6 Best Practices for Optical Dispensing

We know how hard it can be working in a busy practice: between appointments with patients, the phone ringing, and other office duties, it's usually easiest to continue the workflow you're already on. But what if that means retyping a patient's order into your practice management system or wasting time calling a lab to check on an order's status?

At VisionWeb, we strive to make your day to day tasks more efficient and time saving by providing you with convenient features that streamline your practice's optical dispensing processes. We want to make sure you are getting the most out of VisionWeb's services, so we put together a list of six of the best practices for optical dispensing on VisionWeb. Check out some of these practices and start increasing your practice's efficiency!

Optical Dispensing Time Savers

1. Save to Pending Feature

Picture this: You are entering a patient's information into your VisionWeb account and a patient walks through the door requiring your attention. Without thinking twice, you close out the order assuming you will just have to re-enter the information later. What went wrong here?

We know how frustrating it is when you have to re-enter information because of an interruption or distraction, so we created the "Save to Pending" feature. By saving an order as "pending," you can start an order and return to it later, allowing for you to edit it before sending it off to the lab. Don't waste time re-entering information when you can simply save it to "pending." Find out just how easy it is with this how-to video!

2. Create a Favorite Order Template

For many eyecare practices, we have found that many of you are more than likely to have an RX that you frequently order. To save time entering the same frequently used information for each individual patient, take advantage of VisionWeb's "Favorite Order Template." With this feature, you can create a "favorite order" in your pending orders, allowing you to reuse the same template over and over again. This will save you time and decrease the likelihood of  making mistakes. Find out how easy it is:

3. Track Orders

One of the most beneficial features that VisionWeb's services provide for optical dispensing is the ability to track your orders 24/7. By placing orders online, you have the ability to access a patient's order status at any time, allowing for up to date information to communicate to your patients. Tracking your orders on VisionWeb is an easy process that will save you the time and frustrations of calling the lab to check your order status.  

Watch the video below to see how we recommend tracking your orders:

4. Add a Supplier

With the most supplier connections in the eyecare industry, VisionWeb gives you the ability to connect with over 400 spectacle lens, contact lens, stock lenses, and frame suppliers in one convenient location. One of the benefits of our online ordering and optical dispensing is the ability to access all of your ophthalmic product suppliers in one convenient location. Being connected to all of your current and potential suppliers will not only increase efficiency, but it will also reduce your turnaround time! Find out just how easy it is to add a supplier to your VisionWeb account:

5. Use the "Drop Shipping" Feature

Did you know you can order frames on VisionWeb and have them sent directly to your finishing lab to accompany your VisionWeb "frame to come" spectacle lens job? With our drop shipping feature, you can expedite order processing on jobs requiring frames that you don't already have in your practice's current inventory. With this feature, you are ultimately optimizing the optical dispensing process. Follow these steps to have your frames "Drop Shipped":

1. Login to your VisionWeb account.
2. Go to the My Accounts section.
3. Set up your lab account as "Dropship Accounts."
4. Select the frames that you wish to order from VisionWeb's frames engine.
5. Select the lab where you would like the frames sent to in the "Dropship Location" field. Your frame will ship directly to your lab to accompany your spectacle lens orders!

6. Archived Orders Feature

Store away your completed orders and reduce the amount of time it takes to access your order status page by taking advantage of VisionWeb's archived orders feature. We offer you a way to file away all of your completed orders in your VisionWeb account. By archiving your completed orders, your order history is readily available whenever you need it, but isn't slowing you down when you don't. Once archived, you can search your orders by date range, order number, patient number, or supplier! Follow these steps to properly use the Archive Order feature:

1. Login to your VisionWeb account.
2. Select Order Status from the navigation bar.
3. From the list of orders, select the ones you wish to archive by clicking in the check box to the left of each order.
4. To archive the selected orders, click on the Archive Selected button.
5. To later retrieve an order that's been archived, go to the Archived Orders page. Here you can retrieve your archived orders by date range, order number, patient number, or supplier.

There are many reasons you should be ordering your products online with VisionWeb's free platform. Here they are:

Originally published in July 2012