PRACTICE ADVISORS

Your Missing Link

Contact lens patients are the most overlooked opportunity in today’s dispensary

Q: WHAT IS THE MOST FREQUENTLY MISSED OPPORTUNITY IN AN OPTICAL DISPENSARY?

A: Though there are many, we feel the biggest is the contact lens patient who is already in your practice.

Currently, 37 million patients wear contact lenses in the U.S. Based on our own practice statistics, 40% of wearers don’t have any eyeglasses. That means 14.8 million contact lens wearers do not have eyewear. Also, many who do own glasses have them in out-of-date prescriptions. Though many of these patients need glasses to wear over their contact lenses to enhance vision, they have been neglected by their doctors and are not prescribed such eyewear.

Also, many baby boomer presbyopes are wearing non-corrected-curve, non-impact-resistant lenses in drug store reading glasses over their contacts (sometimes recommended by their doctor!).

Finally, let’s not forget those patients who may wear contact lenses that do not have UV and/or blue light protection.

ONE FIFTH OF PATIENTS

Contact lens industry statistics tell us that 20% of patients in optometric offices are contact lens fits or refits. If the average optometrist sees 125 patients a week, then 25 of them are contact lens fits or refits. Over a year that represents 1,300 opportunities for eyeglasses.

If the average sale price of glasses is a conservative $200, that means $260,000 worth of annual eyeglass sales are possible. If 40% of contact lens patients don’t even own glasses, that represents $104,000 in untapped potential in a practice. Assuming there is a total of 30,000 offices nationwide, that means a potential $3.12 billion of untapped eyeglass business.

New Technologies

Many brands of contact lenses now provide UV protection. Though that protects the internal eye, what about areas around it?

DISTORTED CORNEAS. Don’t overlook glasses when providing patients contacts for various conditions related to distorted corneas.

BLUE LIGHT. ECPs need to prevent blue light from reaching the retina, especially in patients with a history, genetic background, or signs of age-related macular degeneration. The real question is why, as an eyecare professional, would you keep contact lens patients from also enjoying the benefits of new eyeglass technology?

However, contact lens patients may present a more challenging conversion to eyeglasses than other patients because:

• They may have gone to the option of contact lenses in order to rid themselves of glasses.

• The nature of contact lens materials lends itself to low-price, out-of-office purchases such as the Internet. When it comes to service, consumers often see a contact lens purchase as they would any commodity where price and convenience trump service.

BENEFITS OF BACKUPS

A contact lens patient without backup glasses represents poor healthcare. Backup glasses serve multiple purposes. They provide a rest to the eyes from contact lens wear and provide sight during periods where patients can’t wear contact lenses due to eye pathology.

Also, don’t assume that every contact lens patient wants the cheapest pair of glasses they can find. Many prefer excellence in eyewear and ophthalmic lenses, and anything less may be short-changing the patient. Also, since many of these patients shop online, you should address the purchase of contact lenses while they are in the office. If you don’t, they are likely to go elsewhere. Not only have you lost a sale, but, more importantly, you have lost control of the patient.

There are other considerations, too.

• GLASSES OVER CONTACTS: These can enhance vision by correcting residual astigmatism, presbyopia, and binocularity. Do we really want monovision patients driving on dark rainy nights without binocular vision? This is just one of many examples of some patients needing over-glasses to achieve best overall vision.

• READING GLASSES: If our responsibility as eyecare practitioners is to give our patients optimal vision, why do so many practitioners tell patients to go to the drug store and purchase readers?

Perhaps for some practitioners this practice makes them feel “professional” because this proves they don’t “sell” glasses. But in reality, they have totally lost control of the principles of good patient care.

— Allan Barker, O.D., and Greg Stockbridge, O.D., MBA

SEND US YOUR QUESTIONS

Drs. Barker and Stockbridge will answer your questions about practice growth, business management, as well as other issues. Please email your questions to eyecarebizeditor@pentavisionmedia.com