Eye Own a Business by IDOC

06.25.2024

Developing a Successful Dry Eye Clinic on a Budget

In this episode with Dr. Shane Swatts of Eastern Virginia Eye Associates and Riley Azevedo, marketing manager at Science Based Health, the focus is on helping practice owners develop successful dry eye specialties without significant upfront investments. Dr. Swatts discusses...

06.11.2024

From Insurance to Independence: Creating a Premium Practice and Work-Life Harmony

Dr. Susan Elizondo shares her journey of transforming her practice into a private pay model and focusing on high-end optical services. By dropping insurance plans and offering a premium experience, she has increased her revenue per patient and created a...

05.28.2024

ChatGPT is a Free Employee

Artificial intelligence can’t replace eyecare providers (not yet anyway), but it can certainly make our work lives easier. In this episode, we shine a spotlight on ChatGPT – a remarkable tool that harnesses AI to generate human-like text, images, and...

05.14.2024

Behind the Benchmarks: Insights for Managing Overhead and Profitability

Nathan Hayes, the director of financial services at IDOC, discusses the importance of comparing practice financials to other practices. He explains how the Books and Benchmarks service can provide accurate and reliable data to help practice owners make informed decisions...

04.30.2024

Disruption: Technology and The Future of Eye Care

Technology will continue to disrupt the eye care profession. This poses both opportunities and threats for ECPs. In this episode with Travis Beaven, Alcon’s Global Vice President of Vision Care Digital Health, we discuss the role technology will play in...

04.23.2024

Reimagining Your Insurance Billing Operations

Managing billing operations has historically been one of the most challenging tasks of practice ownership. In this episode we explore the reasons for this, how practices are handling (or not handling) these challenges, and the evolving role of technology in...

04.02.2024

3 Surprising Reasons Patients Don’t Buy from You

Resistance to a sale is often countered with additional patient education, assuming that more information will lower the barrier to a sale. In reality, many of our purchase decisions are not driven by what we KNOW about something, they’re driven...

03.19.2024

Current Trends in Eyewear Fashion and Design

In this episode, Selin Olmsted (founder of Selin Olmsted Studio) shares her expertise on a topic many ODs marginalize. Eyewear fashion and design! A few things we discuss are insights on the latest eyewear trends, factors to consider when selecting frames,...

03.05.2024

Take Your Practice to the Next Level

In this episode, Sharon Carter shares her strategies for getting “unstuck” and taking your practice to the next level. We cover a lot of reasons practices fail to reach their full potential and how to put strategies in place to maintain...

02.20.2024

Hiring for Success: A Systematic Approach to Building Your Team

In this episode, Dr. Mike Neal shares how he transformed his practice by removing many of the obstacles that prevent practice owners from building a great team. A few things we discuss are taking emotion out of the interview process, the...

02.06.2024

From Mundane to Meaningful: A Blueprint for Productive Staff Meetings

In this episode, we explore the key elements of a successful staff meeting that leaves a lasting impact. The planning phase takes center stage, emphasizing the importance of identifying the need, purpose, and intention of the meeting. The episode highlights...

01.23.2024

Get More Patient Referrals from Local Physicians

In this episode, Dr. Aaron Neufeld shares his strategies for leveraging referrals from other doctors to grow his practice. When it comes to marketing your practice, many ODs think of traditional marketing strategies such as social media, online or print marketing,...

01.09.2024

Stop Talking So Much! Listening is the Key to Better Outcomes

In this episode, Stanford lecturer Matt Abrahams shares valuable insights about listening and communication from his book, Think Faster, Talk Smarter: How to Speak Successfully When You’re Put on the Spot Doctors are tasked with solving problems for their patients, but...

12.19.2023

Creating Motivational Systems in Your Practice

The best practices are NOT constantly trying to motivate people, they just have better systems in place, and they manage the systems. That's much easier than constantly managing (and motivating) people. Do you agree or disagree with the above? In this...

12.05.2023

Fed Up with Your Lab? Make a Switch!

One of the biggest checks you write is to your lab, yet many practices seem to tolerate a lot of bad service from the labs they partner with. Dr. Barton Higley is one doctor who had enough, ultimately partnering with...

11.21.2023

Transforming Patient Care to Overcome Burnout

Approximately 50 percent of doctors are experiencing professional burnout. In this episode we explore the most common reasons for this and what you can do to overcome it. While much of the attention for reducing physician burnout has been focused...

11.07.2023

Specialty Care: Solving the Marketing Problem

Are you struggling to make specialty care a meaningful part of your practice? Maybe you’re trying to solve a medical problem when you should be trying to solve a marketing problem. For many ODs, time is the biggest culprit when it...

