Category: Marco Blog

I Don’t Have All Day… Increasing Efficiency Without Jeopardizing the Patient Experience

By Jennifer L. Stewart, OD

In optometry, we often think that more is better – bigger offices, larger staff, more frames in the dispensary – but when it comes to exam time, is longer really best?

Optometrists pride themselves on providing a great patient experience. We invest in beautiful offices, spend time training our staff members, invest in the latest technology, and proudly showcase the latest fashions in our opticals. We also want to make sure the patient leaves with no questions unanswered and fully understands their visit, which often leads to us believing that a longer time in the exam room is what patients want and expect. However, is this what is truly best for our practices and bottom line?

When I was practicing, my goal was to be as efficient and effective as possible in the exam room. But I also wanted to move the patient through the office in a timely manner in order to get them to spend the bulk of their time in the optical. Patients have set a time limit of how long they can spend with us in their day so I felt it was best that they had the time to choose glasses (and multiple pairs!) without feeling rushed or telling us they would come back (which they likely wouldn’t).

Improving Your Efficiency

One of my favorite exercises for doctors to learn how their office operates is to first have each staff member take a guess (doctors too!) at how long the patient spends at each part of their patient journey. This includes check-in, waiting room, pre-testing, waiting in the exam room for the doctor, the eye exam, optical time, and checkout. I call this the “Post-It Note” exercise, as we would write the time that the patient started and completed each step on a post-it note.

What were some of the discoveries? We had huge inefficiencies in each step, leaving the patient with too little time to spend in the optical. This is a great time to talk to each department about ways they can improve, and what they think the outcome will be.

Reception

Emailing paperwork ahead of time or using a patient portal to collect information can save significant time at check-in. Is it even possible to eliminate your waiting area and have a technician ready to bring the patient back as soon as they arrive?

Many patients also today prefer to book their appointments online at their convenience, freeing up the in-office staff from long phone calls or back and forth email conversations.  Two-way texting is also quick and efficient and the way that many of our patients prefer to communicate.

Pre-Test

If the patient has already filled out their ocular and medical history and it syncs directly to our EHR, you can shave off precious minutes for the technician in the pre-test routine. Thinking about technology can also save time from having the patient have to move to different stations. We now have amazing tools at our disposal that combine multiple instruments into one, reducing the need to move the patient from machine to machine. Virtual Reality (VR) devices are empowering ECPs to conduct a myriad of tests with more speed and flexibility than ever before. There are so many options available today to customize and speed up your pre-test patient flow.

Exam Room

Once the patient is in the exam room, scribes could help the doctor be more efficient in their charting.  Additionally, technology advances that import pre-testing information directly into the exam room and EHR system exist, allowing the doctor to use that time to educate and communicate with the patient instead of manually entering data. For example, leveraging a digital refractor can speed up the exam by yielding faster testing and immediate data transfers to the EHR system. This automation provides a high-end patient experience, leaving you more time to educate and connect with your patient. The cumulative time spent in the exam room is less, but the quality time spent with your patient is more. It’s a win-win!

Optical & Checkout

Once the patient is done in the exam room, streamlining the handoff to optical can expedite the process.  Can you directly send all relevant information to your opticians, including prescription(s), lens recommendations, and treatments so they automatically have that information when the patient arrives?

Consider in-office finishing to deliver eyewear to your patients faster while also lowering your lab costs and controlling the quality of your finished product.  Providing more convenient optical services will not only help increase your capture rate, but also your patient satisfaction.

Finally, giving the optical staff the flexibility to check the patient out and collect payment information, can streamline the checkout process and eliminate a step in the patient journey.  Further, emailing receipts and prescriptions or using a patient portal allows the patient to be on their way quicker.

Multiple Benefits to Your Practice

What is the benefit of increasing your office efficiency?  There are many and it all goes back to your practice goals.

  • Do you want to increase revenue by seeing more patients? Shaving off 1-2 minutes (or more!) from each exam will allow you to see more patients in the same number of hours.
  • Looking to increase your per-patient revenue? Leverage technology to increase your billable tests, obtain valuable clinical data for a more thorough exam, and provide a high-end experience for patients (and without adding additional time to the overall time spent in your practice!). Getting patients to the optical more quickly also gives them more time to shop and browse.
  • Looking to increase staff happiness and morale? Giving them a stake in making office decisions and making them responsible for outcomes makes them feel more connected and part of the team.
  • Want to provide more quality time with your patients? Refining your office workflow allows you to spend more time communicating and educating your patients.
  • Want to cut back on the hours spent charting and in the exam room? Those precious minutes that are freed up become yours to do what you’d like – take a break, work on staff training, grab a coffee, or continue to work to build a super-efficient, effective, productive practice. Take it a step further and leverage remote refraction. Refract your patients from anywhere—your home, on vacation, anywhere!

Interested in learning more on maximizing your practice efficiency? Be sure to register for the webinar, “Technology and the Modern Practice: The Link Between Efficiency and Productivity” on Tuesday, June 20 at 8pm EST.

About the author:

Dr. Jennifer Stewart is an optometrist, internationally recognized speaker, writer, consultant, and entrepreneur.

