How to Increase Services At Your Practice Without Disrupting Your Schedule
Using Specialty Teleconsultations
Why Offer Board-Certified Specialty Consultations as a Service?
Teleconsultation allows your practice to expand clinical capabilities without expanding your schedule, staffing, or overhead.
Instead of referring cases out or delaying care while waiting for specialist availability, you can access board-certified expertise exactly when you need it. This allows you to:
Manage more complex cases in-house
Make faster, more confident diagnostic and treatment decisions
Improve patient outcomes with earlier specialist input
Retain cases, revenue, and continuity of care
Most importantly, this model does not require hiring additional staff, extending appointment times, or disrupting your daily workflow. It integrates into the systems your team already uses.
What the Service Is
DVM STAT operates as a 24/7 virtual specialty hospital. We connect your veterinary team with board-certified specialists in Emergency and Critical Care, Internal Medicine, Cardiology, Oncology, Neurology, Surgery, Clinical Pathology, and Radiology. We act as an extension of your practice, providing a direct working relationship between your veterinarians and our specialists behind the scenes. Because the specialist does not communicate directly with the pet owner, you remain the primary point of contact and the sole direct communication source to and from the client.
How It Works
The process integrates easily into your current workflow so the entire vet team can coordinate care. Submitting a teleconsult takes just a few minutes. You select a service, upload your case history, diagnostics, and imaging, and submit. A board-certified specialist reviews your case and returns a structured written case report, often within minutes to hours, depending on the service and urgency. Most teleconsultations are returned as written reports by email and through your portal, with phone consults available for ECC and select specialties when real time discussion is helpful. You only pay when you use the service.
You choose between two primary consultation methods, depending on case urgency:
Asynchronous Consultations: Access the DVM STAT portal, select the desired specialty, and securely upload comprehensive case details, patient histories, and current diagnostics to the Electronic Medical Records (EMR) portal. Our specialists meticulously review up to 6 months of medical records and deliver a detailed, multi-page written report with actionable recommendations. We connect with clinics 7 days a week. Many teleconsultations are returned within minutes to hours.
ECC remains available 24/7 with immediate phone access or a callback within 15 minutes if submitted through the portal.Synchronous (Emergency) Consultations: For immediate guidance on emergency or critical cases, call our 24/7 STAT line to speak directly with a criticalist, while simultaneously emailing records and imaging. You will receive immediate over-the-phone guidance, followed by a written report emailed within one hour.
Visit our How It Works page for a step-by-step walkthrough of submitting a teleconsultation from start to finish. For more detailed guidance, including what to submit for each specialty and expected turnaround times, refer to our Teleconsultation FAQ.
What types of cases can I use DVM STAT for?
You can use DVM STAT for a wide range of cases across specialties, including:
Emergency & Critical Care: Acute or unstable patients, perioperative complications
Internal Medicine: Organopathy, endocrinopathy, autoimmune, infectious, multisystem disease
Cardiology: Murmurs, arrhythmias, respiratory signs, pre-anesthetic screening
Neurology: Seizures, acute neurologic changes, myelopathy, cases where referral is not feasible
Oncology: New diagnoses, staging, treatment planning, co-management or palliative care
Dermatology: Chronic otitis, atopy, autoimmune, recurrent infections, acute or long-term management
Radiology & Ultrasound: Radiographs, CT, diagnostic ultrasound interpretation
Surgery: Pre-op planning, post-surgical management, complications, orthopedic management, wound care
Clinical Pathology: Cytology review and interpretation,
If you’ve ever thought, “I wish I had a second set of eyes on this case,” it’s probably a good fit for a teleconsult.
Visit our Teleconsultations page to explore each specialty and review sample case reports.
Benefits of the Service
Benefits to Your Practice
Expand services without adding payroll. No need to hire specialists or increase staffing.
Manage Complex Cases In-House: You can confidently manage more complex cases, backed by support from our team of 40+ board-certified specialists.
Minimal time investment. Case submission takes minutes and can be delegated to your team.
Retain cases and revenue. Keep diagnostics, treatment, laboratory, and follow-up care in-house rather than losing them to a specialty referral hospital.
Maintain your schedule. No need to extend appointments or disrupt daily workflow.
