
An anonymous pundit once quipped, “Surveys prove surveys
work.” But let's be honest. No one wants to fill out more
paperwork. The staff is already too busy and the doctor is
constantly running at full speed to try to keep up with the
daily schedule. Why would we want to add another piece of
paperwork to the already overflowing amount of duties the
patient, doctor and staff need to perform?
The answer is simple. We need to know the patient’s medical
history and how they use their eyes during various activities.
We also need to have a time-effective way of gathering that
information, especially with managed care relentlessly driving
practice efficiency. We have two options: we can let the doctor
play “20 questions” in the chair with the patient or we can ask
the patient to provide the information through an easy survey
prior to seeing the doctor.
The survey is not only more efficient, it is also more
complete. Patients often neglect to mention health information
details to their doctor. It is also easy for the patient to
overlook lifestyle activities during the exam, when a doctor’s
recommendation can make a big difference in their enjoyment of a
hobby.
An example of a lifestyle issue/opportunity is swimming. This
is an easy lifestyle question to miss without a written
checklist of activities. Competitive swimmers will typically
practice six days a week, twice a day. If the swimmer is
nearsighted, prescription goggles will allow the swimmer to see
the pace clock, see the coaches’ instructions and see the other
swimmers. If we miss this question in speaking with the patient,
the swimmer misses an opportunity to improve their performance
and enjoyment of the sport, and the practice loses an
opportunity to bring in incremental revenue.
Medical History Survey
Most practices already ask medical questions in their office
paperwork. A good example of a medical history questionnaire can
be found online at Transitions Optical’s online marketing web
site: www.TransitionsTom.com. Using a written health history
survey is important to insure you collect and discuss any
pertinent information. If you have a simple “X in the box”
format on the forms it is quick and easy for the patient to fill
out and the doctor to review.
Lifestyle Activity Survey
The Optometric Oath states: “I will advise my patients fully and
honestly of all which may serve to restore, maintain or enhance
their vision and general health.” Obviously, we cannot do this
if we don’t know how our patients use their eyes. Yet many
practices leave these questions to the vagaries of the chairside
chat.
There are several ways to integrate the survey into your
practice. One of the newer ways is to include your activities
survey on the practice web site, so the patient may complete it
before coming in for their eye exam. Another high-tech way to
survey patients is with electronic methods such as
computer-driven screens.
Lifestyle surveys can also be done when the patient comes
into the practice, either as a separate sheet or as a part of
the current incoming patient form. This is the most frequently
used method and typically adds only a minute or two to the
patients’ time in reception.
There is a huge amount of value in taking the time to survey
the patients’ lifestyle activities. A. Dennis Olmstead, OD of
Eye Care Associates of Charlotte in Charlotte, Mich. is a
believer in using the survey. “It has made us more efficient and
effective in our examination of patients. It helps us direct our
patient conversations and insures that we offer our patients the
products and benefits they expect when they come to our
practice.”
Kyle F. Hoskins, OD of InVision Eyecare Associates in South
Bend, Ind. emphasizes, “The lifestyle survey helps me understand
what the lifestyle vision needs of the patient are and make
recommendations to solve their visual problems. It makes me more
thorough and takes a little more time. The survey is a tool to
develop better informed patients in the exam lane.” It also has
positive results in both patient satisfaction and the financial
performance of the practice. Dr. Hoskins notes his staff “feels
the extra time spent by the doctor discussing lifestyle needs
and recommending the appropriate solutions makes their job much
easier and quicker, and makes it more likely the patient will
purchase the appropriate eyewear for their needs.”
Amy M. Keller, OD of Reed City, Mich. believes lifestyle
surveys perform a key role in performance as an optometrist.
“The survey gives me a good starting point to discuss options
with patients. They may not purchase the recommended products
this
visit, but it gets them thinking for their next visit. It is
important for me to not only give them a prescription, but also
recommend the materials and products that are available for
their particular needs. If I don’t inform them, they may choose
something inferior and not even realize there are better
products out there.”