She has a passion for helping optometrists and organizations with operations, sales success, practice management and sales team training through her advisory and consulting firm, OD Perspectives. She is the Professional Editor of Independent Strong, is an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the New England College of Optometry and a consultant for Coopervision, MacuHealth, GPN and Zyloware. She is also the recipient of the 2022 Emerging Leader Award from the Optical Women’s Association.

With a deep interest in sports vision, Dr. Stewart is the Co-Founder and Chief Vision Officer for Performance 20/20, which provides services for sports and performance vision training. She is a recipient of the Theia Award for Innovation by Women in Optometry and serves on the Executive Board for the International Sports Vision Association.

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VisuALL: The Future of Visual Testing is Here

Time is money, and factors like staffing and available workspace can significantly impact both. For example, if you’ve felt the effects of the great resignation or bottlenecked testing rooms plague your technicians, your practice might be missing out on its earning potential. A virtual reality testing platform could provide the much-needed performance boost you seek.

Olleyes VisuALL ETS and VisuALL S Virtual Reality Platforms are multi-function systems that can consolidate a roomful of equipment into a single headset that patients wear for reliable, fast, and easy testing. Tests include:

  • Visual field (adult and pediatric)
  • Visual acuity (near and far)
  • Color vision (D-15)
  • Contrast sensitivity
  • Pupillometry
  • Extraocular motility
  • And more

One of the most significant factors in establishing a productive, profitable business is your ability to cycle patients from the waiting area to the exam room and out as efficiently as possible while still providing a quality exam. With all of their capabilities in one headset, here are a few ways virtual reality platforms like VisuALL can help revolutionize your practice’s productivity.

1. Make Better Use of Office Space

Simply a headset and controller, not big, bulky tabletop equipment like traditional units, VisuALL doesn’t require a dedicated space with specific lighting. “I like to tell doctors that (with VisuALL) they could run their visual field tests in their lobby if they wanted to,” says Jeff Morris, an Area Manager with Marco. “The equipment goes where you are without any special tech or space requirements.”

The gold standard for visual field perimetry has always been a large, standalone device. But Claudio Lagunas, OD, of Lifetime Eyecare Associates, explains how the VisuALL has been a better fit for his practice. “We’re growing, so space is limited. VisuALL’s portability has been great for us. Being able to move it from room to room has helped eliminate logjams in our pre-test area. Plus, our patients have really embraced the technology and the kids love it!”

2. Free Up Your Staff

Team members delegated to perform visual field testing often feel like they drew the short straw. It’s time-consuming, and they’re usually at the mercy of the patient’s ability to perform the test. Fortunately, Olleyes has equipped its VisuALL platforms with an interactive virtual assistant named Annie. Annie walks patients through the testing process step-by-step. Practices can also create test bundles with groups of their most commonly used tests and Annie will take the patient from one to the next until they are all complete.

“With our VisuALL, the technician is not tethered to the test. Once they get started, Annie will go ahead and walk the patient through with instructions and keep them going, while our assistants can go over and start the next patient or get going on something else. It’s really made us much more efficient.” For most common protocols, the testing process only takes about three to four minutes total.

“The biggest thing for me is that it’s so consistent,” says Emily Coles, OD, owner and operator of Big Rapids Family Eyecare. “I have four technicians, and now they’re all delivering a uniform exam. With our previous machine, someone had to sit with the patient and ensure their eyeball was lined up with a camera. Now, they just have to help them with the mask, and the virtual assistant delivers the same instruction every time.”

3. Provide a Better Patient Experience

Virtual reality platforms like VisuALL also create a significantly less stressful testing experience for patients. “My patients tell me they are much more comfortable with the VisuALL system,” Coles says. “They don’t have to sit leaning forward on a chin rest, and we don’t need to finagle trial lenses. Patients dreaded the old way of testing so much that some would just decline it. It’s so much better now.”

VisuALL is also much more comfortable for elderly patients and less stressful for testing children, ultimately resulting in happier patients and more accurate test results. There’s no need to prop kids up at a big machine built for an adult.

Children will sit still longer with a virtual reality headset than a traditional device, and Olleyes even went one step further by creating a pediatric version of the visual field test that’s more like a game. In fact, a recent study conducted by Vanderbilt University Medical Center found that VisuALL’s game-based VRP can be used to effectively map out the peripheral vision of pediatric patients and has a higher patient satisfaction than that of a traditional HFA. Patients found the headset more engaging and were more willing to complete the requested testing.

In addition to comfort, having the latest technology shows patients that you’re invested in their vision care. Lagunas says his patients appreciate the technology and it keeps them coming back to his practice. “One of the best compliments I get from my patients is when they ask me, ‘What’s new this year, doc?’ That’s a culture we’ve built over the years that keeps patients engaged with the process and their experience.”

4. Improve Testing Data

When compared to traditional methods, one of the distinguishing features of the VisuALL ETS is the Dynamic Matrix, a proprietary algorithm that significantly reduces fixation loss, many times to zero. Patients and technicians can relax because the VisuALL automatically tracks their gaze, yielding more accurate test results than traditional perimeters.

