How to streamline Optometrist Operations with the right Document Scanners
There is tremendous pressure on optometrists from a competition, regulatory and operations perspective. Optometrist offices are somewhat unique in that they function both as a healthcare delivery service and a retail operation under one roof. Save for pharmacies, this is somewhat unique. Because of this optometrists have to deal with operational issues on both sides of the consumer spectrum…health and retail. Streamlining your optometry operations so that you can maximize patient care and practice growth requires a balance of people, process and technology.
Before looking at the different methods for streamlining operations, let’s first define what operations means. Optometry operations includes the following core areas
- Patient checking and registration
- Patient care
- Inventory management & retail operations
Driving operations are a combination of people, technology and processes. As a maker of digital capture and document scanners for healthcare, AMBIR has been working closely with healthcare providers such as Optometrists for over 25 years. In the mechanics of running an efficient optometry practice, having the right scanners that have been tuned to work in a specific environment are is extremely important. Let’s explore how scanners can improve the aforementioned operations.
Patient Check In and Registration
Scanners are crucial pieces of equipment because you will be scanning ID’s Insurance cards and paper/charts. The right scanner(s) for this element will have several key features/benefits. Firstly, the scanner should be able to capture data from an ID card, specifically insurance cards. Once captured, this data should then move effortlessly into the EHR/Practice Management system that the practice is using. The most common of these are:
By leveraging scanners that are time tested to work with your EHR system you can dramatically improve the check in and registration process. You can also improve new and existing patient experience by reducing time in the waiting room and potentially eliminating paper-based registration which can be frustrating for patients. In addition to scanners there’s other key hardware to facilitate fast and efficient patient registration and check in such as electronic signature pads. Reducing the need to physically sign paper creates a better patient experience, reduces overall paper/filing costs.
Patient Care
The biggest way that scanners and related hardware can positively impact patient care is ensuring all charts and information are properly captured from paper into electronic format. When onboarding new patients, making sure you capture all of the appropriate patient history is critical and in cases where paper charts and documents exist, having high quality scanners to capture and digitize patient records can help improver overall care.
Inventory Management and Retail Operations
Again, one of the unique elements of an optometry practice is that it is a retail entity in addition to being a healthcare service provider. A certain amount of inventory must be kept on-hand to meet the demands of your patient community and client base. Because of this, you’re almost forced to manage two very different types of businesses. One of the tools that comes in very handy in streamlining the retail operations and inventory management component is barcode scanners. These devices have evolved to become a ubiquitous tool that consumers use in self check out and retail operations rely on for simplifying inventory management. Integrated with your inventory management systems or connected via a sync process, barcode scanners allow you to check-in new inventory as it arrives from the distribution center/manufacturer. Knowing what’s on hand versus what needs to be ordered will help ensure more efficient and profitable retail operations.
Summary
A lot goes into running and managing a successful Optometry practice. To be successful, you have to manage two very distinct elements, patient care and retail operations. Having the right people, process and technology in place is key and with regards to technology, good quality hardware that has been time-tested to work in the challenging optometry environment will go a long way to aid in that success. AMBIR makes products that meet the demands of busy optometry offices and we’ve been recognized year in and year out as a leader in digital capture and scanning solutions for this industry.