Practical management EP 8: First steps to increase net revenue

Maria Sampalis, OD, owner of Sampalis Eye Care in Cranston and Providence, Rhode Island, sat down with Optometry Times®' editor Kassi Jackson to talk all-things practice management.

Editor's note: This transcript has been edited for clarity

Jackson:

So now that we kind of know those short tips and tricks to ensure that we succeed, what are the first steps to get started in increasing net revenue in your practice?

Sampalis:

Yeah, you really want to look at your KPIs—your key performance indicators, you are looking at capture rate on glasses, you want to look at patient retention, how many patients you see per day, how far out you're booked, what is the revenue per optician. How long are you seeing the patients? Are you seeing a full eye exam? Some doctors do a 45 minute routine eye exam; sometimes that can hold you back a little bit in your practice.

And then in revenue, especially when average share costs in the industry is $121, you have to see multiple patients to kind of just break even sometimes with certain vision plans. So that is important just to make sure that you know that information. And also the other thing to pay attention to is how much revenue is coming from what sources.

On average practice in the industry, 50% of its income comes from the opticals. And then the rest comes from routine eye exams— mostly about30%. Seven percent comes from medical eye exams, and then it's about 15% from contact lenses.

So, seeing how you compare to others in the industry is important, but if your optical is much higher, that means your medical must be much lower. So you want to have that pie kind of balanced out a little bit, especially as the industry is changing and evolving.