Posts – Page 2 – FirstSight Vision Services

Doctor Testimonials Read our doctor testimonials to see why you should consider a FirstSight Sublease.

Charles Kim, O.D.

From my heart, I am delighted to recommend Firstsight Vision Services as your next optometric practice. I have been practicing optometry for 33 years and my scope of practice include military optometry, private office, employee position, and medical group with ophthalmologists. Out of all the different optometric modalities, my years with Firstsight stand out as very fulfilling and headache/hassle free, making my life easy. I tribute such experience due to fantastic support from the District Manager and Firstsight corporate leaders. If you decide to work as Firstsight OD, I guarantee you have made the right decision and will not have any regrets. The office will bear your name, and you are in charge from day one. I have had 15+ satisfying years with Firstsight and I firmly believe you will too. I wish you the best. Dr Kim, OD

Connie Choi, OD

Subleasing with FirstSight has provided me a platform to do what I love: Connecting with people and helping to improve their quality of life through eye exam service. I appreciate the freedom to set my own pace so that I can control how much time I want to spend with each patient depending on their individual needs. I am grateful for the mentorship and partnership with my district manager at FirstSight because I can receive support and help in running my optometry clinic. There is a sense of ownership that comes with being a sublease optometrist at FirstSight. The fact that it is my business and FirstSight is there to support, There is also a sense of community with other optometrists at FirstSight. Knowing that there are other doctors who can relate to my daily experiences and growth gives me an added sense of comfort and confidence.

Connie Choi, OD - Union City

Kathy Ng, OD

Subleasing my practice with FirstSight has given me the opportunity to balance motherhood and my career. The flexibility allows me to open my practice three days each week and still be fully engaged with my two young boys. FirstSight leadership has always been extremely supportive of my practice and this has been exemplified even more during this pandemic.

Kathy Ng, OD - Fremont

Jeffrey W. Gregg, OD

I appreciate the FirstSight business model because it allows me to concentrate more on primary care optometry and less on practice management. This setting allows me to experience a wide range of patient populations and I have the independence to practice the scope of optometry necessary to meet their needs.

Jeffrey W. Gregg, OD - La Mesa

Randolph Galang, OD

First Sight Vision Services is a great company to work with. I have been with First Sight Vision Services for more than 10 years. They gave me a great opportunity as a New Grad and they have also allowed me to grow with them and as my optometry career moved forward. First Sight Vision has allowed me to schedule patients in a timely matter, so my patients never feel rushed. They have allowed me to control my own staff and payroll options. They have also given me the means to run a successful practice with very low overhead. The best part of working with First Sight Vision Services is that you never feel alone. You can always count on your District Manager and First Sight Vision staff if you have any questions. Moreover, you also have a great community of optometrists who are only one phone call away. Even though we are all independent; we are all here to help each other.

Randolph Galang, OD - Elk Grove

WHAT DOES THE FUTURE LOOK LIKE?

Theresa Ayers September 29, 2022 Practice Management no responses

Boy, if we really could predict and know what was going to happen wouldn’t that be great. The thing is though, we never know what is about to happen. But we can tune in to what is going on around us now and get ideas of the direction to go.

Technology is emerging in so many areas including the field of Optometry. An immediate example that comes to mind is how documenting your exams can now be done electronically. Paper is still used in a lot of cases, but you can also scan copies to reduce the amount that you actually keep in the office.

What about telehealth? Is this area exclusive to medical practitioners? Remote examinations are happening all around us now. Does it mean that in person care is no longer in demand? Absolutely not. The need for Optometrists is always going to be here but just like other things that we have allowed into our lives and practices, it could be something in the future as a tool to add more services to your patients.

Your Patients Need You

Theresa Ayers August 26, 2022 Practice Management no responses

It’s at that time of year again. And if you thought “back to school” was over, think again.

This year may be an important one as most schools are totally in person now so those kids that haven’t been in a classroom for a few years may have neglected (or not even noticed) that their vision is not as sharp as it should be. Extend your back to school marketing for at least another month this year.

Another thing that you should start focusing on is the “use it or lose it” for insurance benefits. Before you know it, the end of the year will be here why not get an early start on marketing for this campaign.

Also try to capture the families that are getting the California Relief Payments. Maybe some of these folks have put off some of their health care needs and the added stimulus can be utilized to get the exam that they have been putting off.

Keep your doors open, take those walk-in patients and post flyers about these things on your door. Vacations will be over soon and your care is needed, but sometimes you have to remind people of the importance of routine annual eye exams.