Strengthen your team-based care model. Technicians can assist with case preparation and submission, improving efficiency and utilization of your team.
Continuity of care. You remain the primary veterinarian and maintain the VCPR.
Detailed, actionable reports. You receive a structured consultation report with diagnostic plans, treatment strategies, monitoring recommendations, and client communication guidance. View sample consultation reports for each specialty.
Flexible, pay-per-use pricing. No subscriptions, contracts, or minimums. Only pay when you use the service. Pricing varies by specialty and urgency, ranging from $50-$230 per teleconsultation. We provide a full price sheet once you register for your free account.
Access to specialists 24/7. 40+ board-certified specialists available across Emergency and Critical Care, Internal Medicine, Pathology, Dermatology, Radiology, Cardiology, Neurology, Oncology, and Surgery.
Built-in follow-up support. Each case includes a secure communication chat, accessible through the DVM STAT EMR portal, as well as and one complimentary follow-up within 21 days, allowing for ongoing case management without additional scheduling.
Benefits to Your Clients
Access to specialists without leaving your clinic. Clients receive specialist-level care while staying with the team they trust.
Faster answers and treatment decisions. No waiting weeks for referral appointments.
Reduced stress and travel. No additional trips, transportation challenges, or geographic limitations.
More cost-effective than referral in many cases. Traditional referrals often involve wait times, travel, and additional costs before care even begins. Plus, teleconsultation fees are lower than traditional referral consults, helping make specialist input more accessible for your clients.
Confidence in care. Clients know their pet’s case is being reviewed by a collaborative team that includes board-certified specialists.
Stronger communication and continuity. Because you remain the primary veterinarian, clients receive consistent, clear communication from a team that knows their pet.
How to Offer the Service
Set up as a Service Line
Integrating this service requires no major operational shifts.
Assess Your Needs: Identify complex cases, patients with multiple comorbidities, or newly diagnosed conditions (like Cushing's or diabetes) that would benefit from specialist input.
Create an Account: Register for a free account (there are no membership fees).
Connect Your Imaging: Connect your radiology server to the DVM STAT PACS for seamless DICOM sharing (our IT support can help set this up in under 10 minutes).
Train Your Team: Educate your staff on how to submit cases via the portal and emphasize the value of our integrated patient management.
Determine Your Service Fee
Since DVM STAT’s fee structure is set on a predictable, per-consult basis with no hidden fees, integrating this into your billing is straightforward.
Pass the consultation fee onto the client: You can directly pass our fixed cost (e.g., $130 for an asynchronous consult) to the pet owner.
Add a professional or case management fee to account for your time: We highly recommend adding a markup to account for your expertise, time spent preparing records, coordinating the teleconsult, and communicating the specialist's findings back to the client.
In many cases, this fee structure costs your clients less than a traditional referral while keeping care in your clinic.
How to Market the Service
Position teleconsultation as a value-add for clients. It gives pet owners access to board-certified specialists while their pet remains with the care team they already know and trust, without the stress, cost, or delays of referral. This can be a differentiator in your client communication, especially for cases where referral is not feasible or timely.
Marketing Strategies
Email announcement to clients
Social media posts
In-clinic signage and flyers
Team-driven conversations during appointments
Provide your team with clear messaging so they can confidently explain the service.
Free Marketing Templates
Download our free marketing templates to get you started (download link at end of blog):
Announcement via Email & Social Media: Customize each template with your hospital’s logo and brand colors before sending to your client list. All design assets are provided in Canva, with ready-to-use captions and talking points included in the Canva Notes to make implementation quick and consistent.
Clinic Flyers: Download and display flyers in your clinic’s lobby or exam rooms to spark organic conversations with pet owners. Templates can be customized with your logo, brand colors, and, if desired, your clinic’s pricing or how you present teleconsultation to clients.
Free Marketing Templates
Full set of ready-to-use email, social, and print marketing materials. All fully customizable with your practice logo and colors. Link to download located at end of blog.
How to Discuss the Service With Clients
The Core Message: A Team Approach to Care
When explaining teleconsultation to pet owners, the overarching theme should always be the team approach to care. Let the client know that you are bringing in a "2nd set of eyes" on the diagnostics and case to ensure that their pet is receiving the absolute best treatment plan.
