patients. With our new Historical Vaccine & Health Service History Records update, a patient’s preventive care history now comes with them when they transfer in.
And specialty practices managing patients with extensive prescription histories will love the Rx Panel improvements. Instead of scrolling through a wall of entries to find what you need, you can search by product name, filter by status, and expand the panel for a bigger view.
Other Features That Eliminate Everyday Bottlenecks
Appointment Reminders enables practices to schedule up to three reminders per visit, delivered via email or text (SMS) with customizable templates and settings. You’ll have fewer no-shows, more confirmed appointments, and less time on hold.
Our Digital Vaccine Certificate feature eliminates an entire paper-based workflow. You can generate it and sign it in just a few clicks—no printing, scanning, or emailing required. If you’re a general practice clinic vaccinating dozens of patients a day, this update is definitely for you.
And finally, with Stored Cards for Instinct Payments, clients can pre-authorize a credit card for use at future visits, reducing transaction time from 26 seconds to just three—over eight times faster!
Read this: Improve Veterinary Workflow & Patient Care with Instinct EMR’s Chart Templates
Blog post: Is Your Veterinary PIMS Holding You Back? 5 Common Workarounds We See
From Diagnostics to Referrals, Everything Stays Connected
Great care depends on information flowing freely between systems, providers, and referring practices. We’ve continued to deepen our integration ecosystem, particularly around lab and diagnostics providers: IDEXX Web PACS for radiology, Orchard Harvest LIS, Lifepoint—the first built on our Partner API—and Parasight for diagnostics. We’ve also partnered with Lifepoint to bring HL7 compatibility to Instinct EMR. These are milestone integrations that show what’s possible when we build for everyday workflows.
On the operational side of veterinary care, we’ve added a new feature called Continuity of Care that lets teams carry forward treatment sheets from the last eight visits at check-in. They can also be carried forward between locations, so it’s easy to pick up where you left off and the patient’s care history doesn’t get lost.
And we’ve also improved notifications for referring hospitals and veterinarians. They can now receive scheduled alerts when patient documents are ready, so they get the updates they need without email overload. For specialty hospitals, it means better communication with referring practices.
Turn Financial Data Into Actionable Insight
We get that running a great practice means seeing the whole picture, not just the clinical one. So Q1 brought meaningful financial reporting upgrades for practice managers and ops leaders.
Our refreshed Transactions Overview Dashboard, complete with a day-by-hour staffing heatmap, provides quick visibility into practice financials for reconciliation. And our new Referrals Overview tracks referral revenue, top referrers by revenue/volume, and trends over time.
Learn more: Make Data Work for You with Instinct EMR’s Analytics Dashboards
Read: Hidden Profit in Plain Sight: The Financial Power of Instinct Charge Capture
What’s Coming Next in Q2
Every product update in Q1 came from something we heard from our users on customer calls, during practice visits, and in support tickets. We love hearing from you on what’s working and what’s not!
Q2 is already underway, and we’re working on some pretty exciting things. A freshly redesigned interface goes live for everyone in April, a new calendar experience is on the way, and there’s plenty more we can’t wait to share. Stay tuned—or better yet, request a no-pressure demo to see what’s new for yourself.