KEEPING THE COURSE WITH CHANGE

Theresa Ayers July 26, 2022 Uncategorized no responses

“A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.” – Winston Churchill

Now that is a deep thought. We live in a world of constant change. Sometimes the change is slow progressing, and we don’t realize how different things are, and other times change sneaks up on us and demands immediate action.

Many people have heard of the 5 stages of grief:

denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance.

Did you know that you go through these same stages when it comes to change? How quickly someone gets to the acceptance of change is individual and so many factors come into play. You can do things to help adapt though.

Talk about problems more than feelings.

Don’t stress out about stressing out.

Focus on your values instead of your fears.

Accept the past, but fight for the future.

Put people first.

Empower employees through communication.

Make change compelling and exciting.

Pay attention to high and low points in momentum.

We all prefer stability, but it is important to know that no matter what, everything changes and you can be prepared for this just by knowing that the only constant in our lives is change.

What Not To Do In Your Business

Theresa Ayers June 23, 2022 Practice Management no responses

We often find ourselves making sure to pay attention to the “what can I do (better)” side of business. Don’t ever stop doing this. But, sometimes you should take a step back and evaluate your belief of the “what NOT to do” things.
A partial list of what not to do could be:
Don’t assume that your patients aren’t willing to accept some of the modern concepts that are always emerging in the world. I often hear the statement of “my patients don’t do that” when it comes to electronic forms of communication or keeping current on social media. What are your patients doing while in your waiting area? Really take a look at this because you should not be surprised to see that an extremely high percentage are looking at their cell phones.
Don’t spend time when business is slow doing tasks that don’t relate to your business. Take the opportunity to update (or create) a website. Use the time to call patients that were in the office earlier that week to make sure that they are happy with their new contact lenses. Clean and organize. Go visit your Vision Center Manager and make sure that they are aware of any open time slots in your schedule. By re-investing that “down” time into the practice, you are building stronger relationships with your patients and with the Vision Center which is a win/win for everyone.
Don’t ignore the power of recalling patients for annual examinations. So many practices focus on today but stop short of thinking ahead of the game for what is needed for the future. Unfortunately so many patients put off annual examinations until something happens that brings them back in. The process of recalling patients will inform them that an examination is so much more than checking their prescription.
Think of the things that you put off or avoid doing and put a positive spin on it so that you can at least try it out. Taking a positive approach to all of the negative things could have significant rewarding benefits in building your practice.

How Do You Connect With Your Patients?

Theresa Ayers June 1, 2022 Practice Management no responses

As everything returns to “normal” we can clearly see that normal has a new definition. Over the past 2 years the general population really has adapted to more electronic forms of communication. As a matter of fact, this is probably now the preferred method for a high percentage of people.

This does not mean that you must stop doing some of the tried-and-true ways of communicating, but rather expand on that. For example, don’t stop doing recalls for your patients, but incorporate more of the email/text message features that many systems offer. If you aren’t already, take the time to collect email addresses from your patients.

Many doctors are reporting more interactions with patients when they have an online scheduling system. If you have an EHR system, you may already have this. If you aren’t using one, consider looking into some of the scheduling systems that are available. These systems allow the flexibility to patients and you for filling time slots when you may not be in the office to take a call.

Have you considered doing newsletters to your patients (sending via email). This can be something that you do on a quarterly basis and make it something fun for them to read. In addition to maybe an easy-to-read article about eye health, maybe add some pictures of events that you have attended or are local to your community.

Keep your website up to date. If you can, link your scheduling system to your website. Post your website address on your door and add it to your business cards. And if you don’t have a website, take a little bit of time to start creating one.

If you have any ideas that you would like to share with other doctors, please let us know. We are always looking for tips we can share from you, the true professionals.

Do I Need A Website?

Theresa Ayers April 27, 2022 Practice Management no responses

Many of you are probably asking “Do I really need a website for my practice?” The loaded answer is it depends. Ecotone Digital Solutions provides 18 Benefits of a Website for Small Businesses including gaining access to new patients and educating both new and returning patients. If you want to build your practice and expand beyond referrals and in store foot traffic then yes a Website is a must!

The path to a website can be confusing with all of the lingo and providers. You have options to navigate this minefield toward a great website.

There are several free builders available including wix.com and wordpress.com. These services allow you to develop a free website using predesigned templates. They will even provide a domain name and hosting for free. The downside to free hosting is the ads and complex website names. You can still use the free builder and register a custom domain at a site like godaddy.com. If you are not comfortable building your own site there are several paid options the range in price and complexity. You will have to research providers and determine which one works best for your practice. Many of these providers deliver extra value by providing tips and tricks for your marketing needs.

