Changing the Perception of the Retail Optometrist

Picture a familiar scene in a busy eye care clinic: An optometrist assures a relieved patient they don’t have glaucoma while reviewing their OCT results in the exam lane. The OD swiftly walks to the room next door to begin expressing the meibomian glands of another patient who is undergoing treatment for dry eye disease. Ten minutes and 25 questions about dry eye later, and the optometrist is heading back to the first exam lane to check on an 11-year-old boy who has been in a myopia control treatment program for 6 months. On the way there, a patient in the optical asks whether the red or tortoiseshell frame looks better on her. Add in 10 to 15 comprehensive examinations, several of which also require a contact lens fitting, and what you end up with is a typical day at work for many optometrists. As you were reading the above, were you imagining a retail optometric setting? If not, then you’re not alone—and that’s the purpose of this article—to let our private practice and academic colleagues know that our concept of retail optometry may be outdated.

RECOGNIZING OUR PATIENTS’ NEEDS

We practice at a franchise group that owns and operates 88 Pearle Vision locations across the country. One of us (JW) serves as the chief medical officer, and the other (HC) as vice president of Professional Services. Our roles come with many responsibilities, one of which, fortunately, is seeing patients so that we can remain clinically relevant. Some of the other responsibilities outside of patient care include fostering an environment where our doctors are confident in providing full-scope medical optometric care, despite practicing in a retail setting. This is important to us because we see a fair amount (about 15-20%) of patients who require medical care, so we want to ensure our optometrists are equipped to provide full-scope care.

Patients may seek out a particular eye care practice because of their advertised specialty for treating a certain condition, or perhaps because they carry a designer frame they have been searching for. In the retail setting, the patient is often seeking us simply because we are convenient; we stay open late and have weekend hours. However, this does not prevent the patient who requires special care or the one who wants to find that specific designer frame from entering our office. The only difference is that we may not know exactly when that patient is coming in.

With our collective 21 years of practicing in retail settings, we have seen a lot, and we know it is paramount to change the perception of optometrists in retail settings. It’s a popular assumption that those of us practicing in this mode spend our days doing refractions and writing scripts for glasses and contact lenses. Although that may be true for some practitioners, many of us practicing in retail locations perform testing and screening, prescribe treatments, and have patients return for follow-up appointments. So, how do we embrace such a task? First, we have to admit there is in fact a problem. Second, we have to course correct, which may involve investing heavily in equipment, operations, training, and relationship building. Let’s get started.

TRAINING OUR DOCTORS

Part of the process of training our doctors has been to remind them that they may encounter various disease states, even while working in the retail setting. Our task is to make them aware of the prevalence of these conditions and to review with them some of the most effective treatment options available. We offer training through online conference calls every 2 weeks, in-person group meetings three times a year, and a GroupMe text thread where doctors can share cases or ask questions without judgement. To date, the education we provide on common disease states includes, but is not limited to, myopia management, dry eye management, and proper coordination of care for patients with diabetes.

Our method of building educational programs has been to consult with industry experts and scour peer-reviewed journals to develop approaches to treatment plans. This also included determining which diagnostic and therapeutic equipment was required to manage a targeted disease and set about obtaining this equipment. We tried this approach at a few different offices of interest, and if it worked well at those locations, we had other nearby offices (perhaps eight or nine of them in a given region) refer to them for use of the new equipment.

COMMUNICATION IS KEY

During our biweekly training conference call, which includes all our optometrists (around 50 in total), invited vendors have a chance to speak and answer questions on treatment options for a variety of the conditions we see in our office. Although each vendor may share the unique attributes of their respective product, the goal is essentially to increase our optometrists’ awareness of all available products on the market. We also ask our doctors to share case studies of patients they have cared for with the group. The ability to hear and learn together from our colleagues has been invaluable. See Educational Associations for other examples of this collaborative atmosphere.

UNITED IN OUR GOAL

The world of optometry is diverse and exciting, primarily because of the patients we serve. Regardless of location and setting, whether it be retail, private practice, or academia, our purpose as eye care providers is the same: to serve the needs of our patients.