The Illusion of Digital Progress
Veterinary prescribing may look digital on the surface, but beneath it, most of the industry still depends on outdated communication methods.
Market analysis shows that roughly 35 percent of prescribed medications in animal health are filled outside the veterinary practice, and about 95 percent of those outside pharmacy requests are initiated by pet owners, not veterinarians. Of those requests, nearly 70 percent are still communicated by fax—reinforcing just how far the industry remains from true digital prescribing.
Less than 5 percent of prescriptions are veterinarian-initiated, and those are typically handled through phone authorizations, mailed prescriptions, or isolated pharmacy portals rather than through any connected ePrescribing network.
The issue is that many of today’s so-called digital prescribing tools are not electronic networks at all. Two fax-based workflows are emerging that give the appearance of innovation while still relying on telephony:
- Fax-intercept tools capture and route faxes traveling over traditional phone lines, displaying them through a web-based interface. Although the interface looks digital, the transmission itself remains a fax — carried as .tif or .tfx image data over analog infrastructure.
- Point-of-care faxing enables veterinarians to send prescriptions directly from within their practice software using an integrated fax service. While this feels streamlined, it still transmits via the same telephony-based process as a physical fax machine.
Both workflows may look modern, but they preserve the same limitations, latency, and fragility of traditional fax communication.
The result is an illusion of innovation. Behind the scenes, prescriptions continue to move by fax or phone, and veterinary teams spend hours each day chasing approvals, clarifying requests, and managing repetitive follow-ups. Veterinary medicine has not gone digital—it has gone disguised.
Innovation That Stops at the Surface
In animal health, the appearance of innovation has outpaced actual progress. A growing number of solutions market themselves as digital prescribing platforms, yet beneath their polished dashboards, most still operate on fax-based foundations or limited integrations that fall short of real connectivity.
Some of these systems link into networks, but those networks lack any meaningful user interface. They exist quietly in the background, often partnering with fax intermediaries that deliver a modern-looking front end while prescriptions still travel through telephony just like a traditional fax. The workflow looks digital, but the data never truly moves digitally.
At the same time, several pharmacies now offer their own digital prescribing portals, but every one of these systems operates as a closed ecosystem, confining practices within proprietary walled gardens. They centralize data within their own silos while blocking any cross-network exchange. This forces practices to maintain multiple logins, duplicate workflows, and spend additional time navigating fragmented systems just to process routine approvals. The result is not progress, it is control. The industry has simply traded one bottleneck for another.
VetWay changes that. We have built the first open, agnostic prescription network in animal health that connects practices, pharmacies, and PIMS through a single, secure, standardized exchange. VetWay’s Universal Approval Portal gives veterinary teams a true user interface, while our Script Exchange provides the digital backbone that makes it work.
This is not another digital façade. It is the infrastructure that finally connects the industry end to end.
Why This Matters
Every disconnected system adds friction, and every manual handoff adds cost.
Veterinary teams lose an estimated four hours every day, or more than 20 hours per week, managing outside pharmacy requests. That translates into $25,000 to $34,000 in wasted labor annually per practice. For pharmacies handling tens of thousands of requests, the inefficiency compounds into millions in lost productivity.
However, the actual cost extends beyond numbers. Every minute a technician spends tracking down a missing fax or repeating a phone authorization is time taken away from patient care and client communication. Every missed or delayed approval erodes trust between the pet owner, the veterinarian, and the pharmacy.
This fragmented process also strains relationships between practices and pharmacies. When requests disappear, both sides blame each other. Veterinary teams insist a fax was sent. Pharmacies say it never arrived. The pet owner becomes frustrated, waiting for medication that should have been approved hours earlier. Everyone loses, and no one can prove where the process broke down.
That is why the solution cannot simply be a prettier portal. What the industry needs is infrastructure—a digital foundation capable of uniting every endpoint in the prescribing process through open connectivity, structured data, and compliance across all fifty states.
That is what VetWay delivers.
The VetWay Difference
VetWay is not a tool that sits on top of the problem. It eliminates the problem at its core.
At the center of our infrastructure is the VetWay Script Exchange, the first open, agnostic network purpose-built for veterinary prescribing. It connects practices, pharmacies, and PIMS systems through a standardized framework that allows data to flow securely and seamlessly between all parties.
This exchange powers everything else we do. It is the invisible backbone that replaces fax as the transport layer and introduces true digital exchange to animal health.
From there, VetWay’s Universal Approval Portal provides the interface that practices and pharmacies have been waiting for—a clean, intuitive dashboard where every outside third-party pharmacy request appears in one place.
