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Front Desk Guide
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Front Desk Guide

The front desk staff is a key component in ensuring that Instinct is ready for use by the medical teams. Become an expert with this handy guide in 5 minutes or less.

Table of Contents

Getting Patients Checked In/Out

Maintaining the Status Board

Admit Process / Moving a Patient from Board to Board

Checking For Missed Charges

Front Desk Guide Quiz

💡 ProTip: Be sure to check out our Pick The Brain article on: What Instinct Means for the Front Desk Team for closer look!

Getting Patients Checked In/Out:

Instinct runs in two different ways: connected (or synced) to your practice software program or unconnected (free standing) and not connected to your main software system. The two biggest differences between connected and unconnected programs are how you check patients in and out as well as Instinct’s ability to “see” invoice items in your practice software (and in some cases send them back).

Either way, Instinct runs both connected and unconnected in some of the largest veterinary hospitals in the world and is built to handle both connected and unconnected programs efficiently!

Connected Practices

  • You will continue to check patients in/out through your main practice software.
  • Within 1 to 3 minutes of checking them in, the patient will appear on the Instinct OP Board.
  • The reason for visit and doctor selected will also transfer to Instinct.
  • If you check a patient out through your main system, their Tx sheet will close in Instinct automatically.

Unconnected Practices

  • You will manually check patients in/out of Instinct.
  • This page will quickly walk you through this process: Manual Check In/Out Guide

Front desk teams generally work in two main sections of Instinct: Status Board and Invoice

The important tasks you must be familiar with include:

  1. Maintaining the Status Board with Doctor, Ward, Service, and any other known information.
  2. The Admit Process and moving patients from board to board (OP Board to IP Board).
  3. Using the Instinct Invoice to check for missed charge flags at checkout.

Maintaining the Status Board

  1. Once you have checked in a patient, locate them on the Status Board to add any other important details that will help support staff find the patients they are looking for (patients will automatically go to the OP Board for connected practices or where you have designated for unconnected practices).

  2. The reason for the visit should be entered or can be updated under the patient’s name where it says “Enter Problem List”.

  1. The Doctor will import from your main practice software if one is chosen at check in. It can be selected or updated manually as well.
  1. The Ward is where the patient is located and should be kept updated as the patient moves. This will ensure that everyone knows where each patient is at all times.
  1. Patient Alerts are extremely helpful as well. Examples include Dog Aggressive, Food Allergy, Blind, Patients with Similar Names, etc.!
  1. The Service should also be selected.

The Cage Card Info to the far right also contains the Client Information (updates from your practice software if connected), Discharge date/time which can be set as a simple communication tool, and Belongings/Notes which is where you can list belongings that are being left at the hospital or other notes about the patient.

💡 ProTip: Use the “TX VIEW” button at the top of the screen to hide the Cage Card Info and replace it with the Tx sheet.

Admit Process / Moving a Patient from Board to Board

  1. When a patient is admitted to the hospital, they can be moved from the OP Board to the IP Board or Boarding boards using the 3 dot menu to left of the patient name on the Status Board.

The Ready to Admit (gurney icon) and Ready to Go (blue ribbon icon) are available as a front-to-back visual communicator found in the same 3 dot menu.

Checking For Missed Charges

When a patient is ready to be checked out, the first responsibility of the front desk is to check the Instinct Invoice for missed charges.

  1. Head to the invoice: On the Status Board, click on the 3 dot menu to the left of the patient’s name and then Invoice or go there by going to the patient’s visit screen and selecting the button at the top of the Tx sheet “Invoice”.

  2. Connected Practices:
    Connected practices have an integration with your PIMS (Practice Information Management System) allowing Instinct to sync and download items from your PIMS invoice to the Instinct invoice.

Once on the Invoice, each item will contain one of 3 icons:

  • Download icon = items entered directly in the practice software invoice that Instinct copied here to keep predicted billing accurate
  • Sync Icon = items completed in Instinct and already on the practice software invoice
  • Orange Flag = missed charges not yet entered on practice software


Unconnected Practices:
If your clinic does not have your practice management system integrated with Instinct, simply use the invoice as a checklist as you enter charges on your main software invoice. Once entered, click the icon so it is “checked off”.

  1. Click the “Only Show Missed Charges” toggle to display only those charges that are missed.
  • Resolve any missed charges with your medical team before checking out the patient.
  • If no missed charges exist, you will see a Piggy Bank and you can proceed with check out through your main practice software.

🧠Test your knowledge with our Careville Quiz!