PIMS integration

A PIMS integration is a software connection that lets an outside tool read from and write to a clinic's practice-management system, such as checking open slots and booking appointments.

Clinics use many tools around their practice software: reminder services, online booking, payment links, phone answering. Each one is far more useful when it can see the same schedule and client records the team sees. The integration is the bridge. It is usually built on an interface the PIMS vendor provides, and the clinic authorizes the connection, often from an integrations or partner page inside the PIMS.

Read and write

Integrations differ in what they can do. A read-only connection can look up a client or show free slots but cannot change anything, so a person still has to enter the booking. A read-and-write connection can create, move and cancel appointments directly. For phone answering, that difference decides whether a call ends with a confirmed booking or with a note for someone to act on.

What to ask before connecting

Before switching on any integration, clinics usually check a few things. Which records can the tool see, and which can it change? Does it respect the clinic's appointment types, durations and which vet does what? What happens if the PIMS is briefly unavailable? Who at the clinic can switch the connection off? Your PIMS vendor and the tool provider should both be able to answer.

Why it prevents problems

Without an integration, information is copied by hand between systems, and every copy is a chance for a typo, a missed change or two clients in one slot. A live connection keeps a single version of the schedule.

An example

At a two-vet clinic, the team adds a tool that answers calls after hours. Before the integration is connected, every evening booking request lands as a note and is entered by hand the next morning, sometimes into a slot that has since been taken. After connecting, requests are booked straight into open slots, and the morning list only holds what needs a person.

How Tilly handles it

Tilly connects to Shepherd, ezyVet, IDEXX Neo, Covetrus Pulse, IDEXX Cornerstone and Covetrus AVImark to book, move and cancel appointments directly. Without an integration, Tilly takes booking requests as tasks for your team.

See which calls you could book with the missed-call cost guide. Related: PIMS and double booking.