Fifty percent of finishing a project is just getting started. This saying certainly holds true when upgrading your practice from a refraction-based spectacle and contact lens practice to a full-scope optometry practice. If you desire to sell your practice to the next generation of optometrists you must make this transition sooner or later, and the sooner the better. To get started, here are 10 steps to transition to the medical model.

  1. Decide your comfort level – If you are not comfortable with medical eye care, do not try and bite it all off at once. Focus your continuing education and studies on various red eyes and start taking care of all the red eye patients and referring the rest as you have most likely done previously.
  2. Add appropriate equipment – Proper equipment is the key to managing medical eye conditions comfortably and appropriately. Small ophthalmic surgical kit (golf spud, forceps, alger brush, burrs, irrigation/syringe, Mastrota paddle, 25G needles) Glaucoma (tonometer, pachymeter, threshold visual field analyzer, gonioscopy lens, OCT). Consider cost sharing with other ODs, or paying for rotating large instruments
  3. Use free samples – For small practices that have a difficult time attracting pharmaceutical reps and their bags of free samples, “sample request forms” are a must. Simply contact the pharmaceutical companies and ask for the forms, then fill them out and fax them every other week.
  4. Change the mindset of staff – It all begins with the leadership of the practice.  When you start talking about red eye treatment, dry eye disease, diabetic eye care, and glaucoma management; your staff will start thinking and acting like you manage those conditions.
  5. Understand medical optometry coding and billing.
  6. Verify you are on the correct medical insurance panels in your area.
  7. Begin collecting both vision benefit and medical insurance from patients for their exam.
  8. Check your website – Make sure it is obvious on the home page that you treat medical eye problems. (optometry specific website development)
  9. Create a medical eye care environment – Throughout your office, make sure the focus is medical. This includes having appropriate brochures and equipment, and testing before exams.
  10. Communicate medical eye care information – In the exam room, define the different parts of the exam to your patients so they can appreciate how you think medically.

Implementing these 10 steps will give you a great start in transitioning your practice to the medical model. Many optometrists who I have communicated with who are looking to sell their practice in the next three-to-five years are hiring associates and allowing them to make the transition. Making the transition to a medical model will require a financial investment, but can also increase the chances of finding a buyer for your practice. There are ways to structure an associate agreement to encourage future partnership or the selling of your practice.