Ophthalmic Lenses

How the Right Lens Tracer = A Less than 1 Percent Remake Rate

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By Tia McEntire, Director of Optical Services,
and Tim Roach, Optical Lab Manager
Marietta Eye Clinic

When we wanted to increase patient satisfaction, and reduce our remake rate, we decided to invest in new lab optical technology. The technological upgrade we chose two years ago was a Briot Attitude Patternless Edging System from Luneau Technology.

This new system, plus Briot’s In-Connect software, gave us a central lab with three edgers to accommodate eyewear production for nine offices. The eight satellite offices use Briot’s In-Connect Remote Tracing Software to transmit traces from the Evolution GT Remote Tracer accompanied with job information to deliver a better patient experience.

Efficient & Accurate
The system, which takes a picture of, or traces, the lens using patented GraviTech® Optical Tracing technology, improves accuracy in eyewear production. With it we have reduced our remake rate to less than 1 percent per year.

We can do up to 130 eyewear jobs a day with three edgers, with 85 percent of those being AR-coated and one-third being drilled or grooved.

Our Briot Attitude system provides us with another way to wow our patients. Our patients often comment on the fact that their glasses are ready so soon. We require 7-10 business days turnaround time on our glasses as we’ve found that it’s best to under-promise and over-deliver. With this technology, we can produce glasses in just a few days and always over-deliver for our patients.

The optical at Marietta Eye Clinic’s Kennestone location in Marietta, Ga. The Luneau lens-tracing technology the practice uses helps better serve patients, and increases efficiency.

Patient Can Keep Glasses While Prescription is Updated
The remote tracing technology from Briot means that a patient, who wants to keep their frame and update their prescription, doesn’t have to give up their glasses while the new ones are being made.

Before, if a patient in one of our satellite offices wanted to use their own frame for their new glasses, we would have to take their frame while we ordered the lenses. The remote tracing technology allows the optician to take the patient’s frame just for a moment, take a tracing photo, and then give it back to the patient. When the new lenses arrive, they are then simply inserted by the optician into the patient’s frames.

Since many of our patients are older and on a tight budget, it is beneficial that they can keep their current frames while an updated prescription is shaped. We are able to meet their needs by providing an option that fits their budget as well as their eyesight, all while providing the kind of care they expect.

In addition to not giving up their glasses, the ability to so easily trace the lenses in our satellite offices means patients also don’t have to travel to our primary office to have their new lenses cut. Located, as we are, in the congested Atlanta area, not having to spend that extra time on the road means a lot, especially to an elderly person.

Affordable & Easy to Use
You might think that technology that enables such speed of services, and convenience, would be pricey, but that’s not what we found. We paid less than $7,000 per tracer, along with a one-time licensing fee to purchase the interface technology that allows information to flow from the eight remote tracers to the Attitude Lens Edging System in our primary office.

We feel that the amount of money we spent was quickly recouped, and exceeded, by the improved patient service we are able to provide, and the reduction to our glasses remake rate.

Establishing an efficient process and training staff across nine different locations was an easy process. With the assistance of the Luneau Technology team, we established a quick training protocol to standardize the operation across all locations. Since Gravitech technology does not require routine calibration like a traditional mechanical tracer, our training process was even more simplified, and we can trust the accuracy of the system across all staff members.

With so many things outside of our control, it’s nice to have at least one element in our practice that we can always count on–that glasses will be produced fast, and exactly the way our patients need them to be.

 

Tia McEntire is director of optical services, and Tim Roach, is an optical lab manager at Marietta Eye Clinic, which has nine offices in the Atlanta metropolitan area. To reach McEntire:tmcentire@mariettaeye.com.To reach Roach: troach@mariettaeye.com

 

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