If you do not have a website yet, take some time to research your options and make adding a website as part of your practice marketing toolkit in 2022.

Don’t Fear Customer Reviews

Nicole Gonzales April 8, 2022 Practice Management no responses

We live in a review based world. Potential patients are probably searching review sites like Yelp to help decide which Doctor to see.

Now you are asking “What about bad reviews?”. Ryan Erskine provides the following guidance for handling bad reviews in his Forbes article (http://bit.ly/ptrevres) “How to Respond to Negative Reviews”.
Handled properly, bad reviews will not be a practice killer. When you do receive a bad review make sure to respond. Your response should include an apology (even if you were not wrong), acknowledge their concern and tailor your response to that concern, finally if needed, offer to take the take the conversation offline to get to a resolution. Make sure your response is timely and not defensive.

Done properly responding to both positive and negative reviews can actually increase your ratings. If you are worried about losing clinical hours to monitoring and responding to reviews train your staff to monitor your professional profiles and use template responses to customer feedback.

Embracing customer reviews is a low cost method to grow your practice. Satisfied patients are a great source for referral patients. Ask you customers to provide a review on your preferred site or include a link to your profile in follow up communication with patients with a request to provide a review.

Beware of Scams

Theresa Ayers March 10, 2022 Practice Management no responses

Unfortunately, when we experience trying economic times, we also see an increase in the number of scams taking place. This applies to individuals and to businesses.

Be cautious to not put yourself or your business at risk. If something sounds too good to be true, take a bit of time to do some research and never give out information that could be compromised.

A recent occurrence was a person trying to schedule exams for several patients with hearing disabilities. This person was going to pay for the exams at the time of service, but then after more communications asked if the doctor would help him out as he was going to have a problem paying for the driver that would be transporting the patients to the office. His request was to have the doctor run his credit card for the amount of the driver’s fee and for the doctor to then pay the driver (with cash). This could very well be an innocent situation, but as a business, you should never process amounts for services that you don’t provide. And it is never a good idea to try to run a credit card for more than the amount of the service and credit back in a different form of payment.

Other scams that you may hear about are:

Merchant services calling to ACCESS you credit card machine

Malware representative NOTICING a breach to your computer

Collections needing an URGENT reply

This is not a complete list but just some examples of potential “red flags”. Take a bit of time to make sure your staff knows of the potential risks and that they alert you to requests that are out of the ordinary.

Interviewing Tips

Theresa Ayers February 28, 2022 Practice Management no responses

At some point, you may find yourself in a position to have to interview candidates to fill a position in your practice. Here are a few tips to make sure that you find the right person for the job.

When reviewing any resume, don’t automatically assume that someone is more qualified or less qualified than what you may desire. Some of the things to identify on the resume could be their writing style, grammar and possibly technology skills that you may be looking for.

A pre-interview phone call can help to identify candidates that you want to bring in for face-to-face interviews. During this phone call, you can find out what their availability is, if they have salary requirements that are in line with the pay scale you have established for the position, etc.

Have a list of questions ready. Make sure that your questions are open-ended (avoid the yes/no answers). You can easily go on Google to find some great questions for the position you have available.

Be a little brief/vague about the specific job duties before asking questions. This will prompt your candidate to be more honest with their response as opposed to tailoring their answers based on the details you provided.

Take notice of the time the candidate arrived for their interview. It is also extremely important that you are available to start the interview at the scheduled time. This will demonstrate your value of keeping to scheduled times.

Take notes during the interview process. Once done asking the questions you have prepared put down the pen and paper and continue conversing with the candidate. You may find that once you aren’t taking notes, they relax a little bit and offer more information.

Make sure that you are aware of questions that are illegal to ask.

Finally, let the candidate do most of the talking. You want to make sure that their personality is going to fit into your practice and the expectations of the position.

Annual Managed Care Plan Review

Nicole Gonzales January 31, 2022 Practice Management no responses

As a part of your annual budgeting and planning, review the plans you currently accept. For the most part, any existing plans will remain in your practice. But this is the opportunity to review the profitability of each plan in the right light. Decisions to drop plans should not be made in the heat of the moment if you encounter a rude or unhelpful claims processor. Integrate the additions and deletions of managed care into your annual planning process and don’t worry about this component for the balance of the year.