Here are the key highlights to emphasize during your conversation:
The Best of Both Worlds: Explain that there is a direct working relationship between you (the primary care veterinarian) and the specialist behind the scenes. This means the pet benefits from the comfort of their primary care vet combined with the expertise of a board-certified specialist.
You Remain in Charge: Reassure the client that continuity of care remains with you. You are the main point of contact, and you will be the one interpreting the specialist's recommendations and applying them to the pet's specific situation.
Faster, More Affordable Treatment: Let them know that bringing in a specialist early ensures care is optimized, with no need to wait for referral availability or travel. Furthermore, specialist advice allows you to choose the right diagnostic tests from the start, ultimately saving the client money and getting treatment started earlier.
Comprehensive Review: Explain that the communication is seamless; you will provide the specialist with your assessment, all patient history, lab work, diagnostics, and clinical questions so the specialist can truly get to know the patient and provide case-specific input.
Common Client Questions to Prepare For
Based on client feedback and marketing research, these are the most common questions pet owners ask when discussing specialty teleconsultation services with their veterinarian:
What does this cost?
Do I have to go somewhere else?
How long will it take to get results?
What’s included in this service? What does the specialist actually do (that my current vet doesn’t do)?
What happens if the condition is serious?
Is everything in-house or will we still need outside treatment or referral?
Is this a one-time consult or ongoing support?
What’s next?
Preparing your team to answer these confidently will improve adoption and client trust.
Important Notes for the Veterinary Team
Before you have these conversations, it is important for your team to understand a few logistical boundaries:
The VCPR: The specialist does not communicate directly with the pet owner. Because teleconsultation requires a valid veterinary-client-patient relationship (VCPR) to provide direct client advice, all communication from the specialist goes directly to you, and you relay those results to the pet owner.
When to Refer: Teleconsultation doesn’t replace a physical referral when it is indicated. If an outside referral is the best medical option, it will be recommended; however, if the illness can be safely managed in-house with a specialist, that is the route you will take.
Scripts for the Exam Room: What to Say and When
For Complex Medical Cases "Your pet is a really complex case with a combination of diseases that can be complicated by themselves, but when they’re present in the same patient at the same time can require careful monitoring and nuanced treatment. I would like to loop a board-certified specialist into the care of your pet so that together the three of us can choose the best treatment plan moving forward. The specialist will be remote through a teleconsultation specialty group, and I will provide them a summary of your pet's entire history, as well as all of the diagnostic tests we’ve already done and treatments we've utilized. With that information, the specialist will be able to get to know your pet's case and be my right hand in providing specialized guidance while you’re still in my care. This allows you to continue being cared for at my hospital but for us to expand care for your pet and include an experienced specialist."
For Cardiology Cases "I am able to obtain the cardiology diagnostics that the specialist would obtain in their practice and I can do it here, but we’re able to also send those to the board-certified specialist for interpretation. It’s the best of both worlds for both you and your pet in that you can continue care at our hospital without having to travel and we can loop a board-certified specialist into your pet's care. The specialist may recommend additional diagnostic images or studies, and if they do, I’ll discuss this with you and we can decide together when to schedule those. The specialist will communicate directly with me and our hospital, and then I will communicate with you and provide you a copy of the specialty consultation report."
For Emergency and Critical Care (ECC) "At our hospital, we have the option of including a board-certified specialty consultation without you having to leave our building. We utilize a teleconsultation service where I can call the STAT line and speak with the board-certified critical care specialist, and they will provide us immediate guidance on how best to proceed with your pet's care. That specialist can continue supporting us as we start treatment and will help us make any minute-to-minute changes that need to be made. The specialist is remote, but because they speak with me over the phone and I send all of the diagnostics and medical records to them, they’re able to become closely affiliated with your pet's care so they can provide the most accurate recommendations."
Summary
Teleconsultation gives your practice a simple way to offer more advanced care without adding staff, increasing payroll, or disrupting your workflow. It helps you keep more cases in-house, strengthen client trust, and differentiate your clinic by offering access to board-certified specialists without the delays, stress, or barriers of referral.
As both a clinical tool and a marketing advantage, teleconsultation allows your team to elevate care, improve the client experience, and grow revenue in a way that is efficient and scalable.
Don’t forget to download our free marketing templates, below, to help you introduce and promote this service within your practice.
