Patients Don’t Know What They Don’t Know About Eye Health
It is our role to treat eye health, but also to educate. Most of the public really do not understand optometry’s scope. Come to think of it, do your staff? Let’s explore some creative ways to educate both.
The Public
Have you ever had a call from a patient looking for an obstetrician? I have. I know our scope is expanding, but not to obstetrics. We need to do a better job of educating the public on the roles in our industry and what we can (and can’t) do.
The general population does not understand the importance of eye health and our ability to help; most just associate us with the actual prescription. How do we change this? Of course, we need to do this through our marketing efforts in areas such as social media, community events and educational opportunities. But most importantly, it must happen in-house in your practice.
Here are some opportunities to provide education throughout the patient journey:
Stop calling it an exam. This word has such a negative connotation - consider “eye health check” instead.
Educate on why we recommend the frequency of visits that we do. We know that most eye complications are asymptomatic - let’s not let insurance coverage frequency influence the decision of when to seek help.
Take the time to explain what will happen throughout the process, explaining what you are doing and why.
In the pretest, share how the various screenings are ways to monitor eye health and detect early signs of problems.
The most important part of the exam is the eye health check, so position it accordingly. Upon completion of the eye health check, do we share results when everything looks good, or just move on to the Rx?
Reinforce the behaviours you want to see more of. This could sound like, “I am glad you came for your regular eye health check. Knowing how important our vision is, we will continue to monitor your eye health.”
Pre-appoint. Set the next appointment, since you just told them you will continue to monitor their eye health.
Create a Learning Environment For Staff
We have high expectations of staff, so we must enable them and set them up to succeed. The amount of information staff in our industry must learn can be overwhelming. When learning, repetition is key. Communicate in as many ways as possible using various learning styles. Tell them, show them, have them write it down, and have them apply the knowledge.
When adding services or staff, we must fully train and educate if we expect the public to know and understand the full scope of our services. If staff cannot talk confidently or cannot accurately inform a patient about something they won’t talk about it at all. The other day, I was observing a dispenser and noticed that she did not recommend a task lens to the patient when it seemed to be the logical option. Her response when I asked her about it was that she really does not understand that lens. Do not assume they know.
Some ideas and practices to support staff education:
Onboarding of staff - this should always include a comprehensive eye examination.
Review the role we play - and the importance of that role - in preventative eye health care.
Dry eye - model and have staff do lid hygiene. Also let them experience RF and IPL.
Contact Lenses - have staff go through insertion and removal.
Use a vision simulator to help staff relate to a patient’s specific eye disease (eyecaremed.com/resources/vision—simulator).
Progressives - If they do not wear them, use visuals or a mock pair to help staff understand the experience.
Strong Rx - give staff trial lenses so they can better relate to the struggles of these patients. This will also help them understand the value of myopia control.
Champions - find out what each staff member is passionate about and invite them to be the experts and train others. I guarantee they will do an excellent job.
Utilize team huddles to have a learning moment regarding a product or service you are focusing on.
Lunch and learns - keep the content streamlined and have a review at the end.
Share success stories and testimonials from patients you have helped.
We help people see! Surely everyone - staff and patients alike - can agree that this is a key role in health care. But if no one understands fully what we do, then we can’t fully help.
If you require any clarification on any of the tips above, feel free to reach out.
Nancy Dewald is a business development professional, workshop facilitator and optical industry veteran who founded and is CEO of Lead Up Training & Consulting, a company specializing in identifying business gaps, implementing solutions and developing leaders.
Article as seen in Optical Prism