While intense pulsed light (IPL) therapy can be helpful for DED management, it can be expensive if not utilized to its full potential. Even if you’ve carefully analyzed the IPL’s return on investment previously, there may be some areas you’ve overlooked.
Here are 5 steps to ensure you are making the most of IPL.
Train All Staff
Understanding how IPL works and why it is effective will allow your staff to answer common patient questions about the treatment (see below). I like to have my staff experience the treatment themselves, so that they can talk about their experience with patients on a firsthand basis. My opticians have even brought up this treatment option with patients. Everyone on the team should be trained, not just the technician or dry eye staff.
Clearly explain IPL to patients
Despite the extensive patient education that takes place, nearly every patient asks “how exactly does this help my dry eye” when they are in the chair. It is important to have a prepared explanation that uses layman’s terms; if the patient clearly understands the benefit of the procedure, they are more likely to follow treatment recommendations. In particular, I make sure I tell my patients with rosacea and MGD about IPL, as they are the best candidates for it. Try this script for explaining it to a patient: “With IPL, we can use specific wavelengths of light to improve your DED by doing three things: killing any surface bacteria and tiny mites that might contribute to inflammation; reduce the release of inflammatory-causing signals; and warm the meibomian glands to help soften hardened oils.”
Market the IPL service
The aesthetic industry does a tremendous job on marketing, and eye care providers can use those marketing techniques for your IPL services. “Before and after” photos, patient testimonies, and videos showing the procedures are great tools to share with your patients and community. Patient questionnaires, social media posts, brochures, and emails to patients can help spread the word. When I first brought in IPL technology, I reached out to dermatologists, rheumatologists, and primary care providers in our community, letting them know we had the service, which opened us up to referrals from outside providers.
Analyze your utilization
Even after you’ve added IPL to your practice, be aware of your financial goals and how many IPL patients you need a day/week/month to make the service profitable. A year into having IPL at our practice, I noticed our 4-6 month maintenance treatment capture rate had room for improvement. To improve this, we changed our package to include 5 IPL treatments (4 initial and 1 maintenance treatment), paid for upfront. This ensured patients returned for the maintenance treatment, and this allowed them to see (and feel) why it is critical for continued dry eye care. This little switch dramatically improved our maintenance treatment capture rate for years.
Stay current
Talk to colleagues, attend education lectures, read industry journals, and watch webinars. Learning is constant. Even though I’ve been doing IPL for over four years I still pick up a few pearls by doing this, such as adding a cold towel to a patient’s face after the procedure to make them more comfortable. If you find an IPL pearl, share it! We all have the same goal in the end —bettering our patients. OM
