There are so many benefits to a well-educated cataract surgery patient — but one that doesn’t get discussed as often is how efficiently the well-educated cataract patient can move through their journey. Let me explain.

It begins with the first touchpoint

These days, a lot of patients have a baseline expectation that if they are having any kind of eye surgery, even strabismus or retinal laser, they are also having their vision corrected to see without glasses. While that is certainly possible with modern refractive cataract surgery, we often find that patients have a number of misconceptions regarding how we accomplish this — and especially what their insurance will and will not cover.

While those are obviously potential obstacles for any eye-care practice to tackle, in our practice, we teach our team and have an organization-wide mindset that insurance is not the boss — the patient is.

We’ve found that efficiently moving patients through the cataract journey — and ultimately into the procedure that will accomplish their goals — starts with educating patients about all the realistic possibilities of cataract surgery from the very first touchpoint. That starts with the first time they reach out — whether it be a phone call or a web inquiry.

Our tools

We begin the education process by training our engagement center staff on critical points to address during the initial call. These include the importance of bringing a driver and co-decision maker with them, and expectations for the appointment, which can take at least a couple of hours to go through all the necessary diagnostics, face time with the doctor to have all their questions answered, and sufficient time to review their calendar in order to schedule a surgical appointment that is convenient.

Another way we educate patients is through digital communication using an IT patient engagement company. This platform offers ophthalmology-specific video content via video-based text messages, which allows eye surgery practices to share content-rich videos to pre-educate cataract patients. Practices can customize practice-specific technologies, styles, and treatment philosophies. We have recorded some of the physicians in our practice in these videos so that patients can become familiar with the feel of our office and the personality of some of our doctors. When they do eventually come in, patients already have some familiarity with the practice and the doctors they’re going to meet.

By the second touchpoint, nothing is “new”

When the patient comes in for their appointment, the doctor continues the conversation by gathering information about the patient’s past vision experiences and preferences (Are they a historic hyperope vs. low myope who likes monovision, for example). This transitions into a conversation about the patient’s goals for cataract surgery and the various technology options that will accomplish those goals. At this point, none of the information is new or surprising.

This pre-education arc boosts efficiency if you’re looking at it from a sense of keeping the process streamlined. It also improves patient adoption of the refractive cataract technologies that are going to accomplish their goals, because we are addressing the baseline mentality most patients start with regarding both fixing the cataract and fixing the vision.

The truth is, we have so many ways of doing surgery these days, and they are incredibly sophisticated. That is both exciting and, for patients, sometimes intimidating, so the necessary deliberations have the potential to slow down the patient decision process. But if you start the education process early, you have a higher likelihood of the patient understanding and adopting the doctor’s recommendation. It often just takes time for this information to soak in. So, if we don’t reach these patients early, we don’t end up giving them the time they need to make the decision that will affect them and how they see the world every waking minute for the rest of their lives.

Ophthalmic technicians play a role

So far, we’ve talked about pre-education that starts before the patient even comes into the office, as well as education by the doctor. But it’s important to point out that ophthalmic technicians also play a valuable role when performing testing. This ultimately makes the chair time more efficient for the doctor because the patients already have a better understanding of their condition.

For example, when our ophthalmic technicians take a corneal topography scan, they also take the time to turn the screen around and show the patient where their cataract is located. We have found that the more anatomical understanding the patient has of their situation, the more smoothly the conversation goes with the doctor.

Again, it comes back to misconceptions. We have found that many patients start their journey with the misbelief that a cataract is a growth over the top of the eye. This notion that it can just be “peeled off,” leads to a poor understanding of what really happens during cataract surgery.

In our experience, when the ophthalmic technicians are involved in the education process, it improves the overall experience for everyone.

In-office operational efficiency protocols

The better educated the patient is during each step of their cataract journey, the more efficiently the process will go. But the importance of strong in-office operational efficiency protocols cannot be overlooked. Things like pre-registration and other paperwork must also be a smooth process or it won’t matter how well the patient is educated — registration paperwork will become a bottleneck.

We use a tool through our practice management system that helps get patients pre-registered so that we can continue to make the best use of their time when they are here in the office.

We also coach our patient engagement center to ask questions around the patient’s pain points including what the patient is experiencing and what goals they might be trying to accomplish. That information is also recorded ahead of time in our software so that when our first-impression team members welcome the patient, they are already customizing that experience to the specific patient. This is another way we remain efficient and ultimately ensure each patient who come through our doors gets the treatment the doctor recommends.

Success and patient satisfaction

When patients have a better understanding of their options and can adjust their expectations accordingly, it translates into a smooth, efficient journey through the process. And keeping the patient moving through each step of the process in an efficient way is good for everyone. OP