Tag: epic

The Power of “Wow”

Our practice, Virginia Eye Consultants, is a tertiary care referral practice specializing in cornea, refractive, uveitis, retina, glaucoma, and oculoplastics. We firmly believe in collaborative care, and we work closely with the optometric community. Recently, our practice celebrated our 50th anniversary providing world-classspecialty eye care to our Hampton Roads community.

We house 17 providers, including 13 ophthalmologists, 4 optometrists, and 225 support team members, and we perform in excess of 5,000 surgical procedures annually, with the majority being cataract surgical procedures. We have four locations throughout the Hampton Roads area, with our main office located in Norfolk, VA, and three satellite offices located within 30 minutes of each other.

Several years ago, we made one of our best strategic and business decisions when we acquired Marco’s EPIC-5100 for our main office. This is where the majority of our providers are based and most of our cataract and refractive evaluations are performed.

The EPIC-5100 combines two of Marco’s most advanced visual pathway assessment technologies: the OPD-Scan III wavefront aberrometer and corneal analyzer and the TRS-5100 digital refractor. The two technologies can be used together to evaluate the entire visual system in a fraction of the time it takes traditional manual systems.

Indeed, we chose the EPIC-5100 system specifically to address and improve our patient throughput and efficiency, and we couldn’t be more pleased. To say the EPIC-5100 has improved our performance in this area would be an understatement. The majority of our patients are referred to us for cataract and refractive surgery from our optometric referral network. Utilizing this technology has improved our efficiency through the technician workup alone.

Prior to implementing the EPIC-5100, our technicians took nearly 40 minutes to perform a patient workup, gathering data from visual acuities to topography to refractions. In the time since we’ve acquired the EPIC-5100, we have been able to get the same amount of data in just 15 minutes, allowing us to improve both efficiency and overall time for cataract/refractive evaluations.

The user-friendly platform enables technicians to quickly gather the critical data that are used to determine each patient’s optimal treatment, whether that is for cataract or refractive surgery. A wealth of information critical to each patient’s visual system from the refraction — wavefront measurements, pupil size, angle kappa, and corneal topography — is gathered swiftly and efficiently using the EPIC-5100. The EPIC-5100, combined with the OPD-Scan III, can give us more than 20 measurements to utilize in our decision making. Even better, all of the data can be captured in about 10 seconds.

Additionally, we have an OPD-Scan III at each satellite location, which allows us to gather the clinical information necessary to make our recommendations.

Patients and Practitioners Both Benefit
The decision of whether or not to adopt new technologies can be challenging. However, when it comes to innovative technology such as the EPIC-5100, the decision was easy for us. From the “wow” factor to patient education to informed clinical decision making, patients and practitioners both benefit from the EPIC-5100 and the OPD-Scan III.

Our biggest challenge prior to adopting the EPIC-5100 was patient wait times due to bottlenecks resulting from lengthy patient workups. As in any practice, patient wait times play a significant role in the patient experience, and it is important to continuously evaluate our practice processes and procedures to optimize care. With the Marco products, we are able to utilize the technology to improve throughput as well as the staff and patient experience.

The EPIC-5100 and OPD-Scan III technology differentiate our practice and provide information we can share with our patients. It gives them the confidence that they’re in the presence of state-of-the-art technology that will be used to determine which procedures and surgeries are best for them. We measure patient satisfaction with surveys after each visit and gauge the patient experience by using the Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers & Systems survey; they show definitively that patients believe they’re receiving the care they need and deserve. Each survey provides different information about the experience they had and the level of satisfaction with their care.

Enhancing Patient Education and Experience
Regardless of the condition for which a patient presents, patient education is key to successful outcomes. With the OPD-Scan III, we have the ability to educate patients about the impact on the ocular surface using the placido rings from dry eye to pterygium to other corneal surface irregularities. We can use the topography maps to discuss either the normal or abnormal corneal curvature, which shows why patients may have compromised vision and what we can do to address the condition.

Another feature of the OPD-Scan III that we take advantage of to educate our patients is simulating their vision before or after correction. In a practice like ours, this is turning out to be a vital tool in helping patients recognize the benefits of a new refraction, contact lens prescription, or surgical procedure.

As an optometric referral center, our practice’s success and growth is focused on patient experience and outcomes. The “wow” factor experienced by the patient while going through testing as well as our ability to minimize wait times and the amount of time patients are seen for their cataract/refractive evaluation determines our success. The information the technology provides give us the ability to make a solid recommendation for treatment.

Marco has been a great partner with our practice in providing the support and resources we need to successfully implement and utilize their technology. From the initial training for the staff to the support for providers on how to understand and utilize the technology, Marco has truly helped us to maximize the technology in daily practice.

Innovative Technology Is Key to Success
It’s also worth noting that implementing innovative technology is a key way to help differentiate your practice, prepare it for the future, and, perhaps most importantly, protect it against competition of all kinds. Online refractions, for example, provide limited data with questionable reliability. Technologies, such as the EPIC-5100 and OPD-Scan III, however, provide an unmatched experience and information that patients simply can’t get online.

