The pre-exam section of your workflow can be easy to neglect because you may think that it’s a pretty straightforward process – your technicians do the standard procedures like auto refractions and color vision testing, and hands over the rest to the doctor.

What many practices don’t realize is that their technicians can take on more than their current responsibilities. Today, we show you how changing up your pre-exam workflow can help improve your eyecare practice efficiency.

The doctor’s time is the most valuable in your practice, and they should be focused on the actual exam and treatment, not paperwork or administrative tasks. Here’s where technicians can support:

How Technicians Impact Your Eyecare Practice Efficiency

Technicians usually perform the standard pretests. Check out the table below for a few suggestions on specific duties that your technician can take over. Don’t forget that you might need to customize some of these duties according to your patient’s needs. 

Practices shouldn’t be afraid to arrange their workflow to have the technicians share the workload and take as much of the non-exam work off of the doctor’s plate as possible. This scenario is most successful when each doctor in the practice is linked to a technician with whom they can build a strong working relationship.

Transferring these responsibilities will require a shift in workflow that may take some time to get accustomed to, and it will also require some additional training for the technicians, but it’s worth the effort. Plus, it’s a change that you can implement without incurring new incremental costs if your technicians have the capacity to accommodate these new responsibilities.

If your technician is already swamped with their current duties, it might be time to consider hiring another technician. Adding headcount means an increase in practice overhead, sure. But will it allow your practice to run more efficiently, see more patients, and ultimately generate more revenue. It’s worth considering before you make a decision to stick with a workflow that puts the bulk of the work on the doctor.

How optimized are the other parts of your workflow? Download our eBook to help your evaluate your practice’s efficiency.

This post was originally published in 2015 and has been edited and updated in 2021.