“A traditional visual field test is thrown off when a patient ‘cheats’ by not staring at the target,” says Morris. “If the stimulus is to the right, and you’re looking to the right, you’re going to say you can see it. But the VisuALL ETS will account for your movement and move the stimulus proportionally to your gaze.”

The VisuALL virtual assistant also has the ability to speak more than 30 languages, so test results are not influenced by communication barriers.

5. Lower Costs

It may seem a bit salesy to say that a piece of equipment pays for itself, but when compared to the cost of traditional devices, a VisuALL unit can represent significant savings, especially if you’re starting or expanding a practice.

“Imagine you’re just starting out and you don’t have a visual field machine,” Coles says. “Are you going to want to spend $30,000 or $3,000? It’s a huge price difference to get the same result. If you’re a multi-doctor practice, you will want to buy two of these. It’s a Captain Obvious moment.”

Using VisuALL for Glaucoma testing alone, Lagunas says his practice saw a return on its investment in the first year, outperforming some of the other technology in his office. However, he says the patient experience the device provides is priceless. “It’s just a wow factor that we can give our patients,” he says. “They can’t believe how cool the technology is. So in that respect, it paid for itself right away.”

If you’re interested in learning more about how a virtual reality platform can help your practice, click here or reach out to your local Marco Area Manager.

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“Nearly Instantaneous” ROI on Marco Technology

Claudio Lagunas, OD, is a builder of practices. He has owned nine—with four at one time—but now has just two. One is his established practice in Woodlands, Texas. He and his wife Grisel Lagunas, OD, recently acquired an existing practice in Spring, Texas, when the opportunity was too good not to jump at it.

In order to grow a practice so that it becomes more profitable and efficient, Dr. Lagunas invests in technology. In his practice in Woodlands, there is an OPD3 wavefront system from Marco that he put in nearly 18 years ago. Then about seven years ago, he added the TRS refraction system. “I needed shoulder surgery, and I wanted to be proactive about protecting my other shoulder by being able to sit down and be comfortable versus reaching up and spinning the dial,” he says.

The surgery went well, and he regained full functionality. An associate, he jokes, “commandeered” the one exam lane he had converted to a fully digital system. He had been OK with that because he felt like he was completing exams efficiently with a manual phoropter. But as the doctors are building a new location to move that practice into, “all of our new lanes will be digital with the Marco systems as their quality and durability can’t be matched,” he says.

The six ODs in the larger Woodlands office cover the 50 hours a week that practice is open. In the smaller practice, there are four ODs. Creating efficiency and moving patients through the exam process more quickly result in additional time that patients can spend in the optical and help open the schedule for a few more patient exams.

In addition, the TRS includes what he calls “the money button” — a toggle switch that allows the patient to compare their current prescription with the one derived that day. “Patients can justify the purchase of their new eyewear more easily when they see that there’s a difference. It has increased our multiple pair sales and our capture rate,” he says.

Metrics he needs

What he most appreciates about the OPD-Scan III is its five-in-one functionality and space-saving design. It is an autorefractor, keratometer, pupillometer, corneal topographer and integrated wavefront aberrometer that captures diagnostic measurements in less than 10 seconds per eye.

That helps the doctors determine whether there are aberrations that might make a soft contact lens unsuitable. “Using the wavefront analysis, we can see right away if a soft lens isn’t going to work and can steer the patient to a specialty lens fit,” he says. And then they don’t have to rely on a series of empirical fittings to get to the final fit. “As doctors, we look really good when we can get the specialty lens fi t right from the start,” he says.

Exceeding expectations

For these two pieces of instrumentation, Dr. Lagunas says that the return on investment was “nearly instantaneous.” He justifies that by noting that they make the exams more efficient and quicker, allowing doctors to fit more patients into the day. They minimize transcription or other errors, virtually eliminating remakes due to this kind of mistake. They have helped increase the number of contact lens specialty fits and the capture rate.

With the remote control function now available that can allow doctors to operate the equipment remotely, the implications for being able to “see” patients in other locations or if the doctor is not onsite add to the appeal.

Dr. Lagunas has also added the Olleyes VisuALL from Marco, which helps him consolidate equipment into a single, portable headset. “We will be using this more extensively in our new location. It allows us to bring in virtual field testing without sacrificing floor space or efficiencies,” he says. He can also run these tests without having to dedicate a dark room to this testing. Since it’s so portable, the patient doesn’t have to be as mobile, or a test can be done in the exam room rather than taking the time to move the patient in and out of a special testing area. “In small locations, every square foot counts, so multifunction equipment is a benefit.”

These investments in technology are important to his patients, too. “They like to hear what we’ve added since their last visit,” he says. While some of the specialty instruments that he brings in are used only for patients with certain conditions, every patient sits at the OPD and many experience the TRS autorefraction system, too. They enjoy the experience and the knowledge that they are benefitting from technology that is going to help the doctor deliver the most customized visual solution for them.

Article originally published in Vision Source OD magazine. Learn more about Vision Source here.

