Many ODs say daily replacement is their first choice for patients, but, according to Jobson Optical Research’s 2013 Contact Lens Insights Survey, not many are actually in daily wear lenses. Just 10.2 percent of respondents say the contact lens modality they last purchased was daily replacement. By contrast, 45.1 percent say they last purchased monthly replacement lenses and 33.2 percent last purchased two-week replacement. Some 6.1 percent say they last purchased quarterly/annual replacement and 5.4 percent say they last purchased “other.”
To purchase the full report: www.jobsonresearch.com/insight_contactlens
The results of Jobson Optical Research’s 2013 Contact Lens Insights Survey highlights how important it is to measure to manage. Many ODs have the perception the practice is something that it is not. Sometimes this is simply a disconnect between the exam room and the optical. The doctor “suggests” to the patient in the exam room that daily replacement is the best lens modality for the patient; however, once the patient gets to the optical, the patient “chooses” another modality of lens wear.
There are two really important concepts that this Jobson Survey highlights for our practices.
1) If you are not measuring internally, then your perception of what is happening in the practice can be incorrect.
2) We need to implement systems in the practice in order to provide the same high-quality care to every patient every time.
Let’s drill down a little deeper into this perception difference on contact wearing modality. Here are three questions to help discover why the patient ended up in a different modality.
1) Did the doctor “prescribe” in the exam room or just “suggest” the wearing modality?
2) Does the optical staff member working with the patient have a different viewpoint from the doctor (e.g.: daily wear contact lenses are too expensive)?
3) Does the practice have a written system that has been proficiency tested to make sure the patient in the optical gets what the doctor prescribed in the exam room?
We need make this happen productively in the practice so here’s the action plan to follow this week.
1) Measure the actual wearing modalities of your contact lens patients. Your practice management software should be able to produce this report. If not, then, your contact lens companies or buying groups/alliances can give you a report on your contact lens purchases which will give you this information.
2) Create a complete start-to-finish system to make sure that the patient ends up purchasing what was prescribed and agreed to in the exam room.
