New This Week
Welcome Patient Questions: Keys to Improving Lives
Brian Chou, OD, FAAO, advises colleagues to make patients feel free to ask the doctor and staff questions. Seemingly trivial questions, from the patient’s point of view, often yield important diagnostic information and highlight opportunities where clinical expertise and optical products can improve lives. >>READ MORE>>
Innovation in Practice
Make a Habit of Changing Habits
By Polly Hendricks, OD
To get staff on board with change, make change a constant. See how to create a practice culture where innovative products and procedures are embraced for success. >>READ MORE>
Practice Management
Maximize Your ROI from Professional Conferences
By Suzanne LaKamp, OD, FAAO
Attending meetings is costly and time-intensive—so make it pay off in clinical and business skills acquired. Available resources can help you pick the best CE courses and preview new technology–but leave time to network with peers, too. >>READ MORE>>
Medical Eyecare
Homeopathic Eye Drops: Clinical Tool, Revenue Generator
By Michael J. Dunn, OD
Natural homeopathic eye drops can be part of your treatment plan for a variety of ocular conditions. With clinical knowledge and patient education, they also can add a major revenue stream to a practice. >>READ MORE>>
ROB Fast Fact
Market Opportunity: Reach Patients Where They Are
You have an opportunity to be ahead of the curve by offering recall messages via text message, findings from a Nielsen survey released in November 2015 by the Council of Accountable Physician Practices and the Bipartisan Policy Center, suggest. According to the survey, the majority of medical providers in the U.S. still do not use e-mail or text messages to communicate with their patients, despite the fact that some patients demand such communication channels. Some 49 percent of U.S. consumers who responded to the survey said their doctor’s office still reminds them by phone of appointments. Just 9 percent reported that they receive text messages about upcoming appointments.
Click HERE to read more on communicating via text and e-mail from Review of Optometric Business professional editors Carole Burns, OD, FCOVD, and Mark Wright, OD, FCOVD.
In Brief
AOA & ADA Urge Support of Dental & Optometric Access Act
The American Optometric Association doctors and students, along with American Dental Association (ADA) members—called on lawmakers’ support of H.R. 3323, the Dental and Optometric Care Access Act. >>READ MORE>>
New: A Device That Monitors Eye Activity
Optical device company Eyes 4 Lives has created a device to monitor an individual’s screen interaction in real time to reduce issues that can lead to myopia, eye strain (a.k.a. Computer Vision Syndrome or CVS) and dry eye. <<READ MORE>>
Challenge –> Solution
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Practice Challenge…
How do I better market my practice?With an ever-expanding number of competitors down the street, and online, creatively capturing prospective patients’ attention is essential. Here is how three of our contributors are doing just that.
…Practice Solution
- Generate Unique Marketing Messages with a Creative Team
- Seize Marketing Opportunities with Secondary Holidays
- Grow Your Patient Base–with an Effective Referral System
Recent Articles of Note
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Getting There: Planning a Successful Optometric Career
By Robert Schultz -
Be Positive, and Always Thank Your Patient
An Optometric Minute video with Eric M. White, OD -
Capture Rate Booster: Train Staff to Fill Patient Prescriptions
By Stuart J. Thomas, OD, and Ellen Byrum-Goad, LDO
