Visit

Okay, let’s move on to the pre-visit. Now, if you haven't already pulled your patient’s insurance benefit information while you were scheduling the appointment, it's important that you do this at least three to five days before their scheduled appointment. Knowing their benefits is a service that we provide and should never be taken for granted and is so important to the patient as well as to us and our schedule. You're also going to want to make sure that you have copays, if they have a deductible, as well as if they're a VSP patient. Be sure that you're printing all of their VSP benefit information and so that means that second page that details the benefits specific to that patient's VSP insurance or vision plan.

We're ready to move on to the day of the patient's visit and we know the very first thing we're going to do is look up and greet them with a smile as soon as they walk through that door, even if we're on the phone. As well as the rest of the team should be welcoming them to the practice. Next you’re going to want to check in or sign in your patient. Now, most practice management software or PMS’s have a patient tracking component to them. So, if that is not functional in your software, check to see if you have it and see what it takes to get that up and running for you, because that really allows your team to know where is that patient in the patient production cycle, how long is it taking, and where do we need to make adjustments in the future so that we can always ensure that we have that great patient experience. 

Now, also when checking-in, let's keep it simple for our patients and let's remove that paperwork. Remember, we talked about that when we were looking at some of those benchmarks or stats earlier. Patients don't like to wait. We know, on average, it takes a patient about 10 minutes to complete paperwork and we also know that our technicians can do it much faster, much more accurately, and it’s a better experience and we’re not duplicating work. Now you will want to ask for the patients drivers license as well as their insurance card and two things are going to need to happen here. Number one, you're going to want to quietly verify that that address on the driver's license matches and/or is correct with the demographic information that you have. As well as, even though we have pulled the insurance authorization already, when you get that card, prior to scanning these two items into your PMS, you're going to want to make sure that that Insurance ID is the same that you have in your system, because sometimes it can change. Then, of course, you're going to scan all of that into your practice management software. You're also going to offer your HIPAA or your notice of privacy and make sure you get a signature on that. As well as if there's any signed financial agreements or an ABN or if there are any minor consents. Any of those signatures that we need, we need to have all those ready prior to the patient coming in, so that they can sign those and then of course, we scan all of that into our PMS system. And then finally, we're going to make sure we utilize a routing slip. Now again, we have a virtual routing slip and we have a program that's available for you in your learning library on how to use that, but we still recommend that if you don't have that on a tablet that goes around, that you have it printed off and that you have the patient's name on there, what their insurance is and their copay and that goes with the patient throughout their visit.

Now, we are all checked-in. If our technician isn’t already notified by the fact we've hit that tracking button in our PMS system, we’re going to want to go ahead and let them know that our patient is ready to be seen. Remember, waiting 10 minutes leaves the patient two times more likely to leave a negative review online, so let's be ready for them when they come in and let's communicate with our team.

Alright, so now our patient is off with our technician to pre-testing. Now, remember we've removed as much of the paperwork as we can for a better experience for our patient and our technician is going to be gathering medication, family history, medical history, etc. and then, of course doing any preliminary testing that the doctor has requested. On average, this takes about 15-20 minutes, typically. Then we're going to escort our patient to the exam room and before the doctor enters the exam room, it's important that our technician and the doctor have a baton pass as to why is the patient there, who is he seeing, and what were their specific requests. So that when he walks into that exam room, he's able to greet and know why they are there. Very, very important. 

Now, in the exam room, of course the doctor is going to do his exam as well as he’s going to make any recommendations, whether it be for glasses or contacts or maybe future special testing that he would like to have completed. He's also, or she, going to, before that patient leaves the exam room, request for his clinical optician, scribe, tech, whoever it might be, to pre-appoint or set a recall date for that patient, prior to leaving the exam room. And this is important that the doctor does this and that he or she takes the time to explain to the patient why he wants to see them back and when he wants to see that patient. This builds value and confidence in the patient's mind as well as it makes the individuals job who does confirmations, which very well may be you, much easier in the future because the patient now has a reason and understands why they are coming back. 

Now, we are off to the dispensary. Now, we might have a clinical optician that takes them straight out to dispensary and fulfills that prescription for them or we might do what we call the traditional baton pass and we buzz and have that optician come into the exam room and the doctor explains the recommendations and then the optician escorts the patient out to dispensary. 

Now, biggest reminder here is that once we are done fulfilling the patient's RX that we remember to collect payment in optical or at a checkout desk. We never have them go back to the front desk, because that creates a bottleneck. Very, very important and also we want to be sure to collect all copays and all out-of-pocket patient balances for that day of service, no half downs. Okay, now our patient is off. We want to thank them and we want to remind them and let them know we look forward to seeing them again in the near future.