10.24.2023

What’s My Practice Worth?

In this podcast, Nathan Hayes, IDOC’s Director of Financial Services, highlights the essential factors involved in determining the value of a practice, including revenue, profitability, market conditions, and competition. The role of financial statements and historical performance metrics, such as EBITDA,...

10.10.2023

Unforgettable Patient Care: Influence Outcomes by Making a Lasting Impression

In this enlightening podcast episode with Dr. Carmen Simon, the renowned author of "Impossible to Ignore: Creating Memorable Content to Influence Decisions," we delve into the fascinating world of memory and message retention. Would it surprise you to know that people...

09.26.2023

Are My Vendors HIPAA Complaint? Here’s What to Ask

When physicians contemplate HIPAA compliance and the safeguarding of patients' protected health information (PHI), their primary focus typically centers on internal aspects. Questions such as, "Do our practice's written policies align with HIPAA requirements? Have we adequately trained our employees...

09.12.2023

Negotiating a Lease or Purchase? Here’s What You Need to Know

In this episode with Colin Carr, founder of Carr Realty, we explore the intricacies of securing an optimal space for your practice. Our conversation begins by highlighting the significance of leaving room for growth over the coming years. To gain...

08.29.2023

Increasing Revenue by Decreasing Payroll

In this episode with Ankit Patel, founder of My Business Care Team, we delve into a transformative approach that Ankit implemented in his practice. By leveraging a remote workforce in the Philippines, Ankit's practice achieved remarkable results. Most notably a...

08.15.2023

A Patient-centric Approach to Boosting Daily Disposable Sales

In this episode with Dr. Kerry Giedd, we uncover a wealth of actionable tips to enhance your practice's success in boosting the sale of daily disposable contact lenses. Dr. Giedd stresses the importance of keeping your patients informed about the latest...

08.01.2023

From Chaos to Clarity: The Impact of More Staff Meetings

In this episode with Dr. Kristina Pusz, we delve into the transformative impact of scheduling more staff meetings. While many practices struggle to carve out adequate time for meetings, Dr. Pusz schedules 1.5 hour leadership meetings and 1 hour departmental...

07.18.2023

Mastering Difficult Patients: Proven Strategies that Promote Positive Patient Interactions

In this episode with Lynn Lawrence, we delve into the art of handling challenging patients with grace and professionalism. Discover effective techniques to meet negativity with positivity, swiftly uncover the underlying issues, and maintain control in the face of difficult...

07.04.2023

Becoming a Multi-Million Dollar Practice in 5 Years

What would it take to open a practice cold and within 5 years achieve a level of financial success that many practices never reach… becoming a multi-million-dollar practice? In this episode, Dr. Joel Tuite takes us through his 5-year journey, year-by-year....

06.20.2023

Digital Eye Strain: New Treatment Options and Business Opportunities

Digital eye strain, while frustrating for your patients, presents a tremendous opportunity for your practice. In the past, contact lenses often had less than stellar outcomes for patients experiencing eyestrain on digital devices. Many of these patients ultimately dropped out...

06.06.2023

Structure Your Optical so the Selling is Done for You

Is it possible to set up your optical so most of the selling is done for you without having to speak to the patient? Where you get the patient 80% of the way there and then you close the last...

05.23.2023

I Found You Online! Online Marketing that Gets Results

When people search for an eye doctor (or related service) in your area, are you the one who shows up? If not, you’re losing patients and money! While word-of-mouth marketing may still be king for many practices, online marketing is not...

05.09.2023

Staff Training: A Recipe for Success

One of the most important responsibilities of private practice ownership, and perhaps one of the most neglected, is staff training. Some of the most common reasons for inadequate training are lack of time, poor training systems, and poor follow-up. Kayla Ashlee...

04.25.2023

Transition From Patient Care to Practice Development

Do you aspire to spend less time seeing patients are more time developing your practice? If you’re not developing and growing your practice, then who is? Early in his career, Dr. Larry Golson was somewhat dismissive of the term “leadership,” but...

04.11.2023

Can’t Find Staff? Try Using a Virtual Assistant

For years we’ve been hearing, “It’s hard to find good employees.” Over the past few years that’s become, “It’s hard to find ANY employees!” A few years ago, virtual assistants in eye care were unheard of. Today many practices are testing...

03.28.2023

Don’t Just Treat Dry Eye, Build a Dry Eye Brand

You may be a doctor who treats dry eye, but are you THE DOCTOR in your area who treats dry eye? In this episode with Dr. Janelle Davison, we discuss how to build a brand around dry eye and the...

