Imagine you’re a LASIK patient. Today is finally the day – you’re getting surgery! You’re probably a little uneasy, since most people aren’t comfortable having a laser near their eyeballs. You drive down to the open access facility by following instructions on your phone. When you arrive, you’re so nervous that everyone’s faces blur together.
By the time the surgery is complete, your relief is palpable. Everything went great!
Over the next couple of weeks, you receive countless compliments and questions about the procedure. One of your friends tells you that they’re considering LASIK since your procedure went so well.
“Where did you get it done?” they ask you.
You try to recall the name of your surgeon, but you can’t – you were so anxious on surgery day that you forgot the names and faces of everyone you met. You still have the open access facility’s address on your phone, however, so you send it to your friend and wish them luck.
Poof! The surgeon loses another patient – just like that.
Get out of the open access facility!
Lower-volume refractive surgeons frequently turn to open access facilities, or places where doctors throughout the region can perform surgery in a shared space with shared equipment.
The main advantage of this system is that you don’t need to purchase your own equipment. Instead, you can pay a comparatively small fee to access it whenever you need it. You also don’t need to worry about finding places to store the equipment, since the open access facility will take care of it for you.
But there’s one main problem: the open access facility isn’t your facility. Since the location isn’t explicitly associated with your practice, flustered patients are likely to forget who you are. Word of mouth is behind more than 50 percent of all booked appointments, so you can’t afford to lose referrals from your more forgetful patients.
Open access alternatives
If you want to avoid open access centers but can’t afford your own equipment, what can you do?
Sightpath Medical’s refractive services are specifically designed to accommodate lower-volume refractive surgeons. We bring all of the necessary equipment (along with a trained surgical technologist) directly to your door, and then take everything with us once we’re done. That way, you don’t need to worry about finding a place to store everything.
In other words, you can perform the surgery in your office without the hassle of ownership.
The next time a patient wants to refer a friend, they’ll know exactly where to find you.