One of the risks of bringing in a new associate is not having the patient load to support another eye doctor. The most successful associates transition into a busy schedule with the help of the hiring optometrist. Too many associates come into a practice and find that they are competing for patients. Listed below are seven practices of successful offices that have brought in associates and grown exponentially due to intentional planning that was implemented prior to the associate’s arrival.
- Health Fairs
This maybe one of those that you question the time and effort that it takes to participate in a health fair. The reality is that the associate has the time and effort to give and face-to-face is still the best marketing for optometrists. Many small to medium-sized companies will have their own health fairs for their employees. If you call the HR department at the largest companies that are in your city or town, you will most likely discover that they have a yearly health fair. Now if you live in a big city then target companies that have 100-750 employees. When they say they have a health fair ask if you can come exhibit, thentake some brochures, business cards, a computer to show your website, and an iPad to explain questions attendees have. Some places charge a small amount for a booth, but most are thrilled that you will come and participate.
- Online Awareness
We found that putting our associate in charge of the Facebook and Google+ page was the best decision for connecting with current patients. Your new associate will most likely be very familiar with social media so get them involved in “being present” online. A great way to do this is by making your associate available for chat on Facebook between the hours of 10am-11am this Thursday. This will give your patients a great way to interact with your associate. Be wise in coaching your associate how to answer questions in a general fashionand encourage the participants to schedule appointments if the questions require further assessment.
- Additional Insurance Plans
It has always amazed me how we as optometrists get caught up in the allowable that some vision benefit plans offer. I believe that the forest gets lost among the trees as we say no to allowable that imply our services are not valuable. In optometry we must look at the per patient visit and not the individual exam reimbursement. When you practice full-scope optometry you have a great chance to utilize both vision
benefits and major medical insurance. As a new associate comes on board strongly consider adding a vision benefit company you have not added in the past due to lower allowable. It would not be wise for you to accept the benefit because the new patient would be filling exam times that could be filled with higher reimbursements, however, the new associate has an empty exam time.
- Acute Care
This will allow your current patients to become comfortable with the new associate. This is important so that when you are too busy to see the patient in a timely fashion the patient will feel comfortable going to the associate instead of finding another practice. Prior to the associate coming into your office you most likely were not seeing all acute care same day. With the new associate you can schedule all acute care same day increasing the service and care that patients receive.
- Specialty Contact Lens Fitting
There are very few optometrists that truly enjoy and are passionate about every area of optometry. A new associate affords you the chance to refer your patients to them for specialty care. When our new associate came into the office her passion was obviously for children, so she receives any of my children that need to be considered for vision therapy. The new associate can also become well versed in specialty fit contact lenses. How many times have we as optometrists stated to our patient that there is no good solution for their desire to wear contact lenses when a good solution would be to have them fit in a translating RGP bifocal that we do not enjoy fitting?
- Patient Checkout
I would say this is often the most overlooked opportunity in your practice. When you are in the exam a comment that generates discussion for future exams is, “Do you have any children?” “The recommended age for their first exam is 6-12 months of age, then 3 years old, and then 5 years old and every year after while in school.” This usually results in the patient stating they need to get their child in. You then state your confidence and trust in the new associate and their expertise with children.- If you are uncomfortable with the above scenario then have your staff check the patient demographics in your office PM software and see when the family members last had eye exams. If it has been awhile then have staff schedule appointments with the new associate. Your staff can also ask if other family members need an eye exam. Staff member, “I notice that your vision benefit covers your exam with a minimal co-payment, would you like any of your other family members to take advantage of this benefit?”
- Good ‘ole Fashion Letter or Phone Call
This is very simple and very effective and takes a minimal amount of your time. Most PM software allows you to query patients based on diagnosis or last exam, etc. Have your staff run a query on all patients that have not been in for 2 years or more and collect all those addresses. They can then do one of two things, either call the patient on the phone and ask them if they still consider your office their eyecare provider and if so state they haven’t been in for 2 years and ask if they would like to schedule an appointment OR write a letter and introduce the new associate and give them your office number to call and schedule an appointment. For our office, calling the patient has been much more effective.
Prior to the arrival of our associate in 2010, all three doctors were nervous that we would not have the patient load to support another optometrist. With the above plan in place our associate was generating enough in gross collections that she was paying for herself by the 4th month into practice. Her practice has been growing ever since. When the associate wins, the practice wins. It is in the hands of the CEO to put systems and planning into place to ensure success of the associate optometrist.