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[Webinar Recording] Building Your Vision: Design and Aspire

 

One of the challenges of being a practice owner is the sheer number of decisions we make on a daily basis, and being confident we are making the right choices for our businesses, staff, and patients. During this webinar, Dr. Jennifer Stewart will help you define the purpose, goals, and culture of your practice in order to bring your vision to reality.

Learn how independent optometric practices:

  • Improve decision making
  • Define what kind of business they want
  • Build a foundation with mission, vision, and value statements
  • Create an authentic practice 

Watch the entire webinar below:

Click here to read Dr. Stewart’s latest blog post, The Art of the Story: How Storytelling Can Help Your Practice Thrive. →

 

Filed under: Marco Blog

Automated Refractions Make Exams Faster And Easier – An Article From Women in Optometry

Original Article Published in Women in Optometry
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Automated system for refractions brings physical relief, too.

Since opening her own practice in 2003, Rachel Tellez, OD, has moved Vision Source Leon Springs in San Antonio, Texas, into a newer location just a few hundred feet away, seen patients grow and bring in children of their own and added an associate OD.

Something that has continually aided the practice’s growth, she says, has been the Marco technologies that bring efficiencies to the exam process. For the first almost 30 years of her career, Dr. Tellez utilized an old-fashioned, bulky phoropter that required her to spend much of her days with her arms outstretched, spinning dials.

Dr. Tellez—a regular at physical therapy with two bad shoulders—read a colleague’s account of using an automated refraction system. A visit to The Exchange®, the Vision Source annual meeting, in 2016, held in her hometown that year, solidified her decision to update her lanes with the Marco TRS-6100 Automated Refraction System with Infinity Remote Software.

“I only updated one lane and kept the old phoropter around in case we ever needed it,” Dr. Tellez says. “It didn’t take me long before I realized we needed the same equipment in our other two lanes. I was never going back.” Rather than relegating her other exam lanes to
second-tier status because she didn’t OD want to use them, she added the Marco equipment to both. The advantages were immediate.

THE WOW FACTOR

Patients who have been seeing Dr. Tellez for years are able to experience some of the high-tech instrumentation. Every patient sits at the Marco TRS, so they all appreciate the change from the stress of having to answer questions about clarity of numbers.

FASTER REFRACTIONS 

With the process of obtaining the refractive correction more quickly, Dr. Tellez and the patient have more time to talk about other ocular health issues, the need for backup eyewear, dry eye treatments or other concerns the patient may have. Or the patient is able to get into the optical area faster to pick out their new eyewear.

MORE DATA, MORE QUICKLY

With the OPD-Scan III Wavefront Aberrometer and the VisuALL virtual reality visual field perimeter, Dr. Tellez captures more information on each patient. The systems talk to each other, so staff members don’t have to load data manually. And Dr. Tellez has all the topography and perimetry data right on her screen.

Since the VisuALL system is portable and allows the user to perform several tests without having to move the patient from one machine to another, that system has also sped up the data-gathering process. “Within a minute or less, the refraction, keratometry and topography are all on one screen, showing both eyes, much faster than compared to performing these tests with three separate instruments,” Dr. Tellez says.

She easily can find results that are automatically saved onto a data card and then transferred into the TRS. “We don’t have to input the data manually, which increases accuracy and definitely saves time,” she says.

PATIENT CHOICE

It’s challenging for any doctor to determine whether a small refractive change means that the patient “needs” new eyeglasses. The OPD screen features side-by-side comparisons so
patients can compare their current prescription to the one she derived that day. This puts the decision on whether new eyewear is worth it in the patient’s hands. Even small
refractive changes can make a big difference to some patients, and if they decide that’s the case, they feel great about buying new eyewear.

SHORT LEARNING CURVE

Dr. Tellez says that technology mastery is not one of her strongest suits, but within 15 minutes of sitting down with her Marco representative, she felt confident with the technology and what it could do. Patients also appreciate how easy it is.

GOODBYE, SHOULDER PAIN

Dr. Tellez can operate the autorefraction system by tabletop console, so she can relax her body. The shoulder pain that bothered her has completely disappeared, she says.

Advanced technology not only makes patients more confident in the care they receive, Dr. Tellez says, but it also ensures she is giving her patients the most appropriate options. “These patients are getting a more in-depth exam, and it’s easier on me and my team,” Dr. Tellez says.

Hearing about the experiences that her colleagues have had with products and technologies gave Dr. Tellez the push she needed to learn more. She’s grateful she listened and cannot imagine still practicing the way she did just a few years ago.

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The Art of the Story: How Storytelling Can Help Your Practice Thrive

By Jennifer L. Stewart, OD

As business owners, we are always looking for ways to improve. How can we attract new patients, improve optical sales, increase ancillary testing, and overall increase our revenue? While we often focus on the details and the facts, telling our patients a story may be the optimal way to success.

Why is storytelling so persuasive, and why should we consider it in business? Stories elicit an emotional response, and research has shown that 80% of purchasing decisions are made with emotion. We often overload our patients with statistics and technical jargon, but stories are more memorable and persuasive than our facts and figures. According to professional storyteller Kindra Hall, “People don’t buy the thing. They buy what the thing will do for them.” Stories in our practices need to be real, organized, relatable, and delivered with great communication to be personable and effective.