Finally, vet-initiated ePrescribing completes the equation, allowing veterinarians to send prescriptions electronically from within their own systems, securely and compliantly, to any connected pharmacy on the VetWay network during the point of care.
Together, these three elements form a complete digital ecosystem for animal health, one that replaces fragmented tools with unified infrastructure.
Filling the Gaps Left by Today’s Tools
To understand what makes VetWay different, it helps to look at what exists today.
The market is dominated by two types of solutions: fax-based tools and siloed portals.
Fax-based tools encompass both the legacy workflow of pharmacies still faxing prescription requests and the new generation of software built around faxing to make it appear more efficient. These include fax-interceptor platforms that capture and route pharmacy faxes through online dashboards, as well as point-of-care faxing that lets veterinarians send prescriptions directly from a digital interface. While both feel modern, they still depend entirely on fax as the transport layer. Data continues to travel through telephony as .tif or .tfx files rather than through a true digital exchange.
The other category, siloed portals, does support digital transactions but only within closed loops between a veterinary practice and a single pharmacy. These systems restrict communication to their own networks, preventing cross-platform exchange or true interoperability. While they eliminate fax, they also wall off the data, creating digital silos that stop short of real connectivity.
Most importantly, neither category actually connects practices and pharmacies through an open, standardized network. Fax-based solutions remain tied to outdated infrastructure, and siloed portals limit collaboration to one partner at a time. Both approaches fragment the process and prevent the industry from moving forward.
VetWay’s Script Exchange changes that. Instead of capturing or redirecting faxes or confining data to isolated partnerships, it transmits prescriptions digitally, securely, and in compliance with the 2023 NCPDP SCRIPT standard — the same framework that governs ePrescribing in human healthcare, adapted for animal health through VetWay’s technology.
The difference is enormous. We are not creating another portal or tool. We are creating the infrastructure that every portal, PIMS, and pharmacy can connect to.
Agnostic by Design
VetWay is not owned or influenced by any pharmacy, manufacturer, or corporate group. We also do not own, nor do we plan to build, a competing PIMS, pharmacy, or pharmacy management system. We are truly agnostic, and that independence matters.
Every existing solution in animal health today operates within a walled garden—closed systems that favor select partners while blocking others from connecting. VetWay takes the opposite approach. Our network is designed to be open, connecting every pharmacy, every PIMS, and every veterinary practice, regardless of size, affiliation, or ownership.
That neutrality is what makes real progress possible. It enables interoperability, standardization, and digital transparency at a level veterinary medicine has never had but human healthcare has relied on for decades.
By remaining agnostic, VetWay can scale across the entire industry. Practices retain control over their workflows. Pharmacies gain a clear, compliant path for approvals. And patients, the pets themselves, benefit from faster, safer access to the medications they need.
From Fragmentation to Future-Ready Infrastructure
The outside pharmacy request process has long been a source of frustration for veterinary teams and pharmacies alike. It drains time, increases costs, and leaves too much room for error. Fax-based systems are inherently untrackable, and email chains or phone logs fail to provide the audit trails necessary for compliance.
VetWay replaces that patchwork with a connected network that provides visibility at every step. Every transaction is time-stamped, auditable, and fully digital. Practices know exactly when a request was received and how it was handled. Pharmacies receive standardized, structured approvals that flow directly into their systems.
This is the bridge veterinary medicine has been missing—a unified network supported by an intuitive interface and powered by modern infrastructure. With VetWay, the industry can finally move from fragmented workflows to a connected ecosystem built for speed, accuracy, and compliance.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
What is the VetWay Script Exchange?
It is the digital backbone connecting veterinary practices, pharmacies, and PIMS systems, enabling real-time, compliant, and secure prescription exchange without relying on fax or email.
What makes VetWay’s Universal Approval Portal different?
It is not a fax viewer or siloed portal. It is an agnostic approval system that displays every outside third-party pharmacy request in one place and connects directly to pharmacies through the VetWay network.
Does VetWay replace fax or integrate with it?
VetWay replaces fax as the transport method entirely. For practices or pharmacies still using fax, VetWay can intercept and digitize those workflows while transitioning them toward true ePrescribing.
Is VetWay compatible with existing PIMS systems?
Yes. VetWay is built to integrate directly or operate alongside existing PIMS solutions through standardized APIs, allowing seamless adoption without disruption.
How does VetWay improve efficiency for both sides?
Practices can process outside requests in seconds instead of hours, while pharmacies receive structured, digital approvals instantly, reducing administrative waste and improving turnaround times.