Even in the healthcare industry, differentiation is critical for a successful business. Eye care practices are no different, and Malique Payne, OD, knew she wanted to stand out from other local practices. In an article for Women In Optometry, she shares her focuses that help differentiate her 3 practice locations.

Focus On Service

First and foremost, Dr. Payne focuses on patient care. She wants anyone, whether they’re brand new or a life-long patient, to know that she’s going to do everything she can to support their lasting, healthy vision for life. This means investing in many different tests, measurements, imaging, and solutions. For Dr. Payne, all the equipment is worth the investment to improve patient care.

“If I have a patient in my chair, I want to be able to run the testing that I need to determine their eye health and vision. It’s worth my investment because technology makes me a better clinician, allowing me to find [eye health issues] earlier and intervene sooner. Technology has improved, and I’d be doing my patients a disservice if I wasn’t doing everything I could for them.”

Some services she offers include comprehensive eye exams, eye health issue co-management, foreign body and other emergency solutions, and specialty contact lenses. Of course, she’s cultivated a critical network of specialists to refer her patients when necessary, like working closely with ophthalmologists for surgical solutions.

Manage Your Time Wisely

As a single doctor with three locations, Dr. Payne needs to be able to manage her time effectively and know when to delegate. For Payne, she spends most of her time at the location that sees the largest patient base (her original location). She then splits her time evenly between her other locations, focusing on growing those locations’ patients. In sticking with her theme of utilizing technology, she uses her website to update her patients on her whereabouts.

Traveling between three locations leaves Dr. Payne with little time to do anything other than see patients. She delegates varying responsibilities to her staff at each location to ensure they all run smoothly, with or without her presence.

Choose the Right Nutrition Partner

You’ll want to choose a nutrition partner who helps you achieve these two pillars vs. create more friction within your practice. That’s where EyePromise® can help. First, let us introduce the Zea Performance System™, a turnkey nutritional system that utilizes:

• The Zx Pro™ macular pigment optical density (MPOD) measurement device, the latest in biomarker technology for early identification
• EyePromise’s comprehensive line of clinically proven nutraceuticals
• The Auto Refill Program, the industry-leading compliance program making prescription refills automatic

These components work together to create a patient care continuum and provide elevated patient care. Here’s how it fits with the above pillars.

Using Technology for Early Identification

Starting with directly measuring patients’ MPOD with the Zx Pro, a device that is portable, intuitive, and trusted, low or suboptimal MPOD is a known risk factor for several eye and overall health concerns, including age-related eye health issues, eye health related to blood sugar control, cognitive challenges, and more. Identifying this critical risk factor with a fast, easy exam provides valuable data for practitioners and patients.

The Zx Pro also provides flexibility in where you measure patients’ MPOD. Because of its lightweight, compact design, the Zx Pro can be utilized in the exam room instead of taking up more space in the testing lane. Perhaps the best part of the Zx Pro exam is that it requires minimal staff involvement, freeing up time for your team to focus on other tasks and creating a more streamlined experience.

Personalized Care

Next, personalize the nutraceutical prescription based on your patients’ eye health needs and lifestyle with EyePromise eye health nutraceuticals. As the most comprehensive line of clinically validated nutraceuticals available, EyePromise is a one-stop shop for nutritional intervention.

For example, if you have a younger patient who works in IT, you know they’re spending a lot of time on computers. They don't have a family history of any particular eye health issue, but after measuring their MPOD, you see that they’re at risk for blue light damage. So, you prescribe EyePromise Screen Shield™ Pro, a one-a-day softgel with ingredients designed to increase MPOD and alleviate vision-related screen time symptoms like tired, strained eyes. You send them home with a bottle to get started, but what about their subsequent refills?

Hands-Off Refills

To make it convenient and easy, enroll the patient in the Auto Refill Program (ARP). The ARP sends automatic deliveries to the patient’s front door on a 3-month basis and provides the opportunity to pause or delay a shipment at any time. Additionally, the ARP saves patients money on every monthly supply, always ships for free, and gives patients a free bottle in their first shipment if they enroll in-practice! Once a patient is enrolled, you’ll receive a signup bonus as well as referral credit for each monthly supply delivered.

Ensure a Follow-Up

How can you know a patient is taking their prescription? With a 6-month MPOD retest on the Zx Pro! EyePromise nutraceuticals are guaranteed to increase MPOD in 6 months with consistent supplementation. Therefore, it’s recommended to schedule all patients for a 6-month follow-up retest to measure their progress.

Not sure if this works in practice? Just ask Mick Kling, OD, business coach and practice management guru! He shared how EyePromise has impacted his practice, Invision Optometry, in this an article for Review of Optometric Business.

What this boils down to is that elevating patient care helps elevate your practice above the competition. If you’re interested in offering your patients elevated care through an EyePromise partnership, have your local EyePromise Regional Account Manager contact you today!