How can we change the narrative in our practices and focus more on emotion? What goals have you set in 2023, and how can a little bit of creativity help harness the power of persuasion?

Optical

Are you looking to increase your capture rate, sell more high-end progressives, double your multiple pair sales, or increase your photochromic lens sales? One of my favorite ways to get patient buy-in is telling stories about patients just like them who were faced with a similar choice and what the outcome was. In our office, we noticed our photochromic sales were not as robust as we would like, and we started by using the common knee-jerk reaction of “sell more photochromics!” When that didn’t work, we changed our delivery. Our opticians would ask patients about certain situations where their glasses may not be ideal and offer a solution that another patient found worked well.

An example of this could be: “Mrs. Jones, I love that new crossbody bag you have. My guess is the only downside is that you can’t fit all your glasses in there! Is that correct?” (At this point, the optician nods and the patient nods along thinking, she has got it!) “Another patient of mine had the same issue, and found she often was leaving her prescription sunglasses behind! We found a great solution for her. There is new lens technology that allows your lenses to change from light to dark with the sunlight, simplifying your life and lightening your pocketbook? She just kept her sunglasses in the car and wore her new pair for everything else. Wouldn’t that be a great solution for you as well?” Mrs. Jones now has invested in the story of this other person, has found a common ground, and is interested in the same solution that helped them.

Ancillary Testing

Many offices are embracing technology and adding equipment to improve the care they deliver to their patients. Unfortunately, many of these tests are not covered by vision care discount plans and are an out-of-pocket expense for patients. While this can often be a barrier for practitioners looking to add diagnostic equipment to their practice, harnessing the power of stories to help patients understand the value and importance of these tests is extremely effective.

Our practice provided annual OCT wellness screening for patients at an out-of-pocket cost. As many new patients were not familiar with this type of care so it often fell to our front desk and technicians to help them understand why we did it and why it wasn’t covered. To help them better explain this to patients, we once again used stories.

Patients often have a hard time understanding why they need a test when “nothing is wrong” and they “feel fine.” My staff began to use stories about patients “just like them” who came in for routine, comprehensive care and thanks to the detailed testing we did, were identified as being a glaucoma suspect. We used a true patient case of a new, young, patient coming in for an updated glasses prescription. Our screening discovered that she had elevated intraocular pressure and suspicious OCT images. Thanks to the baseline imaging, we were able to start the patient on our protocol for glaucoma suspects and protect her sight. We all have patient stories like this, but making sure your staff know the stories and can share them with patients will make adding diagnostic testing more powerful and increase patient compliance.

Where else can you use stories to change patient behavior? Do you have a great story about how happy a patient was when they changed to daily disposable contact lenses and were able to wear their lenses all day due to better comfort? Do you provide dry eye testing and treatment and have a patient success story? Myopia management is another great specialty where stories can be powerful. Parents want all the information possible about treatments for their children, and being able to share ways that you have helped other children can help with buy-in and compliance.

Take a step back from your practice and look at the patient journey. Are there places that your front desk, technicians, optical team, and doctors can infuse storytelling to change behavior? Think about the last purchase you made.as it based on a recommendation from a friend, an online review, or a target influencer ad on social media? Storytelling is an incredibly powerful tool that we can all use in our practices for increased success.

About the author:

Dr. Jennifer Stewart is an optometrist, internationally recognized speaker, writer, consultant, and entrepreneur.

She has a passion for helping optometrists and organizations with operations, sales success, practice management and sales team training through her advisory and consulting firm, OD Perspectives. She is the Professional Editor of Independent Strong, is an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the New England College of Optometry and a consultant for Coopervision, MacuHealth, GPN and Zyloware. She is also the recipient of the 2022 Emerging Leader Award from the Optical Women’s Association.

With a deep interest in sports vision, Dr. Stewart is the Co-Founder and Chief Vision Officer for Performance 20/20, which provides services for sports and performance vision training. She is a recipient of the Theia Award for Innovation by Women in Optometry and serves on the Executive Board for the International Sports Vision Association.

To hear more tips from Dr. Jennifer Stewart, click here to register for her upcoming webinar, “Building Your Vision: Design and Aspire” on Tuesday, March 28, 2023.

Filed under: Marco Blog

Five Benefits of Digital Refraction

Number one or number two? Better or worse? Refraction is about choices, and if you’re still turning dials, you’re missing out on the benefits of digital refraction.

Digital refraction technology has been available for nearly 30 years, but some practices still need to embrace it. So, if you’re one of the stragglers or are interested in upgrading to a cutting-edge digital phoropter, here’s your guide to the game-changing benefits.

1. Improved Patient Experience

Patient experience is a big deal, and digital refraction can improve several aspects of a typical office visit.

It can reduce patient stress.

While refractive tests are a standard check for vision errors like farsightedness, nearsightedness, and astigmatism, manually cycling through one lens at a time can be stressful for patients.