What to Include in a The survey
The best places to start as we consider questions to include in
our lifestyle survey are areas that we know typically produce
challenges to our patients’ vision. Some common areas include
computer use, glare from blinding sunlight, glare from oncoming
headlights, near-point tasks, occupational strains such as
bookwork or blueprint reading, mid-point tasks such as music and
contrast issues such as shooting and golf. Other areas include
potential hazards to vision, such as hobby woodshops and sports
with impact hazards like racquetball. Other good sources of
questions to include in our survey are recreational specialties
with vision-specific products, such as
prescription dive masks for diving and specialty lenses for
golfing.
We should also consider commonly voiced concerns of our
patients. These concerns could include focusing abilities while
knitting or doing needle point, needs for extremely sharp near
vision for coin, card and stamp collectors, contrast sensitivity
for hunters and outdoor sportsmen and color vision for
photographers and artists. It is important to make our
questionnaire easy to use without requiring a lot of time. Using
checkboxes wherever possible make the task of completing the
form a breeze for the patient and easy to review for the doctor.
The medical history survey and lifestyle activities can also be
combined into one form to reduce the amount of paper given to
the patient.
Another Helpful Survey
An additional survey that some practices administer is the
patient satisfaction survey. This survey is given at the end of
the patient’s visit to inform the practice of the patient’s
overall satisfaction with their visit to the office and asks
specific questions about each interface within their visit. Most
practices that use this survey will limit the number of patients
surveyed for cost and efficiency reasons. Ideas for sample size
can be as simple as every other Tuesday or the fourth week of
the month or even the fifth patient every day. Patient
satisfaction surveys are valuable yardsticks of the performance
of the practice in the patients’ eyes. Sometimes the perceptions
of the patients are much different than what the practice
expects. The measurements are especially helpful for the
doctors, since most of their workday is spent in the exam rooms
and they are not able to observe the performance of their staff
on a regular basis.
Information that may be included in the patient satisfaction
survey can include available times for exams, courtesy of staff,
selection of products, explanation of the patients’ vision
systems, timeliness of product delivery and value received.
Another topic could be satisfaction with their vision benefits,
if applicable. Questions such as selection of frames covered,
lens materials and treatments covered and ease of use are
possible areas to explore.
Dr. Keller has used the patient satisfaction survey off and
on for about five years. The staff surveys patients every
Wednesday. Dr. Keller began using the satisfaction survey to
make sure the practice was addressing the needs of their
patients and spot trends or concerns that the patient may not
raise during the examination process. Her survey covers a
variety of topics, from cleanliness to ease of appointment
scheduling. When the practice first began surveying the
patients, they found some negative responses on the amount of
time spent waiting in the reception area. Dr. Keller remarked,
“We responded with extra efforts to keep on schedule and make
sure we explain the reasons for any delays in seeing the
patients at their appointed time. This negative soon became a
positive.”
Surveys are a choice
Does the practice need to do all of these surveys? The answer to
that question will depend on several factors. The experience
level of doctors and staff, the amount of time available to
spend with patients, the personality of the staff, and even the
level of managed care will impact the choice. Doni Wolf of
Bridgeport Eye Center in Bridgeport, Texas enjoys the
opportunity to discuss lifestyle activities with patients rather
than using a survey form. “I always ask about hobbies, computer
use, driving habits, sports, etc. I can tailor my questions to
the patient based on age and our past interactions with the
patient.”
The best way to determine if survey forms will benefit your
practice is to try using one for a few weeks. At the end of the
trial, discuss the impact the survey has had with the entire
staff. Remember that with any new process, you may need to tweak
the format to improve it for your particular needs and try it
again. At the end of your trial you should ask three main
questions: 1. Did the survey make us more efficient in our
delivery of care? 2. Did the survey have a positive impact
financially? 3. Did the survey enable us to produce more highly
satisfied patients? If the answers to these questions are yes,
then a well-designed survey is a good choice for you.
By Eric Rollins
Source: 20/20 Magazine, Jobson Medical Information LLC. Published here under license.
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