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.

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.