Do practices get personal patient referrals from dry eye treatment? The simple answer is yes, particularly because it provides often long-awaited treatment for symptomatic dry eye and preoperative treatment to ensure satisfaction with surgical outcomes. When millennials share their feelings via Twitter and Instagram or baby boomers post on Facebook, the audience for their recommendations can expand exponentially.

As Patti Barkey, COE, CEO of Bowden Eye & Associates of Jacksonville, Florida, attests, treatment for symptomatic dry eye alone is exceptionally popular. “Word of mouth is big!” she says. “People tell family and friends. It has been like a monsoon for us for the past 5 years. Word gets out, and we get patients from all over who feel like they have struggled with nowhere to go for help.”

The large number of word-of-mouth referrals at Bowden Eye & Associates is a result of high patient satisfaction. Her practice’s strong standard of care includes understanding and managing patient expectations and outlining the value of treatment. She finds that patients with a specific type of dry eye are the practice’s most vocal proponents.

“Patients can have mild, moderate, or severe dry eye,” she points out. “We know that the greatest satisfaction tends to come from moderate patients. The outcomes for severe patients might include some remaining symptoms, and mild dry eye can be asymptomatic, but moderate dry eye causes discomfort and often is helped tremendously by treatment, leaving these patients highly satisfied.”

In the practice of John D. Sheppard, MD, MMSc, President, Virginia Eye Consultants, Norfolk, the number one source of new patient referrals for surgery is other doctors, followed by people who find their services via the website and social media. Despite placing third, personal referrals from friends and family members account for a significant number of new patients. Dr. Sheppard credits dry eye treatment in part because, without it, he would have many dissatisfied patients after surgery.

“One delighted patient is one new patient, but one dissatisfied patients creates a 10-patient loss. Good results are the top reason that patients are highly satisfied with our work, but those same patients would be dissatisfied if their eyes felt dry and gritty and they had fluctuating vision after cataract or refractive surgery,” explains Dr. Sheppard. “Our goal is to be caring, comprehensive and personable, geared to each individual patient’s needs, diagnoses, and issues. As a result, we observe many different expectations and outcomes. That personalized approach to meeting expectations results in outstanding satisfaction that grows the practice.”

Elizabeth Yeu, MD, surgeon at Virginia Eye Consultants in Norfolk, notices that the combination of dry eye diagnosis and treatment with LASIK is uniquely effective at getting LASIK patients who had contact lens intolerance to refer friends who are also uncomfortable in contacts.

“Many patients with the common symptoms of dry eye-related contact lens intolerance have dry eye treatment before LASIK, and then continue to have symptomatic improvement after surgery,” she says. “That is part of my conversation with patients: ‘Dry eye disease can occur after LASIK, but overall you will feel and see better than you did with contact lenses. We want to ensure you don’t have discomfort or intermittent blurred vision after surgery, so it’s important to control dry eye from the beginning.’ This resonates with them, and they recognize that our treatment and surgery package can help people go from contact lens intolerance to comfort without contacts.”

Financing contributes to that high satisfaction as well, according to Dr. Sheppard. “We show our financial understanding and empathy by giving patients tools to achieve their own goals. On their own, they may not be able to afford premium surgery or the dry eye treatments necessary to prepare for it, but financing allows them to do just that.” •