July is typically a month where the eyecare industry focuses on occasional dry eye. It’s a unique moment to share insights into patient care, the latest technologies, and how to grow your practice utilizing this specialized care. Kara Foster, OD, discovered that offering certain occasional dry eye services increased her per-exam revenue, and she shared those insights in an article for Review of Optometric Business. Here are the 5 steps she recommendations.

Getting Started

First, it’s important to understand your patient base. Dr. Foster’s practice is situated in an area that’s popular with professionals who work long hours on screens (i.e., engineers, software developers, etc.). Due to these screen time requirements, she hears a lot of occasional dry eye complaints, so she decided to bring in several therapies to support her patients’ needs.

Understand Your Priorities

Next, you’ll need to set some ground rules for therapies you’re looking for. For example, Dr. Foster knew she wanted to get away from pharmacological care and reduce dependencies on artificial tears and warm compresses. She decided to go this route because her patients weren’t interested in long-term medical care plans. Whatever the motivator, understanding what yours are will help guide your decisions moving forward.

Determine How to Invest

Once you know your priorities, you can begin to determine what you want to invest in for occasional dry eye care. Dr. Foster utilizes ZEST treatments, lid debridement, meibomian gland expression, and intense pulsed light (IPL) therapy. The IPL technology was her most recent investment, and she said that many patients elect to have this therapy due to its low at-home maintenance requirements.

Other occasional dry eye investment options include:

• LipiScan
• SPEED Questionnaire
• InflammaDry
• TearLab Osmolarity
• Tear Breakup Time
• Epithelial Staining
• Schirmer Test
• Phenol Red Thread Test
• Nutraceuticals

Train Your Practice

Another key step is getting your practice (doctors and staff) trained in the new technologies. They need to know not only how to use it, but why you’re bringing it in. The why helps with overall adoption of the new protocol. Dr. Foster had her team trained by the IPL representative, and they have access to additional digital training materials like webinars and videos. Finally, she made sure everyone was comfortable with the device by administering the test repeatedly either with patients or with other staff members.

Schedule Efficiently and Effectively

When you’re ready to start implementing the new protocol(s) in-practice, you should update your scheduling protocols, too. Understand how much time is needed to educate patients on occasional dry eye, the therapies you offer, and how long those therapies will take. Knowing this timing helps you schedule smarter, making the most out of your day. Dr. Foster typically saves a few slots every afternoon for IPLs, filling any open appointments with people from the waitlist.

The Results

After updating her occasional dry eye protocol, Dr. Foster has increased her per-exam revenue to over $550!

How EyePromise® Can Help Increase Per-Exam Revenue

EyePromise, the #1 nutritional partner in the industry, can help add to your per-exam revenue through the largest portfolio of clinically proven nutraceuticals, the latest in biomarker technology, and the industry-leading compliance program.

Our comprehensive nutraceutical line helps you personalize your patients’ nutritional support, with products designed to help with macular health, occasional dry eye, screen time, eye health related to blood sugar control, and sports performance. Our occasional dry eye formula called EyePromise EZ Tears™ is expertly crafted with ultra-purified rTG Omega-3s plus seven additional soothing ingredients for fast, lasting relief. Its non-pharmaceutical, 2 softgel-a-day dose has helped patients feel better in as little as one week, and the product is backed by a 30-day, money-back, satisfaction guarantee.

Don’t want to invest in inventory? The EyePromise Auto Refill Program (ARP) is the answer! With a custom e-commerce page dedicated to your practice, you can enroll patients in the ultimate compliance program in under 2 minutes. This in-practice enrollment earns patients a FREE bottle in their first shipment, free shipping on every order, and discounts on every monthly supply shipped, all while crediting you and your practice. Additionally, the ARP gives you access to all EyePromise products, allowing you to give your patients exactly what they need.

With an EyePromise partnership, you can increase your per-exam revenue by $100! Learn more about the system that’s changing nutrition in eyecare.

Increasing revenue is critical to the success of any practice, and these suggestions can help get you there. To increase your per-exam revenue with comprehensive nutritional care, learn more about becoming an EyePromise partner.