Case study: Creating efficiencies with Repleni-Trac Vault

LA Quality Pet Care (LAQPC), a companion animal practice in southern California, sought a secure inventory management solution that would streamline their processes, enhance accountability, and ultimately improve their practice's operational effectiveness. See how they moved from processes that consumed valuable staff time to a more streamlined approach that helped them to enhance controlled substance storage and dispensing compliance.

Challenge: Tracking regulated substances took valuable clinician time 

At LAQPC, pen and paper were the name of the game. When tracking controlled substances, the inventory manager would review books by hand, checking for each patient and each surgery, signing off on controlled substances. They would manually send the forms to the DEA to ensure their practice was compliant with the Controlled Substances Act. This inefficient process took time away from patient care.

With multiple team members involved in dispensing medications, the absence of a centralized tracking system made it difficult to maintain accountability. LAQPC faced challenges in monitoring who dispensed which medication, increasing the risk of discrepancies and compliance issues. The client highlighted issues like incorrect inventory counts, which necessitated additional time and effort to resolve. 

And when new hires came onboard, there was a steep learning curve for the nuances of the manual accounting process. It would take three months to adequately train someone on the various forms, ordering processes, and tracking methods. This lengthy training period created a gap in operational efficiency and increased the risk of errors during the learning phase. 

Action: Enter Repleni-Trac Vault (RTV)

The practice found that better way when they reached out to MWI Animal Health about the Repleni-Trac Vault. The relationship began with an easy and successful onboarding process, where MWI’s team provided hands-on support. The product was simple to learn for the various team members with varying degrees of comfort with technology and varying amounts of time who needed to access controlled substances. 

With Repleni-Trac Vault, the practice’s workflows improved. The transition has eliminated the need for extensive paper logs and forms. The once cumbersome stacks of books needed to track controlled substances has disappeared.

LAQPC successfully streamlined the dispensing process. Team members who dispense controlled substances log activity directly on the safe, eliminating the need for pen and paper tracking. RTV keeps accurate records of which provider pulled which medication and when. If the inventory manager notices a discrepancy, she can go directly to the team member who dispensed a particular controlled substance and ask, “What happened? 

Repleni-Trac Vault has empowered the clinic to operate more efficiently and maintain better compliance. One of the product’s key features is the ability to digitize the DEA logs and PDMP reporting. This reduces the risk of human error, providing peace of mind for the practice. With the process structured and automatic, concerns over potential audits are eased.

Result: Realized considerable time savings

Implementing Repleni-Trac Vault has enabled the practice to create protocols around controlled substance monitoring and reporting, so they move more efficiently. Their inventory manager reduced the time she spent reconciling the logbook and submitting the PDMP reports from 2-4 days each month to only 2-4 hours.

Another key benefit is the drop in learning time. A new hire used to spend about 3 months learning how to manage controlled substances, from understanding the ordering processes to logging medications and tracking dispensing. Now? That learning process takes 3 days.

“I think one of the things that I admire the most about the product in general is there is a desire to make the process easier,” comments Marc Rosenberg, General Manager of LA Quality Pet Care

MWI is continually improving the vault and considering iterations that improve practices workflows without forcing expensive hardware additions.  The team at LAPGC is particularly fond of the unknown patient feature, which allows them to quickly log medications for patients without prior appointments or information. This function is particularly valuable in emergency situations, helping all medications to be accounted for and reconciled later.

The practice’s positive experience has turned them into advocates for Repleni-Trac Vault. They actively recommend the product to peers and colleagues, highlighting its advantages and the significant operational improvements they've experienced. Their staff are more engaged and less stressed thanks to the streamlined processes and reduced administrative burden enabled by the product. There is a strong sense of trust in MWI, thanks to the ongoing product support.

Marc says, “If you want to be in the 21st century and have a truly advanced clinic so you’re giving a higher, more advance level of care to your clients, there’s no doubt that you’re getting the safe.”

*Based on self-reported figures from client

Repleni-Trac Vault is a solution designed to help veterinary practices and controlled substance registrants store controlled substances. Repleni-Trac Vault is not intended as a standalone controlled substance compliance solution and should not be relied upon to meet a veterinarian’s or controlled substance registrant’s compliance obligations with federal or state-controlled substance laws and regulations. At all times, it is the responsibility of the veterinarian or controlled substance registrant to comply with all applicable state and federal laws, including all Drug Enforcement Administration regulations relating to the security, storage, reporting, recordkeeping and dispensing of controlled substances.