Prepare your practice for laser refractive surgery comanagement in four easy steps

Issue: November 1995

ANAHEIM, Calif.—By taking 30 days to make plans and set goals, you can launch your optometric practice into the laser vision correction market and be at full speed within a year, said John W. Potter, OD, in a seminar here at the International Vision Expo meeting.

With the recent Food and Drug Administration approval of the excimer laser for photorefractive keratectomy (PRK), many optometrists will want to prepare their practices to participate in the comanagement of PRK and phototherapeutic keratectomy patients. Potter, director of Center Development for TLC The Laser Center, Dallas, said that optometrists should focus on four key elements to ready their practice and their staffs before tackling patient education, data tracking and marketing.

Create a mission statement

Developing a mission statement may be difficult, Potter said, but it is imperative to creating "a collective vision for your practice." It guarantees that everyone--receptionists, business managers, optometrists--understands the focus of the practice, and, more importantly, ensures that this focus is communicated in a unified manner to patients. "Without that ability," Potter said, "you will not be able to integrate laser vision correction effectively into your practice."

Potter said the mission statement should be short and straightforward; for example: "We offer information about laser vision correction and offer a seminar to every patient who has less than 7 D of myopia and less than 1 D of astigmatism," or "We will offer a free laser vision correction seminar to all of our myopic patients."

Set practice goals

The practice goals should stem from the mission statement and be clear and realistic. Potter said it is crucial for someone to be "the lead dog." This person, be it the optometrist or another member of the practice, should coordinate the laser vision correction efforts in the practice. The coordinator can create a sense of commitment by organizing instructional programs for employees and by arranging discounts for employees who want laser vision correction.

Develop a business plan

The business plan involves operational, personnel, marketing and financial issues. Potter recommends having a one-page plan for each topic and assigning a person who can control the strategy, tasks, objectives and budgets for each.

Determining whether there is an opportunity to expand a practice to include laser vision correction "comes down to a 'yes' or 'no' question," he said. Most assume there's more practice in this area. It is best to sample your own charts to get an idea of the lenses prescribed and to determine the demographics of the practice, said Potter, which will help determine what percentage of your population are candidates for laser surgery.

Put everything in writing

"This is very much like creating a new religion," Potter said. "If you don't write it down on the holy scrolls, nobody's going to know what happened. You must put it in writing."

Potter said by following these four steps optometrists can minimize the problems and confusion that can occur in a budding practice. Prepare your practice by following these four steps, and then once these elements are mastered, you can focus on conducting seminars, tracking data and marketing laser surgery.

Conduct seminars, track attendees

Optometrists must conduct seminars to inform interested patients about laser vision correction, Potter said. Initially, the seminars should be held once a month and last about an hour.

Potter stressed that the practice must carefully track how many seminar attendees keep appointments. Tracking will dictate the cost to provide laser vision comanagement and the time to allocate to it in the coming month. "If you track your progress monthly, then you know your compensation," he said. "Every refractive surgery practice that I have ever seen that gets in financial trouble does so because they don't track their data."

Although right now global fees are fraught with problems, Potter thinks such fees are the best way to bill for comanagement. "There are potential conflicts and regulatory issues, but I believe it is much easier on everybody if the patient pays one fee. The fee-for-the-experience is the best way."

Optometrists should resist selling laser correction, Potter said, but instead should promote it through the seminars and other patient education. "Market, yes, advertise, no," he said. "There's a fine line between me talking you into having it done and you making an informed decision."