Objectives. 1. Defining your VT practice. 2. Staffing your Vision Therapy practice. 3. Scheduling. 4. Tips on Office Design

Transcription

1 Practice Management

2 Objectives 1. Defining your VT practice 2. Staffing your Vision Therapy practice 3. Scheduling 4. Tips on Office Design 5. Vision Therapy Equipment

3 Your Unique Practice Visualize your ideal practice Visual Skills and Visual Perceptual Cases? o o o Sports Vision Therapy? Traumatic Brain Injury? All of the above? Set up a fee schedule o o Generally not provincially covered (self pay) In Ontario we use the Ontario Schedule of Benefits as a guideline for all VT fees. The schedule is very well delineated into they type of evaluation and type of therapy given

4 Your Unique Practice: Marketing Strategies How can I get patients in my chair? Develop a workshop on Vision& Learning for: o Teachers o Rehabilitation specialists OT/PT/Tutors/RDI o Other optometrists o Parent Groups Identify groups in your community who host talks: o Mommy groups o Church groups o Local clubs/associations o Learning centres o Private schools o Special needs groups

5 Educate your current patients Have pamphlets in your waiting room on Vision&Learning, VT, Sports Therapy, Visual Hygiene Include a section of VT on your website, with links to COVD, OEP etc Have your reception desk remind all patients that you do Vision Therapy, with a brief explanation (you never know who they know!)

6 Staffing Recall that the patient s first encounter with your office is not YOU, nor your Vision Therapist Appropriate staffing begins with Reception Make a Triage form for the front desk that includes questions such as: Reading problems Headaches/physical symptoms Learning-related difficulties (Visual Perception) Behaviour/Avoider

7 Vision Therapist Where do I look? Community colleges with ECE departments Retired and substitute teachers, teacher s aides Community tutors, reading specialists Look at your own staff! Print advertising and internet ads

8 Vision Therapist Training COVD annual meeting, Applied Concepts courses OEP courses Dr. Robert Sanet Courses Apprenticeship

9 Scheduling Things to consider: 1. Length of Binocular Vision Exams 2. Who will do the VIP testing? The consult? Same day? 3. Therapy schedule how long? Weekly? Biweekly? 4. VT follow ups pre-booked? After how many sessions? 5. Vision Therapists need admin time : 1. Recruiting new patients/marketing 2. Answering VT-related phone calls and parent questions 3. Planning therapy sessions 4. Inventory of VT room

10 Office Design: VT Room Space: min ft Vision Therapy room Stations: multiple 2x4 folding tables and chairs Storage: plastic drawers w rollers, small tabletop plastic drawers for lenses/prisms etc. Organization and labeling is a must! Electrical: ample outlets check with electrician White board/chalk board at appropriate kid friendly and adult-friendly heights Don t forget a separate space for visual perceptual testing and parent consults

11 Example VT room

12 Equipment Sample List for Basic VT Loose prisms/lenses Age appropriate reading material Letter tracking and saccadic workbooks, Hart Charts Marsden balls Aperture Rule Brock Strings Patches, polaroid glasses, R/G glasses Flippers Mirror Chalkboard/White board/walking rail Red Green Acetates Vectograms/tranaglyphs/eccentric circles Perceptual activities Wolff Wands Computer and VT programs

13 Don t forget... Paper/Pencils Non-permanent Markers Dry erase markers/chalk VT file folders and VT recording sheets Stickers, tape Equipment bag to send home (Brock strings, patches etc) Non-specific Suppliers hardware stores, craft stores, school supply stores VT specific: Bernell, Optego, HTS, Keystone View, OEP, Stereo Optical, Vision Training Equipment, Wayne Engineering

14 Need Extra Help? Consider taking a full Practice Management Course, offered yearly through COVD Consider a VT consulting group: o Lecoq Practice Development o Expansion Consultants (Toni Bristol)