20/20

Technicians

December 2018 Technicians

Parents, the Shadow Patients

There has been a huge increase in the number of children and young adults who we see for eye exams daily. With this increase, I have found that there are three categories of patient parents, and all of them require a certain style of approach. Learning to communicate well with the different parenting styles may be difficult, but will make your day to day in the clinic much easier and more pleasant.
October 2018 Eyes/Optics

The Battle Against Amblyopia

School in Georgia is back in full swing. We have had the rush of kids needing glasses, wanting to be fit with contacts, and getting their rec specs for sports. There is also the group of kids that never notices a problem, but has either given their parents a reason for concern, or the teachers or school nurses have found an issue and have referred them in for a complete eye exam.
July 2018 Technicians

Delegate for Efficiency

A new, exciting and "radical" way of establishing office efficiency is by allowing the doctor(s) to delegate refraction duties to scribes and technicians. This allows the doctors to dedicate more personal "one on one" time with the patient thus increasing the quality of care, provides the patient with a more personalized experience, and also allows the doctor(s) to increase the number of patients seen per day, which nets an increase in office revenue.
March 2018 Technicians

A Scribe’s View – Part 2

Scribes’ duties are many and require a sense of commitment and dedication. One task is assisting with correspondence with other practices and PCP’s. Offsetting typical administrative duties allows the doctor more time to see and spend with patients discussing treatment and building relationships, and that is what a great doctor is all about.
May 2017 Lenses

Discussion points for ANSI Z80.1 – Focimetry Issues Part One

In preparation for the 2020 revision to ANSI Z80.1, the committee has been reviewing topics relevant to the revision and seeking input. One area identified is Focimetry, where many questions are commonly asked. At the March 2017 ANSI Meeting (and subsequent Vision Council Lens Technical committee), a document I drafted was reviewed for accuracy of content. The following Focimetry related topics and responses were reviewed by both committees, and represent a consensus of opinion on the topics raised. Given the length of this document, it has been broken up into two parts.
May 2017 Technicians

Ask a Patient, Any Patient, Part Two: Case Study

In my last article, I talked about the phenomenon of individuals in a particular business (in this case, opticianry) relying on statistical analyses, market research, and personal experience opinion to form an opinion about patient wants and needs. It wasn’t as analytical as I make it sound. Instead, I touched on the idea of opticians conducting market research of their own—asking their very own patients about their wants, needs, and desires when choosing a pair of glasses. It’s very easy, after all, to make assumptions about our patients—what they want, need, and why they make the choices they do—but it’s also just as easy to ask them themselves why they make these choices. In the spirit of taking my own advice, I decided to do some research of my own, and talk to a real-life eyeglasses wearer about what makes her tick.
April 2017 Technicians

Ask a Patient, Any Patient, Part One

I was recently talking to a group of fellow opticians when the inevitable gripe session began. It is, after all, impossible to put any two or more people of the same profession together in a room and not end up with them airing their grievances, and opticianry is no different. On this day, in particular, the topic of frustration was patient choices. I’m a Millennial, and the other Opticians were younger Boomers and older Gen-Xers, and they wanted to know what it was with my generation’s fixation on chunky plastic frames that leave the OC height about 10mm from the top of a frame with a 40mm B. There was some good-natured ripping into Millennials and their shopping choices, from the aforementioned chunky frames to my generation’s admitted penchant for online shopping.
February 2017 Technicians

AREDS 2

For many patients diagnosed with macular degeneration, an important part of their treatment has to do with the AREDS 2 study. (Age-Related Eye Disease Study 2, www.areds2.org) This article explains the AREDS 2 Study, how the study was conducted, and why it is so important for those patients diagnosed with macular degeneration and their families.

January 2017 Technicians

Increase Frame Sales with Simple Three-Tier Pricing

We have adopted a three-tiered frame pricing strategy and found it effective: simple to inventory and present to patients. And it offers comfort and clarity for our patients, who find their price point category and shop there.