Create A Dry Eye Specialty In Your Practice

Consumer Dry Eye awareness has been rapidly increasing — to keep up with the growing demand, potential patients should be made aware that your practice offers dry eye services. In addition to optometrists brushing up on their knowledge, educating employees about the latest developments in dry eye care is a crucial part of offering dry eye specialized services. Additionally, it's highly probable that new patients who come to you for specialty care will also return for routine care.

Dry Eye Specialty Considerations

It’s important to understand how offering a specialty service can affect your practice's operations and finances, prior to investing in any sub-specialty — this increases the possibility that you will have a favorable return on investment (ROI) and that everyone on your team will be aligned and working toward the same objectives. Here are some key components to consider:

• Patient Flow
  How might adding another service impact the check-in or workup process, and how will these different types of appointments fit into your current schedule — or would you need to rearrange time blocks?
• Staff Support
  How will you train all staff on all aspects of dry eye care, and is your current staff sufficient to support the new practice needs?
• Equipment
  Create a list of all required equipment, instruments and supplies and determine if you will finance or pay in full to acquire them.  
• Footprint
  Does the new specialty require additional space for equipment, to store supplies or tools or a dedicated room for the procedures?
• Marketing
  Determine the target dry eye patient demographic, the best message for that market and which channels would be most effective in reaching your target audience.
• Return On Investment
  Estimate how many patients you could gain and what services insurance would reimburse for or if those patients would be likely to pay out of pocket. Calculate potential revenue vs. expenses.

After identifying the above considerations, if you’ve decided to incorporate a dry eye specialty into your practice, keep reading for your next steps!

Implementing A Dry Eye Specialty

Successfully providing dry eye care involves many factors. Optometric practices looking to start or grow a dry eye specialty, those already treating dry eye or those with dry eye equipment needing a sustainable program should consider joining a comprehensive dry eye program. 

Dry Eye education and implementation programs provide a full-practice learning experience that walks your team through clinical education, staff training, equipment and treatment selections, facility layout needs, marketing implementation and referral outreach so you can advance dry eye care in your practice, capitalize on growing your patient base and expand your current revenue streams.

PECAA Dry Eye Partners is an all-encompassing dry eye specialty initiative designed to support practices at every stage of their dry eye journey. It’s a complete specialty experience that integrates education, product access, marketing strategies and expert services. Whether you’re looking to introduce dry eye management into your practice or expand your current offerings, this program provides a clear path to success with flexible, on-demand resources. This flexible approach allows practices to engage with dry eye education at their own pace, making it easier than ever to implement new strategies and tools.

For practices looking for a more structured and immersive approach to dry eye care, the 90 Days To Dry Eye Program, presented by PECAA provides a combination of interactive webinars, a live event with immersive education and the opportunity to meet with vendors and access to online learning modules. This program is perfect for doctors, office managers and technicians who are or will be involved in your dry eye care and will benefit greatly from this program. A variety of topics are covered, including:

Clinical

• Visual Fluctuation And Dry Eye Disease 
• The “Anatomy” Of Dry Eye Disease 
• Meibomian Gland Dysfunction 
• Aqueous Deficiency 
• Blepharitis
• Rosacea, Allergy, Exposure, Contact Lens And Other Contributors 
• Dry Eye Products And Medications
• Diagnostics, Equipment And Instrument Options 

Operational

• Building Your Dry Eye Patient Volume
• Resources And Training 
• Dry Eye Billing And Coding 
• The Foundation Of Dry Eye Treatment 
• Developing Your Standard Of Care 
• Putting It All Together The Real World – Life After The Live Event 

PECAA Dry Eye Partners serves as the foundation for long-term success, while our 90 Days to Dry Eye program offers a focused, results-driven approach to launching a specialty. Together, they provide a comprehensive strategy that meets practices where they are and helps them grow at their own pace.

Ready to transform your practice with dry eye solutions? The 90 Days To Dry Eye Program, presented by PECAA, is offered to all eye care professionals, including PECAA Max members, HEA Advantage members and non-members — PECAA Propel members are also invited to join us. View the 90-day dry eye journey and full program agenda, and unlock the potential your practice has to create a thriving dry eye specialty — in 90 days!