2025 Year-End Contact Lens Clinical Review

My practice, 20/20 Eye Care, is located in Huntsville, a decent-sized city in Alabama. There, my team, which consists of two other associate doctors plus 10 full-time and three part-time staff members, serves a highly diverse patient base, from NASA engineers and government contractors to retirees and families spanning several generations. As a full-scope optometric practice, we manage everything from routine care to complex disease management, including glaucoma and dry eye disease (DED). Approximately 30% of our patients wear contact lenses, though that percentage fluctuates depending on referral patterns for dry eye or aesthetics.

Over the years, we’ve learned the importance of tracking our year-to-year performance, including contact lens sales, so we can identify opportunities to enhance our patient care and continue to grow as a practice. As a private practice, analytics also highlight where to focus our energy. Rebates, for example, can be valuable, but time-intensive for staff. Knowing which areas truly drive success allows us to prioritize staff time and maintain balance between patient care and business efficiency. Here, I’ll describe how my staff and I approach quarterly and year-end practice analytics.

Making Data Meaningful: Our Review Process
Knowing that we can’t measure what we don’t track, my staff and I conduct quarterly reviews for all aspects of our practice, culminating in a comprehensive year-end analysis. Rather than waiting until December to assess annual trends, which can create unnecessary stress, instead we evaluate metrics at the start of each quarter’s final month—December 1, March 1, June 1, and September 1—which gives us time to make course corrections if needed before the quarter closes.

We use the IDOC Books and Benchmarks program for bookkeeping and financial comparisons, and EDGEPro software (GPN Technologies) for operational metrics. EDGEPro’s interface makes it easy for us to track year-over-year changes, compare our performance against national averages, and identify actionable opportunities. We also maintain a parallel spreadsheet in Google Sheets for internal tracking. These platforms form the backbone of our clinical and business decision-making.

Our core performance indicators for contact lenses include:

• Boxes sold (our simplest, most tangible metric)
• Dollars generated
• Percentage of daily disposable sales
• Capture rate (fits versus sales)
• Number of new fits and refits

Tracking these data points quarterly allows me to notice patterns, like when refits increase or new fits decline, before they become year-end surprises.

  The Monthly “Stat Tracker”
In addition to quarterly reviews, my staff members help me maintain a “stat tracker,” a Google Sheet that we customized and update monthly. This tool includes metrics across all services, such as new patients, glasses sales, retinal screenings, IPL treatments, and contact lens boxes sold. Each team member records their own data and compares it against the previous month’s and last year’s figures.

This self-monitoring system helps encourage team members’ accountability and engagement. Because the numbers are visible and updated frequently, each employee develops an intuitive understanding of their performance goals. For example, if we sold 100 boxes last month, it’s natural to set a goal of 110 this month. The immediacy of this feedback is more motivating than waiting for a quarterly meeting.

Contact Lens Trends in 2025
Tracking our contact lens metrics doesn’t just give us insights into our practice’s performance, it also helps us notice trends within our localmarket. This year, I’ve noticed an increasing number of refits for people who haven't worn contacts in years. I find it inspiring that patients who previously dropped-out of lenses are now learning about the upgrades current lenses have in materials, functionality, and comfort.

Another positive shift I’ve noticed is a greater interest in contact lenses among older patients who lead active lifestyles. These individuals are dining out, participating in group sports and activities, and traveling, and today’s lenses fit their lifestyle and their desire for maximum comfort against the cornea. It helps them feel a little more youthful to be able to ditch their glasses for certain activities, while some simply get a kick out of wearing the same contacts as their grandkids.

Conversely, I’ve noticed a decline in contact lens adoption among children and teenagers. Pre-COVID, kids seemed eager to ditch their glasses; now, many express fear or disinterest in wearing contacts. Even my young athletes—basketball and volleyball players—often prefer to stay in glasses despite clear performance advantages. I haven’t quite pinpointed the reason for this shift, but I try to counter it using a desensitization approach. I let them handle a trial lens and saline drops, and they can observe our staff demonstrating insertion techniques. Still, I never push youngsters; I tell them they can try contacts again in the future, when they feel ready.

Tracking Retention and Dropout
We track patient retention through both software-generated metrics and manual calculations. While EDGEPro provides capture rate data month to month, we manually compare the number of contact lens exams billed against the number of purchase transactions. It’s a simple system, but consistent.

We also prioritize follow-up communication to understand the reasons why patients drop out of contact lens wear, or their reasons for purchasing their lenses elsewhere. We’ve assigned a staff member to send follow-up texts and/or phone calls to patients who don’t order or reorder lenses from us. Her script is polite, with nonjudgmental phrasing such as, “How can we be your top choice for your contact lens purchases in the future?”

Often, these follow-up efforts uncover useful insights. We’ve learned that many patients order from Costco or online vendors out of convenience rather than dissatisfaction. In response, my team and I created an educational handout outlining the benefits of ordering through our office: guaranteed authenticity, easy exchanges, manufacturer rebates, and direct oversight from their doctor. We revise this sheet annually to keep it fresh and ensure it catches patients’ eye at the front desk.

Our follow-up capture strategy has proven successful. Many patients who initially deferred a contact lens fit scheduled appointments after they received a call or text inquiry. By re-engaging them after they had time to consider contacts, we have significantly improved our conversion rates and strengthened those patient relationships.

Future Focus
Looking ahead to 2026, I plan to begin tracking patients who switch from daily to monthly or weekly lenses. Although our volume of patients currently using these modalities is still small, understanding the motivations behind this switch will help us refine our patient education and inventory planning.

I’ve also gained appreciation for the new 7-day lenses available. Initially, I was skeptical that patients would adhere to that replacement schedule, but it’s proven to be a helpful middle-ground option for cost-sensitive individuals or those with mild DED. A new lens every 7 days provides a noticeable improvement in comfort and health over monthlies, especially in our allergy-heavy region.

Why Metrics Matter
At the end of the day, capturing and analyzing my practice’s data on a regular basis helps me to separate my “doctor hat” from my “entrepreneur hat.” It enables me to make informed clinical decisions, such as streamlining our product offerings so staff can become true experts on a few core families of contact lenses rather than spread thin across too many. Of course, it helps to have a great management team who can understand your practice's numbers and needs.

The year-end review isn’t just about profitability, but about assessing the current state of the practice and determining where it’s going. With thoughtful analysis, these numbers can provide a roadmap for better care and a stronger, more sustainable practice.