How one independent practice changed its veterinary prescription policy without losing clients

Dr. Christa Williams hears that refrain from industry colleagues often. The founder of Caravan Vet in Minneapolis has one response: your team is already doing the work.

“I have a lot of peers who say to me, ‘Oh, it’s too much work to have an online [storefront]… or it’s not worth the time,’” Dr. Williams says. “You are paying someone to do that work anyway.”

Caravan Vet, an independent hybrid practice offering house calls and in-clinic visits, is a member of Covetrus VetSuite^® and uses vRxPro to manage prescriptions and its online storefront.

One policy change reshaped how the clinic handles prescriptions. Here’s how it rolled out, and what it returned.

Before the policy, Caravan Vet’s customer service representatives handled one to three external pharmacy requests a day for clients, each taking five to 30 minutes or more, Dr. Williams says.

“[We would] do all the research for what medication their pet should be on, communicate with them about what that medication was, the dosing, the side effects, how to give it,” she explains. “Have a staff member who is highly trained and receiving benefits write that prescription, [send] it to them, and then they buy it somewhere else.”

The cost of postage alone added up, but the time and expertise cost even more.

As of September 2025, Caravan Vet no longer approves veterinary prescription requests from outside pharmacies. Clients who want to fill elsewhere can pick up a written prescription at the clinic.

Survey data from the Veterinary Hospital Managers Association show Caravan Vet isn’t alone: 22 percent of practices approve no outside pharmacy requests, and 19 percent approve only specific pharmacies.¹

Managing external prescription requests?

 

RxAssist, a new feature built into vRxPro, pulls third-party requests directly into the platform and matches each one to a patient and product for you. Your team can review each request and determine the appropriate next step, all within vRxPro. Requests are tracked in one place, giving your practice greater visibility into third-party prescription activity and fulfillment.

For Caravan Vet, rolling out the new policy successfully required two key moves:

Staff first

Before announcing the prescription policy to clients, Dr. Williams first trained her staff on why it mattered. “We had a lot of conversations about why this was financially important, but also better medicine for the patients,” she says.

The clinic also brought in its Covetrus representative for hands-on staff training — covering client conversations, the online storefront, and available coupons, says Faith, Caravan Vet’s finance and operations administrator.

Caravan Vet now attaches the policy to any client request for outside medications. Client response has been mostly steady, with a few “squeaky wheels” but no clients lost, Dr. Williams says.

The first few conversations are the hardest ones, Dr. Williams admits. “There might be some prickly conversation … but the more you do it, the easier it gets, and it will make a real difference to your bottom line and to your mental health.”

Because prescriptions written through vRxPro load directly into the patient’s medical record, staff have clearer visibility into order history and can catch medication compliance issues faster.

Dr. Williams also values having a veterinary pharmacist review each prescription before the client gets the medication. “I’ve had human pharmacists talk clients out of medications prescribed by boarded specialists, or fill the wrong prescription,” she explains.

“The pharmacists at Covetrus do a really good job of serving as a double check,” she says. “That adds an extra layer of security for the doctors.”

Caravan Vet’s online storefront now returns roughly $4,000 a month in profit, up from $1,000-$2,000 before the practice focused on it.

That recovered margin has funded new staff benefits, additional medical equipment, and research into better health insurance options for the team, Faith says. It also helps Caravan Vet keep costs lower elsewhere for clients.

Dr. Andrea Nason, Caravan Vet’s associate veterinarian, has seen a positive effect on the clinical team. “It decreases time for our staff; it makes appointments more efficient; it helps our staff get out on time. It allows me to spend more time with clients and patients.”

For Caravan Vet, this shift began with one question: where was the practice spending expertise without seeing a return?

Download the interactive worksheet to find out how vRxPro can benefit your practice.

1. External pharmacies and veterinary prescriptions: How to decide what works for your practice. American Animal Hospital Association. Jan. 2026. Accessed online Sept. 2026. https://www.aaha.org/trends-magazine/publications/external-pharmacies-and-veterinary-prescriptions-how-to-decide-what-works-for-your-practice/
2. Lifetime value of pet owners acquired in 2023 through 2025, accessed March 2026. Covetrus wholesale costs applied to all in-clinic orders in clinics’ PIMS.
3. Covetrus internal data, 2025.
4. Covetrus internal data, existing buyers as a percentage of February 2026 online pharmacy revenue.
5. Covetrus internal data, Jan–Aug 2026 vs. Jan–Aug 2025. Online pharmacy gross retail sales growth among practices that enrolled in VetSuite after January 2025 and had pharmacy sales in both periods (n=1,518).

Individual results vary by practice.

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