IDEXX Cornerstone Software

Professional photographer. Creator of frighteningly funny Halloween tableaus. A front office supervisor who’s not afraid to push buttons (in Cornerstone, that is). Megan Harmon is a turtle rescuer and Forensic Files fan that you’d definitely want to connect with the next time you visit Southern California.

What's your favorite icebreaker question when you're trying to get to know somebody?

You’ve got to ask about their pets, right?

Fair enough: tell us about the creatures you share your home with.

My husband Scott is there and our three dogs. Billy is the oldest, a Chihuahua mutt from the pound who’s 14 or 15. Wampa is a Maltese picked up off the streets. He’s ridiculous, we barely consider him a dog. And then Bumpus, he's a pittie-Sharpei mix, also picked up running on the freeway. He’s a goofball. Not the friendliest in some situations, but just a love at home.

And the turtles?

We've got two red-eared sliders, Paul and Bobby. A client brought in an Eastern box turtle he found. It was clearly someone's pet that had gotten out. Nobody claimed him, so we took him. His name’s Burt.

When was the last time one of your dogs made you laugh?

Wampa barks at dogs on TV all the time. There was a commercial for chocolate bark candy, and the word “bark” appeared and he went crazy. We were like, "Did we just discover that our dog can read?"

What attracted you to veterinary medicine?

I went to school for photography, but I’d worked at a lot of dog daycares, and I found myself working in a kennel at a vet's office. Out of necessity they would pull me into treatment to hold. I became vet assistant then ended up working in front office management.

If I asked one of your clients what makes Crescenta Cañada unique, what would they say?

Management is always looking to improve the experience for patients, clients, and employees. Whether that’s making things easier or making our day go by a little faster—just to have everybody leave the hospital with a smile on their face.

What’s management done recently that’s made life better for patients?

All our technicians are Fear Free certified, which I hadn't even heard of before working here! And we’re remodeling—all new kennels and exam areas to spread everybody out a bit more, and some cat-specific areas.

What’s management done that put a smile on your face?

We’ve had a lot of new hires who haven’t experienced things we did pre-COVID. They’re getting really excited for events we’re doing again, like our Halloween costume contest and Christmas party. We've got a lot of staff events and team-building stuff that’s coming back in a big way this year.

If you didn't have to work today, where would you be?

Working with Scott on this spooky Halloween miniature village we’re creating. We’re really into Halloween and horror stuff; my favorite TV show is Forensic Files. We had an Etsy shop selling spiderweb blankets I crocheted, and he does special effects for horror movies.

Besides showing off your mini tableau of horror, when a friend or relative visits where do you take them?

We're close to Burbank, and there's a Cuban bakery called Porto's that’s incredible. They have a million delicious things, like potato balls with a filling that are breaded and fried, or pastries filled with cheese or guava. There are also some great hiking spots we take people to, like Fryman Canyon and Lake Wildwood.

Let’s switch from exploring LA to exploring Cornerstone. What's your preferred learning style?

I’m not afraid to click buttons, so I do a lot of deep dives that way. The video tutorials on the IDEXX Learning Center are super helpful too. People worry that “I'm going to click something that can't be undone and ruin everything!” But if that happens, just call support.

What's one feature in Cornerstone you love to use?

Practice Explorer. I did some training and the guy teaching me asked, "Why do you want to learn this?" I said, " I want to be able to pull up reports on weird things that we think of." I use it at least weekly for our KPI reports, and for cleanup of stuff like reminders or information that’s missing from charts.

If a friend told you she wanted to get better at Cornerstone, what advice would you give?

Call Cornerstone support, they're so helpful. I call them all the time, even for little things—they can just point you to how to do it. The IDEXX Learning Center's great too. Or schedule a Cornerstone Coach session. I just had a couple training sessions on inventory that were life changing!

Last question. Imagine you're face-to-face with Cornerstone Product Owner Jen Rumery: what do you ask her?

What kind of pets do you have?¹ No, I’d probably ask her about inventory depletion and why it’s set up the way it is.² From what I understand, it pulls from the oldest date in inventory. So even if that's not the bottle we're pulling from, it's still going to pull from that until it is negative. And that’s just the bane of my existence because I constantly have to go in there and update what we actually have in stock.

Footnotes (aka Product Owner chatback):

¹Jen Rumery: “I have a crazy two-year-old Boston terrier named Rocky and two lazy overweight cats named Rosey and Mona.”

²Inventory depletion date preferences can be set in the Cornerstone Practice and Workstation defaults. You have the option to automatically deplete from the oldest expiration date on file, or you can un-check that box so that the user can choose the correct bottle each time. If the full quantity of the item is not available in for the oldest date, Cornerstone will pull 1 from and old and the rest from a newer bottle. That is an improvement to inventory workflow that we do have logged and hope to improve in the future.

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