Efficiency Improvement Through Automation: How a Wildlife Rehabilitation Center Benefits from Digital Document Processing
Reading time: 4min
Table of contents
Abstract
The Hedgehog Rehabilitation Center in Bernau near Berlin optimizes its administrative processes with Exolynk’s digital animal patient record. Previously, external treatment costs had to be recorded manually—a time-consuming and error-prone process. Thanks to AI-powered document analysis, invoices are now processed automatically, relevant data is extracted, and directly integrated into the patient record. This increases efficiency by 70%, minimizes errors, and improves donation communication. Data protection is ensured through European and locally hosted AI models.
Introduction
Managing wildlife rehabilitation centers presents significant organizational challenges. In addition to providing medical care for the animals, extensive documentation of treatments, medication administration, and associated costs must be created and maintained. The Hedgehog Rehabilitation Center Bernau e.V. uses Exolynk’s digital animal patient record to minimize administrative workload and automate processes. One particularly innovative use case is the automatic recording and calculation of treatment costs, including external veterinary expenses.
Challenge: Manual Recording of Treatment Costs
Previously, all treatment costs—especially external veterinary expenses such as X-ray examinations—had to be manually extracted from invoices and entered into the patient record. This time-consuming and error-prone process not only made cost control difficult but also complicated the creation of donation letters, which transparently outline individual treatment costs per animal.
Solution: Automated Document Workflow with Exolynk
To optimize this process, a workflow was developed that automatically processes invoices and extracts relevant information:
- Drag & Drop Upload: Invoices can be uploaded to the platform with a simple drag & drop.
- AI-Powered Document Analysis: Using the Large Language Model (LLM) Mixtral, relevant data such as invoice number, invoice date, and total costs are automatically extracted.
- Data Integration: The extracted information is output as JSON by the LLM and directly structured into the corresponding animal patient record.
- Automatic Cost Allocation: The total costs are assigned to individual treatments and prepared for statistical purposes and donation letters.
Example: Data Extraction from a PDF Invoice (click to play GIF)
Technological Implementation with Exolynk
Exolynk provides a powerful document management platform that automatically generates a file index from uploaded PDFs and other text documents. The AI-powered extraction enables:
- Independence from layouts, languages, and terminology
- High accuracy in data recognition
- Automatic storage in relevant data fields
Thanks to this automation, the hedgehog station’s productivity increased by 70%, while errors from manual data entry were drastically reduced.
AI-Powered Extraction with a Precise LLM Prompt
To ensure that the AI model extracts only relevant information from invoices, a precisely formulated prompt is used. Example:
You are an assistant that extracts information from invoices. It is very important that you do not invent any information. You are looking for the following details and output them as JSON: Invoice date, invoice number, and the total amount to be paid (only the number, without currency!). Your response should be a valid JSON output in the following format:
{
"date": string,
"invoice_no": string,
"total_amount": number
}
It is extremely important that the response is in JSON format only. Do not provide any additional explanations.
Illustration: LLM Prompt used
This exact specification ensures that the model extracts only the desired data and provides a structured JSON response without additional explanations or irrelevant content. This significantly increases the reliability of data analysis.
Data Protection: Local AI Models for Maximum Security
Data protection is a top priority. To protect sensitive information, Exolynk exclusively uses open-source models hosted in private instances. This prevents customer data from being transmitted to large AI providers for training purposes.
Visualization and Reporting
The digital animal patient record provides an intuitive dashboard that enables comprehensive visualization of captured data. Statistical analyses, such as the average cost per animal over different months, are graphically displayed to identify trends early and derive targeted actions. Since these analyses are based solely on structured data, the automated extraction ensures high accuracy and comparability.
With interactive charts and filter functions, users can gain detailed insights into cost structures and make data-driven decisions. This transparent reporting not only facilitates internal planning but also enhances communication with donors and sponsors. Without precise AI-powered extraction and data structuring, such detailed evaluations would not be possible.
Added Value for Wildlife Rehabilitation Centers
Exolynk’s digital animal patient record has established itself as an industry standard and offers numerous advantages:
- Time Savings: Reduction of manual documentation efforts
- Error Minimization: Precise AI-powered data analysis
- Cost Transparency: Automatic calculation of treatment costs per animal
- Efficient Donation Communication: Personalized donation letters with individual cost details
Conclusion
By automating document processing, the rehabilitation center has significantly optimized its administrative processes. Before implementing the digital solution, the team spent an average of one hour per day manually recording and processing invoices. With the new workflow, the time required has been reduced by 70%—to just about 15 minutes per day.
This massive time savings allows the team to focus more on animal care. The combination of AI-powered data extraction and digital patient records not only increases transparency and efficiency but also sustainably improves the quality of wildlife care.
