Why I Care: Transforming Eye Care and Improving Patients' Quality of Life

[AdminWolf]

Why I Care: Transforming Eye Care and Improving Patients' Quality of Life

with:

Jim Murphy
Carla Mack, OD, MBA, FAAO

Synopsis:
At its heart, this is a practice management webinar. Drawing on some of the ideas of Simon Sinek, it is all about asking the question "Why" -- why do you do what you do in your practice. Have you really thought about it? And, how do you convey this to patients so that they'll care more about their visual health?

 

[AdminWolf]

btw, if you've never heard Sinek --

 

[James Jordan]

I was there, at/in/around the webinar.

The glamour's off contact lenses. I wish Alcon didn't act like we should be cheerleading contact lenses and quit acting like dentistry is something we should be like. I think they failed in their rah rah tonite.

Why doesn't Alcon invent something that corrects vision that doesn't have to be worn on living tissue? When people's livelihoods depend on vision and they have some foreign object in their eyes, we know what people think about that. It sucks for some, or many.

What's wrong with contact lenses is the same thing that's wrong with glasses. There's not much of a solution when the pt isn't happy to have to use either of them.

Jamie

Just a little over an hour to go before the show!

hope to see everyone there.

 

[AdminWolf]

Jamie -- one of the big take-aways I got from the show tonight is the importance of appealing to emotion rather than pure logic when talking to patients.

I think that is something people in general have a hard time doing (i'm trying to picture Paul appealing to patient emotion... I cannot even fathom it.)

I am going to try to craft a purpose statement & put it in the Resources section of the site. It is something i've heard of in other businesses to help guide employee action, but never seen in eye care. Maybe Carla could provide a few as well to peruse.

 

[James Jordan]

I saw that angle...appealing to the patient's emotion. I guess both Paul and I might be in the same camp. Camp take it or leave it.

But I'm sure I could be retrained by the right person.

Jamie

Jamie -- one of the big take-aways I got from the show tonight is the importance of appealing to emotion rather than pure logic when talking to patients.

I think that is something people in general have a hard time doing (i'm trying to picture Paul appealing to patient emotion... I cannot even fathom it.)

I am going to try to craft a purpose statement & put it in the Resources section of the site. It is something i've heard of in other businesses to help guide employee action, but never seen in eye care. Maybe Carla could provide a few as well to peruse.

 

[AdminWolf]

I saw that angle...appealing to the patient's emotion. I guess both Paul and I might be in the same camp. Camp take it or leave it.

But I'm sure I could be retrained by the right person.

Jamie

For many types of goods, emotion is critical in overcoming the challenge of price elasticity.

As someone who is a life-long contact lens wearer, and now an emerging presbyope, I understand this clearly.

I realize I could see just fine with specs, but dammit -- if someone comes up with a progressive CL that actually works well for me, I will jump on it like a life-raft. I don't care what it costs. It is not rational, but then neither is a $600 iPad.

I'm sure there are millions of people like me, but it is the easiest thing in the world to not delve deep into it with a patient, and just say 'get readers, aging fart'.

This was the big point of the lecture I think -- try to uncover the hidden emotional desires of the patient.
And don't project your biases about price on the patient.

 

[Paul Farkas]

I saw that angle...appealing to the patient's emotion. I guess both Paul and I might be in the same camp. Camp take it or leave it.

But I'm sure I could be retrained by the right person.

Jamie

Jamie the trick for people like us is to have a different office personality.

When I was with a patient for those magic 10 or15 minutes there was no other person in the world who mattered. There were no interruptions with outside issues. The patient had my undivided attention and empathy.

To me their contact lenses were not just to see better. patients could have glasses for that that. Contact lenses gave them new possibilities. Meet a significant other...make them better at their hobby of choice etc. There was always something personal about them from their previous visit where I could ask that very private question discussed during the last visit.

Some readers might say Farkas you are a phony ...full of crap. It worked for me.

 

[James Jordan]

Not saying that that isn't occurring today where contact lenses give someone a new possibility, just that they just don't seem special, patients don't seem to have the enthusiasm, perhaps like they did many years ago. Maybe it's some of the limitations put on us by the vision plans, or the perception of the limitations...and the reimbursement and online competition. It's a washed out feeling I guess.

Maybe Alcon targeting the consumer more (didn't they say in the webinar they were planning that) would spark some enthusiam in patients. I guess I could get excited about whatever the new contact lens materials are made of and how they work. I'd like to know the chemistry of them....that would take away the more mundane feeling that I'm just facilitating a transaction for them.

Jamie

Jamie the trick for people like us is to have a different office personality.

When I was with a patient for those magic 10 or15 minutes there was no other person in the world who mattered. There were no interruptions with outside issues. The patient had my undivided attention and empathy.

To me their contact lenses were not just to see better. patients could have glasses for that that. Contact lenses gave them new possibilities. Meet a significant other...make them better at their hobby of choice etc. There was always something personal about them from their previous visit where I could ask that very private question discussed during the last visit.

Some readers might say Farkas you are a phony ...full of crap. It worked for me.

 

[AdminWolf]

To me their contact lenses were not just to see better. patients could have glasses for that that. Contact lenses gave them new possibilities. Meet a significant other...make them better at their hobby of choice etc. There was always something personal about them from their previous visit where I could ask that very private question discussed during the last visit.

Some readers might say Farkas you are a phony ...full of crap. It worked for me.

This is going to sound like a dumb question, but -- for all folks using EHR, do you routinely write down those important personal issues as a side-note in their record just to jog your own memory (ie, "going to prom","builds ships-in-bottles", etc...) I recall seeing those kinds of 'asides' frequently in paper records.

 

[Gretchyn Bailey]

Many many moons ago, I worked for a group OD practice. The senior doc, and he was very much a senior, was BELOVED by all patients. EVERYONE wanted to see him, even though his clinical skills weren't that sharp. "Dr. X remembered that my son was moving to Japan!" "Dr. X ALWAYS asks about my garden!" And on and on and on. They all genuinely thought that Dr. X cared enough about them to remember those little personal details. Dr. X made liberal notes in the patient record (paper, of course, back then), with patients nary the wiser.

Did those little personal asides make him a better doctor? Depends on your definition of "better doctor." His patients sure thought so.

 

[AdminWolf]

Video archive is up! Enjoy the show