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EyeCare Professional’s Paul DiGiovanni, LDO, speaking with
Michael Crocetta, Excecutive Director of Marketing, Marco.
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Marco has been in business 40 years. What are the biggest changes you see facing the industry?
The biggest changes we’re seeing today are not some evolutionary series of changes, but revolutionary, wholesale changes in the way practice’s function. Product and process changes are now colliding.
For a long time, the goal of Optometry has been to achieve the true status of ‘gatekeepers’ of eyecare – not simply dispensers of corrective hardware. To do so, the profession needs to institute a clinical, medical model in practice – becoming diagnostic screeners of glaucoma
and retinal disease, and more sophisticated in combined wavefront assessments in refractive examinations. |
None of us know all that the future holds, but we all know a few simple truths about the future of health care. Doctors will be seeing more patients, many more...but how, when the hours of each day are already consumed? This is an unavoidable truth that requires a
solution. GREATER EFFICIENCIES is the only answer.
ROI becomes a combined formula of seeing more patients daily, providing ‘appreciably’ higher levels of eyecare, and finding greater total efficiencies. Every product purchased needs to fulfill this mission— both as the technology itself, and in the services that support every purchase.
At Marco, that’s what we deliver every day.
Do doctors understand what changes will be coming...and will be necessary to make?
Most do not fully grasp the magnitude of the issue, and many still are not feeling the pain needed to move out of harm’s way. For some, life just goes on, as is...but the ‘head in the sand’ approach needs to be replaced with searching for available data ‘in the cloud.’
Many don’t recognize that control is slipping away from them, with potential patients lost to competition.
But the ground is moving beneath our feet, quickly. Doctors need to become more efficient, and find more consultative time with their patients— who are demanding it.
Internet educated patients demand more...and Angie’s List tells them what practice to entrust their families eyecare to. Doctors need to learn how to market their services to patients...and elevate the patient experience...this cannot be underscored enough.
What are the hurdles for practices to address the needed changes?
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The belief is that delegation of refraction is impossible without compromise. While it may have been true in the past— not so today with existing automated technology. So there is a need to TRUST automation to accurately standardize refractive results...consistently— among many staff members. The subjective patient decisions between time-lapsed ‘1&2’ presentations...that are then further subjectively interpreted by Doctors or staff create far greater errors than necessary, given what technology offers today. With the ability to present old and new Rx, #1 and #2 options together, and differences in patient’s day/night vision, any variability in testing BETWEEN staff is negligible compared to the benefits gained by reducing
subjective patient responses.
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Knowing what questions to ask to purchase the correct automated equipment.
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The fear of EMR implementation and technology integration. Disruption is daunting...especially for
larger practices.
What are companies like Marco able to provide doctors to succeed?
First, their honestly are not many companies like Marco— that provide the services we do...and that have done so for more than 40 years.
Of course you need to deliver the best technologies to customers...and robust technologies that meet the rigors of real-practice use...but the key is in the support services, knowledge base of clinical and technical support, and a lifelong partnership commitment for a practice.
What does Marco do differently for practices?
We do a lot of listening to what you want to accomplish. We provide education, assessment, and metrics of patient flow and worksite efficiencies. We transcend the ‘consulting of the 80s and 90s’...to roll-up the sleeves ‘reengineering’ needs of this millennia. We don’t just tell you what we think you need to do...we work with you to actually implement what YOU want to achieve— now...and again, later It’s about YOUR specific objectives...and one size just doesn’t fit all.
We provide a 3-step solution:
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We help you develop a solid plan
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We show you specific, prioritized ways to regain greater control of your practice, patients, and profitability
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We forge a strong and lasting partnership with the practice
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We offer a staff of product managers
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We offer 24/7 on-line training
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We offer GoTo meetings to resolve issues...and to utilize
100% of instrument capabilities (that few practices master in the first yr)
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Our Area Managers are trained practice flow specialists
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Our Technical support services are unrivaled
How critical do you think it is that practices embrace necessary changes— NOW?
It is an essential realization— but only the first step. Accepting a plan and hitting the ‘NOW’ button is critical...but in fairness, many doctors have never been presented with an achievable roadmap that doesn’t require tearing down walls...and major overhauls to the practice.
You can believe that efficiency and quality can coexist...and they do so in thousands of Marco practices today. Sure— practices are businesses— and success first requires survival...but the reality is that, while so many practices are flailing while being buffeted by new magnitudes of change...Marco practices learn how to THRIVE amidst change.
The practice of the future is NOW. The combination of Nidek technology and Marco ‘Tech-Knowledge-y’
provide the needed tools to find measured success.
Marco offers free practice assessments...and so many automated instruments and workstations, that we don’t force square pegs into round holes, we don’t need to. We deliver the custom solution for your practice today...and again for tomorrow...however the practice changes.
Bottom line:
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Practices need to make an honest assessment about what’s working and what isn’t
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Create a needs wish list
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Contact us to observe flow and process in the practice
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Let us record and document activity, and provide realistic metrics concerning your unrealized potential
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Prioritize what changes you need to tackle first
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Equip the practice with the necessary technologies
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Begin to elevate best patient care and satisfaction
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Control the realization of your vision
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Experience your ‘WOW’— NOW
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