03.14.2023

Team Building: The Magic Wand to Creating a Multi-Million Dollar Practice

“You can make drama or you can make money, but you can’t make both. The thing that Zig (Ziglar) always said about building a team is that “together everyone achieves more”. I have found in my 25 plus years of...

02.28.2023

Nutritional Supplements: Which ones, educating patients, in-house sales, and more!

Every eyecare practitioner wants what’s best for the patient in the chair. So, why do we sometimes stop short of providing the best care? In this episode with Dr. Selina McGee and Zac Denning of ScienceBased Health, we explore the...

02.14.2023

Peace of Mind: Align Business Goals with Personal Goals

How do you define success? Would your definition of business success and personal success conflict with each other? Sometimes it feels like they are aligned when they are not. Business success often requires long hours and hefty sacrifices that come...

01.31.2023

Create Your Own In-house Discount Plan

In this episode I sit down with Dr, Candace Hoff to talk about something she’s doing that a lot of ODs ask about, but very few successfully execute. That “something” is an in-house discount plan. In Dr. Hoff’s case, this allowed...

01.17.2023

The 5 Levels of Leadership

“Leadership is not about title or positions, it is about one life influencing another.” These are the words of world-renowned leadership expert John Maxwell. In this episode, I had the opportunity to interview Chris Goede, Vice President of Client Success...

01.05.2023

Trouble Getting Patients to Say Yes? Try Communicating Differently.

Patient education and effective communication are not the same thing. Patient education only guarantees people will hear what you say. Effective communication increases the odds people will do what you say. So, how do we become better communicators? Fortunately, we don’t...

12.20.2022

New Year, New Goals! 3 Goal Setting Flaws that Sabotage Success

Have you set annual goals for your practice in the past that required you and your staff to perform or produce at a higher level to reach the goal? Did you succeed, or did you find yourself coming up short...

12.06.2022

The Job Interview: Don’t Just Ask Questions, Become a Great Interviewer!

What should I look for in a resume? How do I prepare for an interview? What questions should I ask? These are good questions to answer, but many employers just “wing it” when it comes to interviewing job candidates. There...

11.22.2022

Switching Patients to Daily Disposables (Without Patient Resistance)

There are times when an OD feels it’s in the best interest of a patient to modify their contact lenses. This often involves making a change, such as changing the brand or modality. This can be a challenge with a...

11.08.2022

My One Year Education in Managing an Optical

Let’s dig into a topic many ODs lack knowledge and expertise about… optical and inventory management. They didn’t teach us that in school! Dr. Neil Patel is a young OD who purchased a practice one year ago. His first thought was...

10.25.2022

Rethinking Practice Metrics: Do the Old Rules Still Apply?

Change in the eyecare industry is nothing new, but the past few years have seen more change than normal. Having a solid understanding of your practice financials is important to help you navigate changes and strategize for the road ahead. IDOC’s...

10.11.2022

Poor Daily Disposable Sales? Try This Approach

Dr. Kris May operates his practices in a region with some of the lowest per capita family income in the country. This isn’t the typical market that comes to mind when we think success with daily disposables, and yet Dr....

09.27.2022

Are You Bored? Rediscover Your Passion for Eye Care

Does your career feel stagnant? Have you lost your excitement for practicing optometry? If you fall into that category, that may be hard to admit, but you’re not alone. In fact, it’s very common for ODs to feel “burned out”...

09.13.2022

Stop Dabbling in Dry Eye! Make it Your Specialty

Like many specialty services, a lot of ODs “dabble” but fail to make a service like Dry Eye a meaningful part of their practice. From a clinical and financial standpoint, dry eye has tremendous potential, but a lot of ODs...

08.30.2022

Good Boss or Bad Boss? Which One are You?

In this episode we talk with Dr. Michelle Johnston, author of The Seismic Shift in Leadership, about being a more effective leader. Leadership in the workplace has moved beyond the “command and control” style… or has it? Many leaders are...

08.16.2022

Creating a “Magical” Patient Experience

Benchmarking is a term used in business to reference the study of other companies or businesses to compare with your own. Through this process, many companies will (wisely) adopt best practices of other companies. Disney is one such company that has...

08.02.2022

Help! I Was Denied Access to an Insurance Panel

In this episode, Dr. Vargo reached out to IDOC’s own Managed Care Consultant, Jenna Armitage, to discuss an issue we’re hearing from many ODs – getting denied access to insurance panels. This has been a longstanding issue with a few...