Fast Consult & IPASS Handover Builder
Take ER histories fast, record the physical exam and diagnostics, then copy, email, download or print finished notes for your clinical software.
Consults this shift
Consult notes output
For veterinary professional use. This tool drafts notes only — your clinical software remains the medical record. Consults are stored in this browser alone and are never uploaded, so use Backup before changing device or clearing your browser.
For veterinary professional use. Data stays in this browser only — always paste into your clinical software as the record.
What is the Fast Consult & IPASS Handover Builder?
Quick answer: This is a free veterinary consult template and note builder by emergency veterinarian Dr Duncan Houston. It walks you through history, physical exam, diagnostics, assessment, treatments, plan and an IPASS handover for each patient, pre-fills the normal findings so you only type what is abnormal, and turns everything into clean plain-text notes you can copy, email, download or print into any practice management software.
The Fast Consult Builder digitises the consult sheet Dr Duncan uses in real emergency shifts. Instead of typing every consult from scratch — or dictating into a template and reformatting later — vets and veterinary nurses work down one structured page per patient: signalment, presenting complaint, chronic and recent history, a full physical exam with pre-filled normal findings, diagnostics including bloods, blood gas, urinalysis, imaging and AFAST/TFAST scores, assessment and differentials, treatments, plan, client communications, finances, lab submissions and a structured IPASS handover. Multiple patients run side by side as cards at the top of the page, in metric or imperial units, and every consult exports in one consistent format.
What should a veterinary history include?
A complete small-animal history covers the signalment (age, sex, neuter status, breed), the presenting complaint in the owner's words, chronic history (previous conditions, surgeries and long-term medications), recent history anchored to when the animal was last completely normal, vaccination and parasite-prevention status, and the five daily functions every vet asks about: eating, drinking, defecating, urinating, and vomiting or regurgitation — each with how long it has been abnormal. Current medications with dose, route and frequency finish the picture. The builder puts these in the order you would naturally ask them, so the history writes itself while you talk to the owner.
What is included in a full veterinary physical exam?
The exam section records vitals — heart rate, respiratory rate, mucous membrane colour, capillary refill time, pulse quality, temperature, body weight, body condition score out of 9, mentation, blood pressure and SpO2 — followed by fourteen body systems: cardiovascular, respiratory, hydration, abdomen, urogenital, neurological, musculoskeletal, ears, eyes, nose, dental grade, skin and coat, lymph nodes and rectal. One button fills every empty field with the standard normal finding ("No murmur No arrhythmia", "Normal sounds and effort", "Euhydrated" and so on), so an unremarkable exam is documented completely in seconds and abnormal findings stand out because they were typed deliberately.
How do I take a fast history with this tool?
- Press Add consult and enter the patient name and signalment while the owner sits down.
- Choose the department and whether the patient is staying in hospital or To Go Home (TGH) — hospitalised patients also get a level (1 to 3) and a resuscitation code (CPR or DNR).
- Work down the history section while you talk to the owner: chronic history, recent history, last normal, vaccination and worming, then eating, drinking, defecating, urinating and vomiting or regurgitation.
- On the physical exam, press Set all systems normal and edit only what is abnormal.
- Tick on only the diagnostics you actually ran, complete the assessment, treatments and plan, and fill the IPASS block before handover.
- Copy, email, download or print the finished notes and paste them into your clinical software as the record.
What is an IPASS handover in veterinary medicine?
IPASS is a structured clinical handover format used at shift change: Illness severity (Stable, Watcher or Unstable), Patient summary, Action list, Situation awareness with contingency planning, and Synthesis by the receiving vet. Structured handover reduces missed tasks and miscommunication between veterinarians — the incoming vet knows exactly how sick the patient is, what has been done, what still needs doing and what to do if the patient deteriorates. This tool generates the IPASS block for every consult, and the Copy IPASS button copies it on its own for handover rounds.
Free veterinary consult template you can copy
This is the blank consult template the builder produces — the same structure Dr Duncan uses for ER consults. You are welcome to copy it into your own clinic's system; the tool above simply fills it in for you, section by section, and adds the disposition, level and code logic automatically.
Show the blank consult template
NAME: SIGNALMENT: CONSULT DATE: @ LEVEL: TGH RDVM NOTES: Unsure RDVM: - Emailed: No WARNINGS: None REASON(S): DEPARTMENT: ER ******************** HISTORY: ARRIVAL: DEPARTMENT: ER Chronic History: - Recent History: Last Normal: 0 Days ago - Vax: Unsure Worming: Unsure Eating: Normal Drinking: Normal Defecating: Normal Urinating: Normal V/R: None Current Medications: None ******************** PHYSICAL EXAM: VITALS: HR: - RR: - MM: - CRT: - Pulse Quality: - Temp: - BW/BCS: - / 9 Mentation: - BP (sys): Not taken SPO2: Not taken CVS: - Respiratory: - Hydration: - Alimentary/abdomen: - Renal/urinary/urogenital: - Neurological: - MSK: - Ears: - Eyes: - Nose: - Oral: Dental Grade - Dermatologic: - Lymph Nodes: - Rectal: Not performed ******************** DIAGNOSTICS: @ Biochem: - CBC: - ******************** PROCEDURES: - ******************** ASSESSMENT / PROBLEM LIST: - ******************** TREATMENTS: MEDICATIONS: - OTHER CARE: - ******************** PLAN: REFERRAL: None ******************** CLIENT COMMUNICATIONS: In Person @ ******************** FINANCES: Current Estimate: - Current Deposit: - Time Period: - ******************** LAB TESTS: - ******************** IPASS: Illness severity: Stable Patient summary: Action List: Situation awareness/contingency plan: Handed over to next vet: Yes
What do the abbreviations in the consult template mean?
