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Elevating your Practice with
Advanced Business Insight
2 Hours
Jason R. Miller, OD, MBA, FAAO
Walter O. Whitley, OD, MBA, FAAO
Course Description:
This class will utilize an interactive approach to learning many advanced business
principles which will improve the decision making process in eye care practices. This
course will not only address the challenges eye care offices face during an electronic
health records (EHR’s) conversion, but also ways of creating a vision for the entire
office. Topics include best marketing practices, accounting and staff training strategies.
Business principles will be analyzed, including best accounting numbers, finance
considerations and the economics affecting the eye care industry. In addition, ways of
developing and marketing strong intra-optometric referrals and creating optometric
subspecialties, such as co-management, ocular disease and specialty contact lenses
will be evaluated. This course will elevate the attendees’ ability to develop an
innovative organizational culture, optimize their operating efficiencies and develop a
strong strategic position for future growth.
Course Objectives:
 Attendees will gain a better understanding of business issues affecting the
eye care industry.

They will be able to evaluate and determine what marketing mix in order to
retain existing patients and attract new patients.

We will evaluate ways of developing inta-optometric referrals and creating
optometric subspecialties.

Attendees will analyze the best accounting numbers to know and track on a
daily, weekly, monthly and yearly basis.

We will discuss the many finance considerations from partnership
agreements.

Attendees will evaluate the multitude of operating decisions we make from
information technology to patient flow to inventory and determination of best
practices to optimize efficiency.

Help the attendees develop a strong strategic position and ways of
differentiation their business and realize the opportunities available in their
current eye care market.

To recognize the advantages of moving to a “paperless” practice and to
understand how a technologically advanced practice works on a daily basis.

The eye care professional will learn ways to set their services apart and
create patient loyalty through positive experiences, experiential marketing
and consumer driven marketing.

The eye care professional will realize the importance of a consumer-centric
approach and consumer-focused branding.

The eye care professional will understand profitability opportunities by
offering product and service differentiation.
Outline:
I. Current State of the Ophthalmic Market
A. Ways to incorporate new technology
B. Product Life Cycles
1. Variable affecting
C. Creating patient awareness
1. Internal marketing
2. Staff training
3. Experiential marketing
4. Consumer-Driven marketing
II. Creating Patient Loyalty
1. Definition and formula for patient satisfaction
2. What business are YOU in? = a customer satisfying process, not just a
goods or service producing process, is critical to understand from the
business perspective.
a. Consumer-centric approach
i. Negative experience
ii. Neutral experience
iii. Positive experience
b. Experiential Marketing
i. It is a way to get customers to sense, feel, think, act, and
relate to a specific company or brand
ii. It enhances loyalty with your office, and is a way to meet and
exceed customers’ expectations
c. Consumer-Driven Marketing
i. Market segmentation
ii. Market targeting
iii. Market positioning
iv. Who are our customers? Who are our competitors? What
value do we provide? What value do they want?
v. Marketing Mix – changes necessary in product, price and
promotion are necessary to achieve strategic goals.
vi. Value proposition – value to the target market with unique
products, patient experience, personalized service.
d. Customer Intimacy
i. Definition – Continuously tailor and shape products and
services to fit an increasingly fine definition of the customer’s
value proposition.
ii. Focus on lifetime value versus profit on a single transaction.
iii. Office culture = obsession with understanding customers.
e. Choosing a Value Discipline
i. Where we stand:
1. Our individual strengths and weaknesses
2. Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats
(SWOT analysis)
3. What dimension of value do consumers care about?
ii. How to differentiate yourself given:
1. Business objectives
2. Most difficult for competitors to copy
3. Leveraging existing strengths
iii. Marketing examples
III. Consumer Focused Branding
A. Definition
B. Building brand equity
C. Examples of different brand personalities
D. Consumer brand relationships
E. Defining your brand – brand image and brand personality. Carry theme
throughout the office.
IV. Improving Patient Flow
A. Use of chair-side assistants
B. New technology consistent with your brand
C. Electronic medical records (EMR’s)
D. Eyemaginations – patient education tools
V. Background / Overview of Electronic Health Records (EHR’s)
A. Effect on patient care
1. Increased efficiency
2. Increased productivity
3. Improved quality of care
4. Smart business decision
a. The right combination of hardware, technology integration,
software, staff training and vendor support can get you to a place
with competitive advantages and cost savings
b. Importance of front-end set-up
c. “Patient-Centric” versus “Paper-Centric” results in increased
revenue
B. Challenges to overcome
1. Fear factor with technology
a. Age factor
b. Risk taking
2. Experience factor
3. Staff training factor
4. Cost factor
5. Difficulty for change
C. Change Management Campaign
VI. Co-management of Premium IOLs
A. Cataract Co-Management Protocol
B. CMS ruling – “Patient Share” Charges – Medicare share / Patient share
C. Pre-operative measurements and patient discussion
D. Our role as the patient advocate / picking a surgeon
E. Being proactive: recommending and assisting in selection of premium IOL
technology
F. Binocular versus Monocular procedures
G. Utilizing staff to improve efficiencies
H. In-Office tools / forms / education / digital imagery
I. Developing relationships with surgeons
 Challenges to overcome
 Fear factor with technology
 Age factor with technology
 Risk taking
J. Opportunity for optometry to provide cutting edge technology
 Understanding patient needs
 Importance of patient selection
 Differences between IOL technologies
 Pre-/Post-operative management
K. Billing/Coding for Premium IOLs
VII.
VIII.
Comanagement of Refractive Surgery
A. What’s New in 2010
B. Which procedure for which patient
C. Updates on ICL technology
D. Pre-/Post-operative pearls
Building a Therapuetic Subspecialty
A. Ocular Surface Inflammatory Disease
i. Blepharitis
ii. Allergies
iii. Dry Eye Syndrome
B. Consider nontraditional treatment options
i. Punctal occlusion
ii. Bandage contact lenses
iii. Nutriceuticals
iv. Autologous serum
v. Cosmetic procedures – botox, juvederm, skin care, latisse
IX. Building Intraoptometric Referrals
A. Optometric subspecialties
i. Specialty contact lenses
ii. Vision therapy
iii. Pediatrics
iv. Low Vision
v. Ocular disease
B. Marketing your specialty
i. Get involved in various organizations
ii. Inform others about services you provide
iii. Invest time and energy into building a referral base
C. Tips for successful comanagement
i. Primary motivator Is in patients best interests
ii. Communication is key
iii. Mutual trust among providers
iv. Encourage the referring doctor to educate their patients in regards
to specialty care
v. Always return the patient