When you’re opening a brand-new specialty hospital, the decisions feel endless—but every single one matters. From setting up workflows to earning the trust of clients and referring veterinarians, the tools you choose can make the difference between just getting by and truly thriving.
For United Vision Pet Partners, a privately owned specialty and referral hospital in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania, collaboration is everything. Founded in July 2024 by Michaela Gruenheid, DVM, MS, DACVS (SA); Jennifer West, VMD; and Marina Mavromatis, DVM, DACVR, it all began with three guiding principles—transparency, teamwork, and a vision for better veterinary care.
“We called it United Vision not because we have ophthalmology, but because we share a united vision of how pet care should be,” said practice manager Brittany Jones, CVT. “We wanted to build a hospital where collaboration and communication always come first.”
We spoke with Dr. Gruenheid, Dr. West, and Jones about how Instinct EMR has supported their continued growth by replacing paper charts, improving patient safety, and strengthening the culture of team collaboration at United Vision.
A New Kind of Specialty Practice
From day one, United Vision set out to practice veterinary medicine differently—they wanted to establish an environment where every voice is heard, from staff to clients to primary care veterinarians.
“The biggest thing about our three doctors is that they are here on the floor, doing the day-to-day with the whole team,” said Jones. “They are very involved. They are very open, transparent in their communications with the staff, and make sure everybody feels welcome and included. Having those conversations in the moment is different than a lot of specialty hospitals.”
And it’s not just the team who’s included—clients and referring veterinarians are closely involved in decisions and central to every patient’s care. That kind of collaboration takes tools that are easy to use, built for specialty practice, and designed to keep everyone on the same page.
For United Vision, the choice was clear: Instinct EMR.
Why Instinct EMR
All three owners already had experience with Instinct’s treatment sheets in past hospitals, making Instinct EMR the obvious choice.
“I came back from maternity leave at my old hospital, and they had just adopted Instinct,” Jones recalled. “I remember they were like, ‘You’re going to have training, take as long as you need.’ And I was an hour in and I was like, ‘I’m good to go, guys. I got this.’ It’s so user-friendly and so easy. You just go in, do the things, and you’re good to go.”
Choosing Instinct EMR for United Vision meant consistency, but also reassurance that the system would keep evolving.
“You bring up something and it’s always, ‘I’m taking that information, I’m figuring out how this could roll out in Instinct, and what that means for clients,’” Jones said.
For Dr. Gruenheid, usability was critical: “I think it was the easiest to navigate because I’m not very tech savvy. It was important for us that it didn’t take ten steps to get to one solution, which surgeons don’t enjoy. And integration was also important because Instinct integrates with a lot of things we were looking at.”
Safety, Speed, & Smarter Medicine
“I would say the treatment sheets are the most utilized, of course,” said Jones. “And then the charts. Having Plumb’s right in Instinct is such a game-changer because you don’t have to go somewhere else to look up your information. It’s all right in the palm of your hand.”
In emergencies, that integration makes a huge difference.
“If you have the patient’s weight, you’re literally just in the treatment sheet—this is the drug, this is the dose, boom. It calculates it and you’re done,” Jones explained.
For newer technicians especially, Instinct EMR reduces risk: “It removes that margin of error that you would get with paper treatment sheets,” Jones said. “Speed and knowledge—that’s what drives patient outcomes. With Instinct, we don’t waste time figuring out what the doctor wrote or recalculating things. It’s all there.”
A Partner in Support and Growth
The team also emphasized the role Instinct’s support has played in their success.
“They are phenomenal,” Jones said. “The most communicative, the most responsive. We always felt supported in our integration process—meetings, calls if we needed them, and email check-ins. Even now, after a year, the communication lines are still open. We’re constantly getting emails about new things coming out, being asked if we want to try something, or how it sounds for us.”
Dr. Gruenheid agreed: “Integration was smooth, and we always felt supported. It’s easy to use, easy to adapt, and built for specialty. That’s the most important thing.”
A Hospital & a Vision Built to Last
For United Vision, Instinct EMR is a tool that enables their culture of collaboration and their commitment to safer, smarter medicine.
“We wanted a system that would grow with us,” Jones said. “With Instinct, that’s exactly what we have.”
And that growth is ongoing. As specialty practice owners, Drs. Gruenheid and West see Instinct as a partner in building the hospital they envisioned from the start.
When asked what she’d say to another hospital considering Instinct EMR, Jones didn’t hesitate.
“Do it. Just do it.”
Thank you to Drs. Gruenheid and West, Brittany Jones, and the United Vision Pet Partners team for sharing their story with us!
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