| Abbreviation | Meaning |
|---|---|
| TGH | To Go Home — the patient is discharged after the consult rather than hospitalised |
| CPR / DNR | Resuscitation code for hospitalised patients: perform CPR, or Do Not Resuscitate |
| RDVM | Referring veterinarian or regular clinic |
| BAR / QAR | Bright, alert and responsive / Quiet, alert and responsive |
| MM / CRT | Mucous membrane colour / Capillary refill time |
| BCS | Body condition score out of 9 |
| V/R | Vomiting or regurgitation |
| UTD | Up to date (vaccination or parasite prevention) |
| NSF | No significant findings |
| AFAST / TFAST | Abdominal / thoracic focused ultrasound; AFAST is scored 0–4 across the DH, SR, HR and CC views |
| UA / C&S | Urinalysis / culture and sensitivity |
| O-tube / NGT | Oesophagostomy tube / nasogastric tube for assisted feeding |
Frequently asked questions
Does my patient data leave this page?
No. Everything you type stays in your own browser using local storage. Nothing is transmitted or stored on a server, which is why you should paste finished notes into your clinical software as the permanent record.
Can I run multiple patients at once?
Yes. Each consult appears as a card at the top of the page. Add a consult per patient, switch between them at any time, and delete a consult with the × on its card when it is finished — every consult keeps its own history, exam, diagnostics and IPASS block, and everything autosaves as you type.
What does TGH mean on a vet consult?
TGH means To Go Home — the patient is treated as an outpatient and discharged after the consult. Patients staying in hospital instead get a care level (1 to 3) and a resuscitation code (CPR or DNR) agreed with the owner.
Does it work for cats and dogs?
Yes. Choosing the species switches the suggested heart-rate ranges and quick-fill values so normal findings are one tap away for either species.
Can I hand over mid-shift?
Yes. Fill the IPASS block and press Copy IPASS to copy just the handover — illness severity, patient summary, action list, contingency plan and handed-over-to-next-vet confirmation — for the incoming vet. You can also email, download or print the full consult record.
How do I email or print a consult?
Use the Email, Download and Print buttons next to the output panel. Email copies the full notes to your clipboard and opens a new message ready to paste (consult notes are longer than email links allow, so nothing is ever truncated), Download saves a text file named for the patient and date, and Print produces a clean A4 consult record with the ASK A VET™ header.
Why does the physical exam pre-fill normal findings?
In a busy ER most systems are normal in most patients. Pre-filling the standard normal wording and editing only the abnormal findings is faster and produces more complete records than typing every line — the same principle as a paper template, without the photocopier.
Is this a medical record system?
No. It is a drafting tool for veterinary professionals. Notes live only in your browser until you copy, email, download or print them — your practice management software remains the legal medical record.
What is a veterinary consult template?
A veterinary consult template is a pre-structured note layout covering every part of a consultation — history, physical exam, diagnostics, assessment, treatments, plan and client communication — so the vet fills in findings instead of composing notes from scratch. Templates speed up busy shifts and make records more complete and more consistent between vets. This page includes a free copyable template, and the builder above fills it in for you.
What does IPASS stand for?
Illness severity, Patient summary, Action list, Situation awareness (with contingency planning), and Synthesis by receiver. It is a structured handover format that originated in human paediatric medicine and is increasingly used in veterinary hospitals to reduce handover errors at shift change.
How do vets take a history quickly in a busy clinic?
By asking in a fixed order (presenting complaint, chronic history, recent history and last-normal time, vaccination and worming, then eating, drinking, defecating, urinating and vomiting), documenting normals as defaults, and only writing detail where something is abnormal. A template that mirrors that order — on paper or in a tool like this — means the notes are finished when the conversation is.
Does it support metric and imperial units?
Yes. Each consult has a Metric (kg, °C) or Imperial (lb, °F) setting. In imperial mode the temperature quick-fills switch to Fahrenheit ranges and the recorded weight automatically includes the kilogram conversion, so drug dosing later never depends on mental arithmetic.
How is this different from a SOAP note?
SOAP (Subjective, Objective, Assessment, Plan) is a four-part structure; this template expands the same idea into the sections an emergency consult actually needs — separate diagnostics, treatments, client communications, finances and lab-submission blocks, plus an IPASS handover. Everything in a SOAP note maps onto it: S is the history, O is the exam and diagnostics, A is the assessment and problem list, and P spans treatments, plan and communications.
More free veterinary tools: ASK A VET™ Veterinary Tools, including the emergency drug calculator and the anaesthetic drug calculator.
ASK A VET™ · Fast Consult & IPASS Handover Builder · Designed by Dr Duncan Houston · Talk. Track. Trust.
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