By Thomas F. Steiner
The following are excerpts from the Duration of Patient Visits Survey, conducted in December 2009 by Practice Advancement Associates on behalf of the Management & Business Academy™ for Eye Care Professionals (MBA), sponsored by CIBA VISION and Essilor. For complete survey results: www.mba-ce.com.
Average time in office: Eyeglasses purchased
On average, a patient who has a complete eye exam and purchases eyeglasses with new frames spends a little over an hour in the entire office visit—about a third of that time with the doctor. Here is how it breaks down.
Average time in office: Contact lenses (new)
By comparison, a patient who has a complete eye exam and is fitted with contact lenses for the first time spends an hour and a quarter in the entire office visit—and spends 25 minutes with the doctor.
Average time in office: Contact lenses (no refitting)
When a patient has a comprehensive contact lens exam and receives an update prescription for the same contact lenses, less time is spent in the office (45 minutes), but the doctor still spends 20 minutes with the patient.
Methodology
An electronic survey was conducted during November-December 2009 among all past attendees of MBA seminars. A total of 225 replies were received as of December 31, 2009.
