Many practices still haven’t decided to invest in a frames database, according to findings from The Vision Council’s 2013 Eye Care Professional Report. About half of respondents said they possessed a frames database at their practice. Around 57 percent of practices that dispense more than 10 jobs per day said they have a frames database at their practice. On the other hand, 43 percent of practices that dispense less than six jobs per day have a frames database at their location.
Is your frame board management in or out of control? Is it easy to manage or are you and your staff just guessing what frames to have and which ones to eliminate from the frame board? Let’s address this area today.
Automating your frames management is essential. Advantages to investing in practice management hardware and software permitting you to automate your frame management are that it frees up your staff to do other work, it enables you to more easily update your frame fees, and it helps you track your frame sales.
Bar coding your frames allows you to do inventory in minutes versus hours. It also removes errors from the ordering process including catching all oversize lens fees. This automated process frees up staff to do other work.
When laboratories increase their fees to you, you should pass the increase along to patients. When this process is automated, it happens sooner and easier. When the process has to be done by hand, it becomes a tedious task that often gets put off too long. Not getting this done increases your expenses and decreases your net.
It is essential to track your frame sales. Software is the best way to do this. Software allows you to ask questions and get answers in seconds that you can use in making meaningful management decisions. You need to know how many frames you are selling in each price point broken down in $50 increments (e.g.: < $100, $101-150, $151-200, etc) for men, women and unisex (consider children’s frames separately). This will help you make sure every frame line on your frame board is pulling its weight.
Your job for this week is to review how you manage frames. The first question you need to answer is: Have you automated your frame management? The specific questions are:
1) Do you have an automated system for frame inventory and patient billing?
2) Do you have an automated system for updating your frame fees?
3) Do you have an automated system for tracking frame sales?
The second, and perhaps most important, question, is: Are you getting automated reports that enable you to make meaningful management decisions about your frame boards?
If you’ve automated your frame management and you are getting meaningful reports that enable you to make management decisions, then you are in control of your frame boards.