“No one likes pop quizzes,” says Chris Sarakaitis, Director of Sales, Eastern USA for Marco. “For many patients, manual refraction causes anxiety during and after the exam when they think back and worry if they made the appropriate choices.”

Digital refractors allow the patient to see two images simultaneously, eliminating the back and forth of manual devices and enabling patients to feel more confident about their responses.

Happy patients generate revenue.

A pleasant, comfortable experience can not only decide whether someone schedules another appointment with your practice, but it also influences how much money patients spend during those visits.

“The Marco TRS Automated Refraction System has proven to be the most significant addition ever made to our practice,” says Dr. Richard K. Levin of Levin Eyecare in Baltimore, MD. “The ‘wow’ factor has increased optical sales by 15% in the first year and continues to enhance the patient’s experience in our practice.”

Provide a cutting-edge experience.

Thanks to smartphones, consumers have endless decision-aiding information in their hands. They want state-of-the-art care, and if you’re not offering it, it’s easy to find someone who will. Providing a high-tech experience with digital refraction will not only increase patient retention, but also referrals.

“I’ve gotten patient referrals from other customers exclusively based on how impressed they were with my equipment,” says Dr. Andrea Knouff of Eyeclectic Vision Source in Atlanta, GA. “In today’s internet-savvy world, we must stay up to date on technology and separate ourselves from the competition.”

2. Superior Accuracy

When technology outperforms the status quo, it’s a sound investment. For example, where traditional refraction relies on manual measurements and subjective evaluations, digital refraction uses sophisticated computer algorithms.

The result is highly accurate and precise measurements of a patient’s visual acuity, allowing optometrists to quickly and easily identify changes in a patient’s vision. This translates to more accurate diagnoses and the ability to provide more effective treatments.

“You can do more testing, more precisely and efficiently, with digital refraction versus a manual refractor,” says Sarakaitis. “Simply put, digital refraction makes you a better doctor.”

3. Reduced Human Error

While optometrists and ophthalmologists still need to interpret the data generated by their automated refraction system, digital refraction makes it easier to maintain accurate and up-to-date records of patients’ vision. This can be useful for tracking changes over time and identifying potential health problems.

During the exam, optometrists will find that digital refraction eliminates the potential for human error caused by factors such as poor lighting or difficulty reading the patient’s responses.

When the exam is complete, that data must be entered into the patient’s records. No matter how careful or well-trained your staff is, transcription errors happen. Digital phoropters eliminate human error by transferring exam data directly to the patient’s electronic medical record, saving time and resources by freeing up staff for other tasks.

4. Better User Experience for Clinicians

While stressful for the patient, turning the dials for manual refractive tests is no party for the clinician. Throughout a career, seeing several patients daily can cause a lot of wear and tear on the neck and rotator cuffs. One study determined that more than 80 percent of optometrists surveyed reported work-related discomfort in their neck, shoulder, or lower back.

Digital refractors use automated technology that consolidates those manual adjustments to the push of a button. In addition, some models — such as the Marco TRS-6100 Automated Refraction System — can be operated with one hand. As a result, physicians can remain seated or find a position that makes them comfortable, potentially reducing repetitive stress injuries.

5. See More Patients

Traditional refraction methods can be time-consuming and labor-intensive, taking up valuable time that’s better spent on other aspects of patient care. Digital refraction, on the other hand, is quick and easy to use, allowing optometrists to see more patients throughout the day while spending more quality time with each patient.

“Without this efficient technology, I would not have the same amount of time to dedicate to conversing with patients,” says Dr. Nathan Bonilla-Warford of Bright Eyes Family Vision Care in Tampa, FL. “In this day and age, patients notice new technology in the practice and like the personal focus I can give them.”

Contact your Marco Area Manager for more information about how digital refraction can benefit your practice. 

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Efficiencies In The Refraction Process Improve Entire Patient Experience – And Sales – An Article From Women in Optometry

Original Article Published in Women in Optometry
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The refraction process has long been the “least favorite part of the exam for Loretta Seraly, OD, of Seraly Eye Care Associates in McMurray, Pennsylvania. After injuring her shoulder in a fall, the process became painful as well as dreary. “I would trade almost anything to not have to do the refraction,” she says, and when she heard that the Marco TRS-6100 automated refraction system could bring efficiencies and physical relief, she purchased one for each of two exam lanes and then added a third later.

The shift brought joy to her and her patients. “It’s much more enjoyable, and it’s faster. When she comes into the exam room, the pretest data has been transferred into the electronic medical record and she loves to show patients with a push of a button how the prescription today differs from the one that they’re currently wearing.

“I can choose whether I want to start with the new refraction or the patients’ old glasses. Then I can show them the improvement. It helps us avoid trying to answer that common question: ‘Do I need new glasses?’”

Dr. Seraly calls herself a low-key salesperson. “I’m not pushy, but we do have to sell ourselves. This feature lets patients determine if the 0.25D change is worth their time, money or energy. But I will always remind them that we have stylish frames, and a second pair or backup pair is a great option, too,” she says. Having no lag time between the before-and-after comparison does encourage many patients to opt for new eyewear.

