A patient’s weight changes after their medication plan is prepared. A referral arrives with a medication history scattered across notes. A team member switches between charts while entering an order. These are ordinary moments in veterinary practice—and opportunities for an error to slip through.
In a recent Instinct webinar, emergency veterinarian Amanda Benton, VMD, Medical Quality/Data Oversight, and Alex Meyers, Account Executive, CVBL, explored how software can help teams recognize these risks during patient care. Here are five gaps they discussed, along with the safety checks that can help address them.
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1. Medication errors: Make dose verification part of ordering
Dr. Benton recalled a patient boarding at her hospital whose owner had brought medication intended for their other, larger dog. A patient safety warning in Instinct EMR helped catch the mismatch.
During the webinar, the presenters highlighted several checks available within Instinct EMR’s treatment sheet. Weight-based calculators help reduce manual calculations, medication safety warnings flag doses for review before ordering, and access to Plumb lets clinicians check drug information within the workflow. Teams can also see when the last dose was given, providing context before the next dose is administered.
These warnings support, rather than replace, clinical judgment. A clinician can review an alert and still choose to proceed with an order, but the safeguard provides an opportunity to pause and verify the decision first.
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2. Weight-based dosing: Revisit medications when the weight changes
A dose calculation can be correct for the weight entered and still need another look when that weight changes.
During the demonstration, Dr. Benton changed a patient’s recorded weight from 12 kg to 15 kg. Instinct EMR displayed a medication review prompt, bringing the existing medications back into view so the team could assess how the change affected dosing.
The prompt also gives the team a reason to ask why the weight changed in the first place. Dr. Benton encouraged teams to consider whether the difference reflected an actual change in the patient or a possible scale error. Practices can configure review thresholds by medication, while the clinician determines the appropriate response.
3. Anesthetic mishaps: Bring safety checks into routine procedures
Anesthesia is a setting where several patient safety concerns can overlap, including multiple medications administered within a short window, weight-based dosing, and the added challenge of a busy workload or distractions.
Dr. Benton described how an anesthesia sheet might be prepared using one weight, only for the patient to arrive with a different recorded weight. Without a workflow that brings the discrepancy to the team’s attention, medications may be dosed using the earlier weight.
This concern extends beyond large specialty hospitals. During the Q&A, Dr. Benton emphasized the relevance of weight-based calculators and medication safety warnings for smaller practices performing spays, neuters, wound care, and other procedures.
The practical takeaway is to make those checks part of everyday care, including procedures the team performs frequently. Familiarity with a procedure doesn’t eliminate the need to verify patient-specific details.
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4. Controlled substance access: Match ordering permissions to responsibilities
At Dr. Benton’s hospital, nurses must pass a test before receiving controlled-drug access. That expectation is supported by permission-based controls that help the hospital manage access more closely.
The Instinct EMR demonstration focused specifically on permissions within the software. Practices can customize user roles to determine who can search for and order controlled substances. A user without the relevant permission must involve an authorized team member to move the order forward.
That makes the restriction part of the ordering workflow instead of relying on someone to remember the policy before entering an order.
Those permissions also need ongoing attention. Initial setup is supported during implementation, but practices need to maintain permissions as staffing changes.
5. Medication reconciliation: Make the recorded medication history easier to find
When a patient has received care elsewhere, understanding their current medications may require piecing together the client’s recollection, referral notes, prescriptions, and communication logs.
Dr. Benton described this as a visibility problem. The team may ask the right questions, but the resulting information can still be difficult to find if it lives in several places throughout the record.
The webinar highlighted a comprehensive patient medication list designed to give teams a shared place to review that information, including at triage.
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Use the record to understand what happened
Safety checks are only part of the discussion. Teams also need a way to review an event when something goes wrong.
The presenters demonstrated chart audit logs and treatment order histories that show who entered or changed information, giving the team a starting point for understanding what happened.
Dr. Benton framed that review around a useful question: “What could we have done better?”
The goal is to understand why a check was missed and identify what could help the team handle a similar situation differently next time.
Build safety checks into the way your team works
Getting these safeguards in place involves both initial setup and ongoing upkeep. During the Q&A, the presenters explained that Instinct’s implementation team helps configure medication calculators, match available safety warnings to the practice’s product list, and attach relevant drug references. Practices then maintain settings as medications and team responsibilities change.
The broader takeaway is a useful starting point for evaluating any workflow: where does your team have to rely on memory, search across records, or notice a change without a prompt?
A visible medication history, a weight-change review, or a clearly defined ordering permission can give the team another chance to catch a problem before it reaches the patient.
