Our mission is to help you manage your practice from an administrative and clinical perspective, and this issue is no different.

It was an honor some 13 odd years ago (yes, many of the years, including 2020, were quite odd) when I was asked to serve here as chief medical editor, following in the footsteps of the legendary Dr. Paul Koch. It would have been an honor to be tapped in that role for any ophthalmic publication, but for me this one was the most special. Why? In three decades, my practice of ophthalmology has been impacted more by things I’ve learned from Ophthalmology Management than from any other publication out there. Surveys repeatedly confirm that more of you read our issues more deeply than any other ophthalmology periodical.

MANAGEMENT IS OUR BUSINESS

Our mission is to provide you with content, month after month, that helps you manage and improve your practices, both from an administrative and a clinical perspective. When we say “Ophthalmology Management,” the term “management” is all-inclusive. We have articles on what I call “front-office” management: check-in, check-out, insurance verification, getting paid, hiring, firing, HR, staff morale, setting fees, etc. All the things that many physicians were never taught and many still care little about yet are the lifeblood keeping a practice going. At the end of the day, no matter how amazing a doctor you are, it doesn’t really matter if you can’t keep good staff and you can’t pay your bills, as you’ll be out of business soon.

The other aspect of “management” is clinical, or the “back office.” We are not a peer- reviewed journal and have never pretended to be. There are very fine journals out there where we should all go to read about the latest clinical studies and discoveries and such. Our clinical management approach involves experts distilling some of what’s found elsewhere into very practical applications in our everyday clinical life. If you want to treat dry eyes, for instance, you’ll find far more practical pearls here than you will scouring scholarly publications.

YOUR CHALLENGES

With all of that in mind, I now present to you our very first “Practice Challenges” issue.Recently we emailed you, our readers, for feedback. Specifically, we asked, “What are the most pressing clinical and practice issues that you confront today?” And you answered! We collected the most common responses and reached out to our crack editorial advisory board, as well as other expert contributors, for their insights. We cover topics such as patient compliance, managing surgical expectations, EHR efficiency and more. And what practice management issue of 2020 would be complete without something about COVID?

I hope you enjoy this issue. Also, I want to thank my colleague and friend Dr. Scott LaBorwit for helping to edit and review this issue. Let us know what you think, and perhaps we’ll do this again in a future issue! OM

Larry E. Patterson, MD, is an instrument-rated private pilot. He is also the chief medical editor of Ophthalmology Management. On the side, he is the founding partner of Eye Centers of Tennessee. His e-mail is larryp@ecotn.com.