As the leading developer of assistive technology for the visually impaired, we constantly receive phone calls from patietns asking the question, “Why doesn’t my doctor know about thesse low vision solution?”

Below is an article written from an Optometrist’s Point of View on serving low vision patients lets you both help people and boost profits.

BY BETHANY FISHBEIN, O.D.

If you ask doctors why they practice low vision, you’ll probably get answers like “helping people,” “serving the community” or “providing a service that no one else does.” Very few will answer “to make money.” In fact, when I ask doctors why they don’t practice low vision, the answer I most frequently hear is, “I can’t do it and be profitable.”

And indeed, this seems to be what optometry schools teach even professors of the subject perpetuate the myth that low vision practice should be a charitable endeavor, or at best, a labor of love.

I beg to differ

I truly enjoy practicing low vision; I couldn’t do it if I didn’t like it. There are days when I love it. I love the feeling of helping people accomplish something they had written-off as impossible seeing someone read a newspaper for the first time in many years, or giving a visually impaired student the tools to help her through college. Do I consider it charity work? Absolutely not.

One of the reasons that low vision is such an enjoyable specialty for me is that it combines the reward of helping people who truly need it with the reward of financial success. In setting up a low vision practice, or adding a low vision specialty to an existing practice, follow these steps to maximize both the personal and financial rewards that come from providing this care.

See low vision patients during non-profitable times

Because you are providing a more specialized level of care and are presumably not in competition with all of the other doctors in your town, you have more flexibility in choosing when to provide low vision care.

If your Saturday morning hours are typically filled with a parade of Prada-wearing presbyopes, then scheduling low vision patients is neither practical nor profitable. However, if your Tuesday mornings are so slow that you are sitting around surfing E-Bay for Star Trek paraphernalia (or worse, considering adding a low-paying vision plan just to give yourself something to do!), this may be a perfect time to see low vision patients.

Even if you have yet to see a low vision patient, schedule “Low Vision Evaluation” slots during slow times in your schedule, and try to block low vision patients together during those times. Even if you only see two low vision patients in a month, see them both on the same day. It lets you and your staff get in to the low vision mindset and set up your equipment.

Source for complete article: http://www.optometricmanagement.com/article.aspx?article=&loc=articles\2006\november\1106064.htm