BUSINESS

  merchandising

One Challenge for the New Year

Prepare for each and every exam to merchandise the patient experience

GINA M. WESLEY O.D., M.S., F.A.A.O.

It’s that time of year when we evaluate our practices. Have you met your goals for 2014? Did you set any new goals?

I could make a laundry list of “things” to do in the new year to help elevate your practice, but I’m only going to challenge you to one task: Make it a priority to prepare for each and every exam.

“What?” you ask. “I do this already. I know who’s on the schedule and who I’m seeing next.”

But do you take a good, hard look at the patient? Did the patient purchase glasses from you last year and, if so, what type? Did she follow your advice in regard to returning to the office for further glaucoma testing or following a dry-eye protocol? Was she lost to follow up after being fit with contact lenses?

Necessary information

Okay, you may argue these bits of information are nice to know, but not necessary before you walk into the exam room. You’ll figure it out on the fly, right? But possibly, you may bumble your way through the same conversation about dry eye from last year’s appointment, only because you didn’t realize you already had the discussion. And now the patient feels like you don’t know her. Or, you discuss the benefits of PAL digital technology, only to realize that the patient is already wearing that lens because of your recommendation. . . and now the patient questions whether she’s in the right lens.

My philosophy here is simple: If you want to succeed with your patients, not only in their experience with you, but on the financial side, you must prepare.

Do you spend 30 to 45 minutes the evening before each patient day going through charts and writing notes to yourself and staff prior to appointments? Do you note such information as:

► which mydriatic agent you would like to use for dilation;

► whether that patient has had retinal screening photos/OCT;

► what contact lenses the patients wear or if he or she purchased glasses from your last year;

► how the patient’s dry eye protocol is going;

► if he or she is now ready for multifocal contact lenses; and

► if the patient said he or she wanted sunglasses last year, but would wait until this year?

I make sure our staff has patients look at sunglasses before the appointment starts. I note any special relationships they may have had with recently seen family or friends, as referrals are one of the primary means we have of gaining new patients.

The list of what I put in my EHR prior to any appointment goes on and on depending on the patient. This not only prepares me, but also the staff for scheduling future visits, or pricing certain services or products before the patient handoff.

Be prepared

Preparing in this way has built my practice from a cold start to a thriving, seven-figure practice in only six years. Know your patients, and relay to them that you have a personal interest in them. I’m willing to bet it’s more than what any other physician does for them. Through simple preparation, “merchandise” the patient experience so the patient will refer others.

Best to you and yours in the new year. OM

DR. WESLEY PRACTICES AT COMPLETE EYE CARE OF MEDINA, A VISION SOURCE FRANCHISE, WHICH SHE OPENED IN 2008. SHE WAS HONORED AS MINNESOTA’S OPTOMETRIST OF THE YEAR IN 2011. E-MAIL DRWESLEY@CECOFMEDINA.COM, OR SEND COMMENTS TO OPTOMETRICMANAGEMENT@GMAIL.COM.