Staff Training for Specialty Contact Lenses
When I first completed my cornea and contact lens residency, I was eager to start fitting specialty contact lenses! I got my first job in Arizona at a private practice. This practice did not fit any specialty contact lenses at all. Most of my day was filled with comprehensive eye exams, soft contact lens fittings, glasses, pre and post op care for cataract surgeries and refractive surgeries, and medical eye exams. Even though the practice was located in a small, rural town (about 50,000 people total population), I was determined to figure out a way to integrate specialty contact lenses into the clinic.
First, I had a talk with the owner of the clinic. I explained to him my passion for specialty contact lenses, and he agreed that it was a service that was definitely needed, but neither of us had any clue how to integrate this into a practice that was already functioning at a high level. We routinely saw 40 patients per day, so on top of seeing our regular exams, we needed to develop a plan to be able to start seeing specialty contact lens patients.
Since the staff had no idea what specialty contact lenses were, I had to call all of the shots at first. I developed a protocol and a schedule that I thought would help build the specialty lens section of the clinic. First, we had a meeting with the staff informing them of this new service that we would be providing. We had to educate them on the basic premise of what a specialty contact lens was, and how it was different than a regular contact lens that they were used to hearing about. We also educated them on good candidates and important terminology. Trigger words were: scleral lenses, hard contact lenses, gas permeable lenses, RGP lenses, hybrid contact lenses, custom contact lenses, keratoconus, irregular astigmatism, corneal transplant, and RK scarring. We had them keep a notepad close to their desk with these words. That way, if a patient called, they knew if was a service that we now offered.
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