In almost every office there are going to be some problems. And not every problem is big enough or reasonable enough to find a solution for. Sometimes, you just have to deal with it.

Yet, sometimes there are problems that do need to be resolved. A problem could be making your staff unhappy, causing patients to complain, losing your practice money, or all of the above. These are the problems that you need to be paying attention to in order to keep things running smoothly in your practice. Make a goal to resolve problems in your practice by the end of the year!

Optical Dispensing Tips:
5 Problems You Need to Resolve Before the End of the Year

Missing Product Orders

You've seen first-hand how excited your patients are when they finally pick out a new pair of frames. They can't wait to get those frames back from the lab so they can start rocking their new look. If your jobs are taking longer than expected to get back from the lab, your patients might start to get anxious. Phoning and faxing jobs to your lab could be the reason for the slow turnaround. Using an online ordering solution is the quickest way to connect with all of your labs in one spot, and get your orders sent directly into their lab management system for a quick return. 

A Slow Down on Reimbursements

While the transition to ICD-10 hasn't caused much drama in the billing world, there could be other reasons that you aren't getting reimbursed as quickly, or as often as you'd like. You need to keep your eyes open for rejected and denied claims so that you can quickly get any issues resolved.

A claims management solution can help your biller stay on top of your latest claim denials. Your biller will be able to review reports that help identify trends when it comes to denials and rejections. Correcting these mistakes will help get your reimbursements back up to speed.

Your Dispensary is Becoming a Showroom

The rise of ecommerce sites for patients to purchase trendy and cost-friendly frames is putting your dispensary at risk of becoming a showroom for patients to try on frames only to go purchase them from a cheaper online competitor. But, the experience a patient gets with an online retailer is much different from the experience and expertise that you can offer in your dispensary.

Making sure that your patients understand the value that comes with purchasing frames from you is an important step towards combating showrooming. You can do this by having a candid conversation with your patients, or by placing reading material or infographics around the waiting room and dispensary that help explain the value of purchasing eyewear from your practice.

Software Limitations

Depending on whether or not you're using practice management and EHR software in your practice, it could be causing headaches for your staff and making your workflow inefficient. This could be a good place to start a conversation with your team about any problems they may be having performing their daily tasks, and where they are seeing bottlenecks in the workflow.

Fixing any software limitation issues could be a matter of revisiting some training materials or reaching out to your software provider and asking if there are solutions or workarounds to your poblems. But if problems do keep occuring with no end in sight it could be time to start thinking about a new software.

Staff Turnover

Aside from being expensive, staff turnover can be affecting so many different areas of your practice. For starters, your patients like to walk into your office and see familiar faces. So if you have new staff every time they walk in they might not feel as comfortable in your practice. High turnover can also cause workflow hiccups as there is a learning curve for new staff to catch up on the job.

That's why it's so important to hire the right staff from the start. Don't rush into a hire just because you think you desperately need someone. Check out a few of our resources on hiring and staff management:

• What's Causing Your Staff Turnover?
• Coach and Retrain or Hire New?
• How to Spot a Bad Hire Before You Waste Time with an Interview