Maximizing efficiency and productivity in your ophthalmic practice
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Standardizing processes, analyzing patient flow, and improving staff training and roles are some ways ophthalmic practices can maximize efficiency. This involves reviewing appointment booking, payment processing, staff schedules, and equipment maintenance. It also means identifying bottlenecks in the patient experience and ensuring staff have the right skills to perform tasks. Increasing the scope of treatments offered and investing in updated technology can further boost profits and patient care.
Maximizing efficiency and productivity in your ophthalmic practice
- 1. 1 Maximizing efficiency and productivity in your ophthalmic practice In modern healthcare, including optometry and ophthalmology, profitability and efficiency are key drivers in order to serve patients well and grow your practice. Our growing population means patient demand is higher than ever, but there are still challenges to overcome. These are around recruiting and keeping patients by offering the right mixture of services and providing good care. How can we make our ophthalmic practices more productive and profitable? Whilst we can’t look at someone’s bottom line and analyze the financial situation, there are some ways that improving the way we work can offer financial benefits. Standardizing processes As we grow the processes we original used to manage patients, staff and equipment will no longer be applicable. The types of areas that need process organization in ophthalmic practices include the following: Managing patient appointments and referrals, Processing payments and processing insurance details, Organizing staff schedules, Maintaining equipment, and Monitoring financial information – profit and loss and projections To do this we’ll need to involve the relevant parts of our team, to access the expertise and ensure working in an environment that is efficient for us. We may also benefit from patient feedback and by consulting peers in our industry. Analyze patient flow What process does the patient go through when contacting the patients through to completion of their eye examination or treatment? Refining everything from logging the initial call, to managing waiting times and patient communications can help improve your efficiency. Identify bottlenecks and assess patient feedback to see what can be improved upon. This could be anything from the effectiveness of our appointment booking software to the layout of our waiting room. Scope of treatments How advanced is our practice? Do we offer simple testing for myopia or do we screen for more complex conditions such as AMD and glaucoma? Increasing our scope of treatment offers a boost to profits in private practice, and better treatment for our patients. There are number of increasingly common conditions that we should screen patients for, to detect onset as early as possible. This means we can offer them the most effective treatment to preserve their sight for the rest of their lives. Staff training How are we keeping up with the latest developments in eye health? Staff training is vital here to ensure us they are keeping to best practice. As well as training our optometrists
- 2. 2 and ophthalmologists it is important to train your support staff. If they are able to understand basic information about eye care they can field queries more effectively. Improve patient throughput Improving patient throughput is about seeing the maximum number of patients by organizing our staff’s schedule effectively. This involves our optometrists and ophthalmologists as well as technicians and assistants. The following can help to improve patient flow: Define roles and skill sets. What kind of tests can technicians and assistants perform? They may be able to perform simple visual field tests prior to seeing an optometrist or ophthalmologist, meaning we are able to fit in more time. Similarly, surgeries and treatment consultations need to be undertaken by those most experienced in the particular condition. Mapping out our practices skill set can help us organize our patient flow How much space do you have? Are we using all of our rooms effectively, or should we make changes? If we find there are unused larger rooms that could be split to undertake simple examinations, this can help us see more patients. Is our equipment effective? Are we using the most effective screeners and do we have enough equipment? We may need to invest now so we can see more patients at the same time. Reviewing if our staffs are being held back by malfunctioning or outdated technology can also benefit us. Are we meeting industry benchmarks? These are set by organizations such as the American Society of Ophthalmic Administrators (ASOA) to help practices manage our time. They set benchmarks for how long a test should take, for example 10 – 12 minutes for a refractive test. Are we reaching these? It may be time to review. Investing in technology An ophthalmic practice relies upon a vast array of equipment, from computers to visual field screeners, and it is important that these work well. Is our computer set up managing patient appointments and data securely? Are our staffs happy with it? As our practice grows we will need to think about when to upgrade, how to network our systems and when to implement staff training. We should talk with our team about any holes in the system which will identify what needs to be replaced or upgraded. Accordingly, technical equipment requires constant monitoring to ensure that it is providing accurate results and safe treatment. Keep in regular contact with our suppliers to ensure we get the right customer support and access to the most up to date software upgrades. They’ll also be able to advise on hardware upgrades too. Efficient equipment, particularly in screening, will provide accurate results and allow us to test patients more quickly. There are many opportunities for a small to medium ophthalmic practice. By funnel the expertise we have in to the right areas and ensuring our team works well we can benefit from these. Start with simple process organization before moving onto a more complex view of our practices. scattamasenya@yahoo.com - 2015