HOW TO Stay In the Ophthalmic Game (with New Healthcare Reform)

With healthcare uncertainty and Medicare cuts staring us in the face, surgeons are a bit apprehensive about what the future holds for them. The best thing to do is stay positive, provide superior service and always be watching for opportunities to grow one’s business.

Having just returned from AAO Show in San Francisco this past week, I was impressed with the upbeat attitude of many surgeons and suppliers. New products and new concepts were introduced, ranging from equipment to IOLs to instruments, and even marketing software.

As an ophthalmologist who is interested in securing one’s future, I highly recommend getting serious about marketing your surgical services and your practice. First of all, good outcomes are a given. Equally important, it’s the service you provide prior to and after the exam &/or surgery that will keep you in the game. Winning physicians will be those who focus on how to market themselves and their business and who serve their patients as if they were their only customer, i.e. not just a patient.

As everyone is aware, to be successful in today’s world, a strong partnership between the ophthalmologist and optometrists is a “must” for increasing one’s cataract volume. Just meeting with ODs at their office doesn’t cut it anymore. Ophthalmologists need to be bringing more to the optometrists’ table. For example, putting on seminars for continuing education or bringing in a marketing expert to evaluate both the MD and OD front office environment are ways in which to enhance and build stronger relations, as well as your OD’s and your business.

Your front office team, whether it’s the receptionist, scheduler, biller or nurse, must have a customer service attitude and aptitude. If they don’t, they could be turning away or turning off your existing customer base, as well as patients who are trying to decide whether or not they want you as their doctor.  No customers, no business – it’s as simple as that. When’s the last time you put your entire staff through customer service training or re-training session? If you were to walk through your office door, would you want to do business with your people?

In terms of looking for new opportunities, all one has to do is keep your eyes and ears open. One approach is to ask your peers what they have found to be successful.  For example, here is one strategy that has proven to be very beneficial to ophthalmologists who own surgery centers. These MDs are minimizing their capital costs by utilizing cataract outsourcing services.  The capital dollars originally planned for capital equipment are being put into marketing, staffing, upgrading their front offices, etc….  By redirecting their capital dollars, surgeons are able to obtain the newest technology (with surgical coordinators, to boot), while allowing more dollars to go toward promoting their business and bringing more patients to their practice. Another is investing in software, such as Glacial Multimedia, that records, tracks and reports how each patient and potential patient are handled by the front office.

Like our parents and grandparents, we too will make it through these difficult times and be better because of it. The last thing we need to do is bury our heads in the sand and give up. Instead, hold your head high, be proud of what you’ve achieved, re-energize yourself and start tomorrow with improving your staff, yourself and your business.

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