REFRACTIONS IN THREE MINUTES OR LESS

Patients don’t like the traditional refraction process any more than she does. They worry about giving the wrong answer that might saddle them with eyeglasses that don’t work well for them. But the addition of this technology has improved her whole practice flow.

“Our goal is to provide the best patient experience – and that means efficiency. We aim to have patients greeted and through pretesting within 15 minutes of their arrival,” she says. This includes autorefraction, topography when called for, an optomap image and an OCT. Then the refraction and anterior segment evaluation and other elements of a comprehensive exam is another 15 minutes. She’ll instill dilating drops if needed.

She also likes the split prism function of the TRS-6100, which allows her to check astigmatism and show the patient simultaneous comparisons so that they can look at the right and left images and tell her which one is clear. It’s helpful in fine-tuning the prescription.

Most patients are done with the evaluation within 25 to 30 minutes of their arrival. “If doctors do not get the exam elements done in that time, patients are fatigued, and sales go down.”

More importantly, patients feel respected when the practice staff make their experience efficient. “It’s not about making money; it’s about serving the patient. They feel heard and appreciate our acknowledgement that their time is valuable.”

Dr. Seraly alerts opticians when she’s finishing the refraction. “By the time I’m done with the anterior segment exam, the optician will be in the room, and I can relay precisely what my recommendation are. I might say, ‘The patient has a high degree of near sightedness, so we discussed high-index lenses,’ for example. Introducing the patient to the optician and sharing a little information about them increases their satisfaction,” she says. The opticians will escort any patients who are dilated during this time back to the exam room after selecting eyewear. “Almost every patient is in and out of the office within 45 minutes to an hour. That drive sales and patient satisfaction.”

A LITTLE DISTANCE

TRS refraction system
Dr. Seraly can use the console in the hallway outside the exam room, allowing her to stand and creating a little distance during the refraction.
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Dr. Seraly purchased her first two Marco TRS-6100 systems in December 2019, with no real inkling of an upcoming pandemic. “When March 2020 rolled around, I realized that I was able to leave the room and conduct the refraction. I placed the controller outside the door, so I could step into the hallway and tell the patient he or she could pull down their mask for this part of the exam,” she says.

In fact, she still does it this way for a few reasons. First, it gives her the opportunity to stand up for a few moments. But more importantly, the practice is mask-optional and there are patients who prefer to wear masks. “They appreciate that I’ll step away and they can pull down their mask more comfortably. It also avoids fogging the equipment, which can add time to the process.”

At this point, Dr. Seraly conducts the refraction process still. “I’ve cut the most disliked part of my day down to nearly half of what it used to be,” she says. She has also gained so much confidence in the system that if she choses to delegate that process to a technician, she says that would add even more efficiency because she would simply review the findings.

Cambodia-Bound

Dr. Loretta Seraly will be heading to Cambodia this winter, joining a mission group, facilitated through the international Red Cross and founded to distribute wheelchairs to people in Vietnam and Cambodia. This will be her second trip with this group, having gone to Vietnam in 2019. “It’s such a cool thing to be able to experience this kind of mission trip and explore the world,” she says. She’s the only OD, but the group sees about 500 patients during the days she is there. She’ll be traveling with new eyeglasses that she acquired from donations of discontinued lines. “I bought 500 sunglasses, and we have single vision lenses from +4.00D to -6.00D with us. To see someone’s eyes literally open wide when they can see the world around them is so gratifying.”

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Make Exams Faster and Easier

Rachel Tellez, OD, has been with Vision Source® since she started her career as an associate OD at one of the very first Vision Source practices in the San Antonio, Texas, area in 1990. Once she became a part of the Vision Source community, she says, it stuck with her, so when she opened her own location in 2003, she took advantage of all the benefits of membership for her new startup practice.

Since then, Dr. Tellez has moved her office into a newer location just a few hundred feet away, seen patients grow and bring in children of their own and added an associate OD. Something that has continually aided the practice’s growth, she says, has been the Marco technologies that bring efficiencies to the exam process.

For the first almost 30 years of her career, Dr. Tellez utilized an old-fashioned, bulky phoropter that required her to spend much of her days with her arms outstretched, spinning dials. Dr. Tellez—a regular at physical therapy with two bad shoulders— read about a piece of updated tech in an earlier issue of Vision Source OD magazine. A visit to The Exchange® in 2016, held in her hometown that year, solidified her decision to update her lanes with the Marco TRS-6100 Automated Refraction System with Infinity Remote Software.

“I only updated one lane and kept the old phoropter around in case we ever needed it,” Dr. Tellez says. “It didn’t take me long before I realized we needed the same equipment in our other two lanes. I was never going back.” Rather than relegating her other exam lanes to second-tier status because she didn’t want to use them, she added the Marco equipment to both. The advantages were immediate.

The wow factor

Patients who have been seeing Dr. Tellez for years are able to experience some of the high-tech instrumentation. Every patient sits at the Marco TRS, so they all appreciate the change from the stress of having to answer questions about clarity of numbers.

