Sept. 19, 2024 — The Contact Lens Institute (CLI) delivered new consumer data in a panel, “Disrupting the Dropout Dilemma: Bold Moves to Keep Consumers in Contact Lenses,” at the Vision Expo West Innovation Stage Thursday morning, Sept. 19, in Las Vegas.
According to CLI, dropout happens early: 26% dropout within first year, 25% within first month, and 47% within first two months. Part of CLI’s See Tomorrow initiative, the research previewed in CLI’s panel included “straightforward, high-return actions” that have been shown to increase retention rates among new contact lens wearers.
Panelists included Jennifer Seymour Brusven, LDO, NCLE-AC, ABO-AC, of Yesnick Vision Center; Janelle Davison, O.D., of Brilliant Eyes Vision Center; and Shalu Pal, O.D., FAAO, FSLS, FBCLA, FIAOMC, of Dr. Shalu Pal & Associates, with moderation by CLI chairperson Carla Mack, O.D., FAAO, Dipl AAO, FBCLA.
EB connected with the panelists to gain some more insight into building a collaborative team culture, creating more time to spend on patients, and preventing roadblocks with new wearers.
EB: Much of the panel discussion highlighted the importance of having the whole office involved in each patient’s care. Do you have any advice to help practices cultivate a positive, collaborative atmosphere?
Dr. Davison: We’ll do team outings, team building, and training that is not just internal but [that involves] bringing people in. Really take advantage of your representatives, the companies you partner with. They know a lot from seeing a lot of different offices: “Well this office does this, and this works for them.” You can take some of those ideas and modify them to your own office.
It’s definitely a culture, and sometimes it takes a bit to build that culture [with] constant training and touching base with your staff.
Dr. Pal: It’s really important that we’re all on the same page. We want messages to be repeated. I’ll have the staff come in and shadow me during my exam so they can hear what I’m saying so then they can repeat the same thing. So they know what I’m going to say in the exam room, and they confidently say, “I know this is what Dr. Pal would say,” and they can continue the conversation from there.
EB: What would you say to an eyecare professional who says, “We don’t have the extra time to give to new wearers that we would like to”?
Dr. Pal: I never want to be the person in the office that knows the most. The more that I can delegate, the more I can teach, and that means there are more hands that can be helpful in this process, which leads to more time with patients.
Dr. Davison: As a practitioner, in reality, our time slot is about 20 minutes. Don’t hesitate to use outside resources, your online tools—talk to your colleagues: “What do you do?” It’s a balancing act. In reality, we can’t spend an hour [with patients], so we have to give that perception of time by creating that foundation on the front end.
EB: When it comes to following up with patients, how does your practice navigate roadblocks when you’re checking in?
Brusven: There’s always a couple of questions that come through a couple of people—is [the issue] vision, is it comfort? Where is it coming from? It’s about asking active questions, “OK, now we’re in the room, let’s work it out. Let’s put the contacts in, let’s see what’s coming up,” and then overcoming any objections they may have. Most of us will have a plan, and plan B is always in the back of our heads.
Dr. Pal: Our whole team is aware that our goal is to make the lives of our patients better. Everything we do is about helping them. If we discover during a follow up, “You’re having trouble with insertion/removal?” No one will hesitate—everyone will say, “You’re here; we’re going to fix this problem now before you leave.” There’s no delaying. We identify [the problem], and we solve it right there.
Look out for the next edition of Building Contacts in EB’s October issue, featuring Jennifer Seymour Brusven, LDO, NCLE-AC, ABO-AC, for more contact lens strategies.