With changes in optometry due to supply and demand in eyecare providers, optometrists will be called upon to provide more medical eye care for our patients and communities. The EPIC-5100 and the OPD-Scan III can aid providers in gathering reliable data in an efficient manner while allowing us to concentrate on our patients’ medical needs, such as diabetes, glaucoma, and cataracts, something the online competition cannot do.

Optometrists would do well to recognize these benefits and respond accordingly.

– Walter Whitley, OD, MBA, FAAO, is the director of optometric services at Virginia Eye Consultants, which serves the Hampton Roads region of Virginia.

Filed under: Marco BlogTagged with: , , ,

Marco’s EPIC-5100: Technology Worth Fighting Over

As a solo, private practice surgeon for the past 25 years, I’ve performed more than 25,000 cataract surgery procedures and more than 30,000 laser vision correction (LASIK, PRK) procedures in my career. After performing some 25 to 30 of these procedures each week, I can tell you that Marco’s EPIC-5100 workstation is an absolute must-have piece of equipment in my practice.

Indeed, we conduct all of our cataract evaluations using the EPIC-5100, which comprises Marco’s OPD-Scan III (a combination autorefractor, topographer, pupillometer, and wavefront aberrometer) as well as Marco’s TRS-5100 digital refractor, autolensometer, and an electronic chart.

Using the powerful EPIC-5100, we can gather all of the information we need, including refractive data, angle alpha, angle kappa, pupillometry (mesopic and photopic), and corneal topography (corneal versus lenticular astigmatism) when considering IOL selection — all of which helps us to make the proper IOL selection for our patients. As a result, we are achieving better outcomes.

We all know that not every patient is a candidate for advanced IOL technology. Patients need to meet certain criteria, including angle alpha/kappa, corneal coma, and pupil sizes. The OPD-Scan III captures the data needed to qualify patients for multifocal, toric, and monofocal IOLs based on their individual visual needs. In addition, the OPD-Scan III gathers all of the information needed to assess aberrations in a patient’s visual system. Dry eye, for example, will induce corneal coma, and being able to show the difference drops can make helps patients better understand this preexisting condition. Pterygia can be monitored and measured over time to know when they are creating aberrations and need to be removed.

Improving Efficiency and Patient Throughput
As an “all-in-one” device, the EPIC-5100 helps improve patient flow and data gathering. Not having to move patients from device to device saves time and provides more accurate data, specifically by reducing the risk of tear film dehydration resulting from the use of multiple diagnostic machines. The EPIC-5100 enables one technician to work up at least 30 patients per day. And with its small footprint, much less space is needed for the EPIC-5100 than an actual exam lane.

We only have one EPIC-5100 workstation because my office space can’t accommodate additional EPIC-5100 workstations. But we plan to purchase two more when we move into our new office next year. We see roughly 50 to 70 patients a day, so two more EPIC-5100 workstations will be incredibly helpful. Other devices also can be added to the EPIC-5100 workstation for further testing, such as for tear osmolarity, increasing its efficiency that much more.

Another advantage of the OPD-Scan III is that it doesn’t require repositioning the patient’s head, as some other products do. When a patient’s head is turned, and he or she is looking at a target, this can induce excyclotorsion, which could lead to erroneous imaging, such as induced astigmatism. The OPD-Scan III measures patients in their natural seated position.

I’m only slightly exaggerating when I tell you the EPIC-5100 station is fought over by all six of my technicians. They will be happy when we add those additional two stations, as this machine truly is the most efficient way to evaluate patients.

Patients Approve
Like our staff, patients enjoy the advanced approach to our workups using the EPIC-5100. In fact, most say they’ve never had such advanced diagnostic testing in past eye exams. Furthermore, our patient education and IOL recommendations are improved because the OPD-Scan III enables us to gather the data so easily, and we are able to show patients their measurements right there in the exam lane using the system’s viewing software. For example, we can highlight areas on the ocular surface where they have dry eye, show them their corneal topography, or display a retro illumination of the eye that shows their cataract. They really get a kick out of that!

Practice Growth
By increasing the number of patients we can see in a day, our practice has realized at least a three-to-five fold increase in profitability, measured in time and patient conversions to surgery with appropriate surgical approaches selected based on our use of the EPIC-5100 technology.

I would be remiss if I failed to mention that Marco has been an excellent company to work with throughout the last 20 years. The representatives are extremely knowledgeable on the technology, and Marco’s training capabilities make the transition and integration quite easy for my technicians — especially when a new staff member joins our practice.

The bottom line: I have found that the EPIC-5100 results in better efficiency, happier technicians, and more advanced decision-making capabilities. Not only does this make for a happier doctor, it has led to better outcomes and happier patients. What’s not to love about that?

– Mitchell A. Jackson, MD, is the founder and CEO of JacksonEye in Lake Villa, Ill.

Filed under: Marco BlogTagged with: , , ,