Faster refractions

With the process of obtaining the refractive correction more quickly, Dr. Tellez and the patient have more time to talk about other ocular health issues, the need for backup eyewear, dry eye treatments or other concerns the patient may have. Or the patient is able to get into the optical area faster to pick out their new eyewear.

More data, more quickly. With the OPD-Scan III Wavefront Aberrometer and the VisuALL virtual reality visual field perimeter, Dr. Tellez captures more information on each patient. The systems talk to each other, so staff members don’t have to load data manually. And Dr. Tellez has all the topography and perimetry data right on her screen. Since the VisuALL system is portable and allows the user to perform several tests without having to move the patient from one machine to another, that system has also sped up the data-gathering process. “Within a minute or less, the refraction, keratometry and topography are all on one screen, showing both eyes, much faster than compared to performing these tests with three separate instruments,” Dr. Tellez says. She easily can find results that are automatically saved onto a data card and then transferred into the TRS. “We don’t have to input the data manually, which increases accuracy and definitely saves time,” she says.

Patient choice

It’s challenging or any doctor to determine whether a small refractive change means that the patient “needs” new eyeglasses. The OPD screen features side-by-side comparisons so patients can compare their current prescription to the one she derived that day. This puts the decision on whether new eyewear is worth it in the patient’s hands. Even small refractive changes can make a big difference to some patients, and if they decide that’s the case, they feel great about buying new eyewear.

Short learning curve

Dr. Tellez says that technology mastery is not one of her strongest suits, but within 15 minutes of sitting down with her Marco representative, she felt confident with the technology and
what it could do. Patients also appreciate how easy it is.

Goodbye, shoulder pain

Dr. Tellez can operate the autorefraction system by tabletop console, so she can relax her body. The shoulder pain that bothered her has completely disappeared, she says.

Advanced technology not only makes patients more confident in the care they receive, Dr. Tellez says, but it also ensures she is giving her patients the most appropriate options. “These patients are getting a more in-depth exam, and it’s easier on me and my team,” Dr. Tellez says.

Hearing about the experiences that her colleagues have had with products and technologies from Elite vendors like Marco gave Dr. Tellez the push she needed to learn more. She’s grateful she listened and cannot imagine still practicing the way she did just a few years ago.

Article originally published in Vision Source OD magazine. Learn more about Vision Source here.

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The Right Exam Lane Technology Can Make The Day Easier – And More Fun – An Article From Women in Optometry

Original Article Published in Women in Optometry
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Karen Wrigley, OD, with two practices, Wrigley Eye Associates and Visual Eyes, in the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, area, has always tried to keep her practices updated with the latest technology. Yet when she brought in new exam lane equipment from Marco recently, she was impressed by not only how it sped up the refraction and exam process but also by how much patients are enjoying the experience.

Dr. Wrigley originally added an OPD-Scan III, and a Marco TRS automated refraction system to one of her two exam lanes in each office. She added a second TRS and a new slit lamp with the ION camera in June of this year. In the pretest area, technicians can capture wavefront aberrometry, topography and keratometry, among other features, with the OPD-Scan III. This data provides the doctors with more information about the surface of the patient’s eye before they are even in the exam room, which is particularly helpful with specialty lens fittings. Now, those patients with complex fitting needs can receive even more customized contact lens prescription, helping them see and feel better. The updated slit lamp has also allowed for a more precise patient examination.

WOW THE PATIENTS

Dr. Wrigley’s office serves as an internship site, and she says that while the manual phoropter provided interns a good learning experience, it was outdated and more difficult. It’s ergonomically stressful for the user, and the process can be stressful for the patients.

“If we’re going to update our technology, let’s wow our patients,” Dr. Wrigley says. The new slit lamps have updated camera software so that Dr. Wrigley and her team can show patients their images right there in the exam room. Plus, the new TRS technology lets doctors use a tabletop console to sit a distance back from the patient, supporting social distancing, which puts both parties more at ease.

The TRS and OPD systems in her two offices have created more efficiency while allowing the doctors to provide even better care to their patients. Dr. Wrigley has been able to minimize downtime in exam lanes, thanks to the updated technology in her offices. She or her technicians can complete the refraction faster, and she gains the measurements she needs accurately.

Leveraging her Vision Source member benefits, Marco brings doctors the “best bang for their buck” on upfront costs, lease programs and technical support, she says. Marco’s support is stellar; technician assistants will fix equipment on-site or remotely, which has also helped save the practice time and avoid downtime as, in many cases, they no longer have to ship equipment out for repairs or updates. She also appreciates that her representative is just a phone call away for pricing, advice, support and tech questions.

Dr. Wrigley has seen a positive return on investment and the intangible benefit of happier customers with the Marco systems. “Our vision statement at the practice is helping patients see well and look great. The new technology has helped us achieve this,” Dr. Wrigley says. “My goal is to always keep up and push forward.” She says her patients have even noticed the office updates. Those who have jumped to another practice for their eye care often come back to her because “they know we keep up with the latest and greatest in the industry,” she says. “It is so nice that they see what I’m trying to provide for them.”

Dr. Wrigley has been able to prioritize the best care for her patients without it burdening her team or herself; in fact, it actually makes her days easier.

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