TSO Network Update -February 2018

February 2018 l 15 Practice Management Minute “The board of directors of Texas State Optical has several committees that help the organization in taking care of specific issues that the shareholders need, but don’t necessarily have time to do on their own. As an example, I am chairman of the Professional Affairs committee, which is tasked with helping to decide on the details surrounding continuing education, as well as anything relating to the profession of optometry in our practices. With this in mind, I would like to bring some practice management ideas to the shareholders as a way to help all of us create better practices. The concept will be to provide some very simple bullet points that a Doctor can hopefully implement easily into their practices. After a brief overview and bullet points, I will include more in-depth information as well. In this first article I’ve asked for help from a few of our shareholder Doctors that are on the cutting edge of Optometry. I sent a questionnaire to Drs. Jon House and Phong Pham asking them to elaborate on their ideas about clinic communications, and any recent changes they’ve made in their practices, or any changes that could have been done better.” - Dr Jonathan Sher Here are the bullet points for those that don’t want to read the rest of the article: What can we change to have the greatest impact on our bottom line? • Remodel or move and build out an up-to-date space. Make sure you select a good contractor and be prepared for delays and cost over-runs. Talk to a shareholder ahead of time to be better prepared. • Buy an edger and stock lenses to offer quick turn around for cash paying patients. • Offer high quality lenses, specialty contacts, and interesting frames to keep patients in your office and away from online retailers. • Delegate responsibility to your managers thereby freeing yourself from unimportant business decisions so that you can have more time to drive the practice and focus on patient care. What dialogue can we use to better communicate our findings and recommendations in the exam room? • Try to establish rapport. Knowing more about your patients allows you to better serve them and makes the whole experience much more pleasant and profitable. • Ask about optical needs for both work and play and recommend based on what they tell you. • Be positive when dealing with patients that want copies of prescriptions. Remember, you want the patient to know you are there for the long term, not the short-term gain like the big box chains. When speaking with patients in the exam room, what types of words or language do you use to “recommend” ie additional testing, new optical products, upgraded contact lens products, and referrals? • Once you establish report, explore patients’ lifestyle and work related optical needs by asking open ended questions. • With your testing results, recommend the specific optics that you know will help that specific patient with their optical needs. • Communicate what you’ve recommended to your optician or contact lens technician. If you could change something about your practice, what would you change and why? • Larger optical to better serve growing practice. • Better frame board management and how to implement it. • Spend more time managing and training staff to better represent vision and values of Doctor. Jonathan Sher, OD Phong Pham, OD Jon House, OD continued on next page