Group: TRS-5100 Digital Refractor

We got a new Marco TRS and it was in our office in 48 hours accompanied by the sales representative. He was in the office immediately not only to install but to train us on how to use the new instrument properly. Subsequently he has been available immediately upon a phone call to answer any and all questions and has made several visits to our office. Instead of just an equipment salesman he understands the implementation of the technology into our patient flow and has helped us maximize the benefits of automating our refraction process, including the importance of the patient WOW factor to help differentiate our practice.

I first was told of the benefits of the TRS as a time saving measure due to our new EMR system slowing us down. It greatly enhanced our exam time, reducing the issues we had with our new EMR system. What I wasn’t expecting was how fast my refractions would become. My 7+ minute refractions are now around 3 minutes. And here is the crazy part. They are more accurate too. Our redo rates have dropped to near zero.

We have a higher success rate with the high-end, digital lenses I want my patients to have. The TRS gives patients the power to decide if a prescription upgrade will be valuable.

I’ve increased my examination slots by four per day after only 4 weeks of use. I estimate my comprehensive eye examinations are up 10% over last year, without adding any hours to the schedule.

Optical conversions are dependent on many factors, not the least of which is the patient’s perception of their need to update their vision or style. The TRS digital refraction system allows me to compare patients’ refractive outcomes with their current glasses. One touch of the button and I can simultaneously demonstrate the difference – allowing the patient to “see for themselves” the magnitude of improvement and the value of the change. My conversion rate and multiple pair metrics have never been higher.

We looked at virtually all of the autorefractor models from the various companies. We chose the Marco TRS because of the great degree of automation. This will help with patient flow. The ARK series also showed to be more consistent and accurate during the demonstrations versus non-Marco models.

The quick lens comparison is nice, but the big thing for me is how much easier exams are on my body now. The ergonomic designs has alleviated much of the aches and shoulder pains as compared to the manual refractor.

The TRS system provides a level of refractive detail not attainable with traditional manual phoropter use. The TRS can refract down to 1-degree axis and 0.12 diopter power steps (for sphere). For some patients, such detailed outcomes can make the difference between an acceptable and an exceptional refractive correction. We now have ophthalmic laboratories that can fabricate lenses to those levels of specificity. This raises the bar in terms of the quality of vision correction we can provide for our patients.

When you showed me that the system would not only pay for itself by facilitating the sales of multiple eyewear, but we would also be more efficient in seeing at least 2.5 more patients a day, I didn’t understand this concept until it was demonstrated. When I attended your meeting in Jacksonville, I also learned that workflow was not only your specialty in the area of refraction, but the entire process of examination. We discussed the ‘one-point’ or one touch examination whereby we see the patient from start to finish including dilation before we send out to optical … or frame select first, then examination dilation, then measurements. Brilliant! As we are able to see 4 more patients a day with workflow enhancement that we adopted over 11 years ago that you introduced us to, and we’ve enhanced and tweaked about 5 years ago when we invested in the TRS. We are looking now to add 3 more TRS systems in our clinic.