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.

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