FEMTO FACTOR

With femto, you’ll need help to succeed

Allow your staff to see its benefits, and they will reflect your commitment to laser-assisted cataract surgery.

By Scott LaBorwit, MD

Integrating femtosecond laser into your practice demonstrates your ability to assess evolving technology, learn new surgical procedures, and your belief that your patients’ outcomes are a priority. No reason to stop here. This message should resonate beyond the surgeon’s level, reaching through and beyond your practice. You will need to make a conscious effort to consolidate your message and create a strategy to identify your audience while keeping within a budget. In part one of my two-part series, I’ll show you that image change begins at home.

IT STARTS FROM WITHIN

If you’re a surgeon using LACS, you have studied the technology and reached your decision after exhaustive research on the laser, observing its clinical use, and having many conversations with colleagues regarding techniques, outcomes and advances. But you also need to start sharing this information within your practice.

The last thing you want is your staff reacting negatively to the added work when offering LACS in the office. And LACS does mean more work — there is often more testing done, along with another layer of information to explain to patients.

A staff that understands the advantages of LACS will be able to engage patients in an excited and positive manner. This applies to front desk personnel answering phone calls, technician helping during an exam and the surgical scheduler responding to random questions regarding LACS. I’ve often heard a patient walking to meet with the surgical coordinator say to a technician in the hall, “What do you think about laser cataract surgery?”

MAKE STAFF YOUR PARTNERS

We wanted our staff to fully understand the technology and its impact on patient care as well as visual outcomes. We told them we wanted staff to decide on their own to embrace LACS so that they would be excited to offer it to patients and to be a part of a practice that is progressive enough to offer it. To help make this happen, we closed the office so the entire staff could attend a “lunch and learn.”

I spoke with my staff as to why I wanted to pursue the laser for my patients. We showed a slide presentation that included video of LACS. We then asked for their opinions and listened carefully to their answers and concerns.

The next step was to allow the staff to have a voice in the process. Certain members of staff were involved in particular critical decisions along the way, including how to discuss this new technology with patients, what brochures or video to feature and what marketing media to consider. The entire office came into the laser room to observe the LACS procedure, including the billing department. This visual had the biggest impact of all.

The effort to involve my staff in the shift to LACS paid off: They regard the femtosecond laser not as merely another “item on the menu,” but as an exciting improvement in cataract surgery that they play an important role in advancing. OM

Scott LaBorwit, MD, is a principal at Select Eye Care, with locations in Towson and Elkridge, Md., and is an assistant professor, part-time faculty, at Wilmer Eye Clinic of Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore. His e-mail is Sel104@me.com. Disclosures: Dr. LaBorwit is a consultant to and speaker for Alcon.