ONLINE EXCLUSIVE

ASCRS News
May 2024

by Ellen Stodola
Editorial Co-Director

The American Society of Ophthalmic Administrators (ASOA) wants your help in encouraging practices to update contact information on their websites. This is part of a collaborative effort between ASOA and their industry partners as they work toward solving the recurring theme of “who do I contact at the practice for different business opportunities?”

“We have Strategic Business Partners, and our goal with ASOA, the administrators, and management teams is to development better relationships with the industry,” said Patti Barkey, COE, ASOA Immediate Past President and Industry Chairperson. Ms. Barkey said one of the topics that came up during discussions at the recent Annual Meeting was the difficulty of figuring out who handles specific integration areas of the practice—in other words, who is the “go to.”

“Many of the industry partners are having to cold call our offices or walk in the door,” she said. “That’s not a good, efficient use of time for the practice and not an efficient use of time for industry either.”

Because of this, Ms. Barkey said ASOA is spearheading efforts to encourage all practices to have their website include a “contact us” area specifically for business partners, similar to the way patients can contact a practice with questions.

Using her practice website as an example, Ms. Barkey demonstrated a dropdown bar that had links for patients or business partners/industry to reach out. She noted that her practice has even updated their strategy recently. “We started out with a list of people and email addresses and what they can do,” she said. “But we recently updated that to a form, and they can put in their name and address and tell what they’re interested in. Behind the scenes, it will send it to the right person, and then someone from the practice can reach out.”

Ms. Barkey said they are hoping to make this a standard process because she thinks it’s an easy update that can be helpful to both practices and industry.

To implement this change, practices should start by reviewing their current contact page to assess how a Business Partners section could be integrated seamlessly. They should then identify key contacts within the practice for various business engagement areas. With this information, they can add the Business Partners Contact dropdown menu, clearly outlining each area with the respective practice contact.

Ms. Barkey added that they have been working with Glacial Multimedia, which has already been helping and encouraging some practices to make this update, and she said that this should be a relatively easy change for practices to make.

Glacial Multimedia handles the Bowden Eye & Associates website and was extremely helpful for Ms. Barkey and her team, she said. A slight addition to the website was made quickly and for a very minimal cost.

The easier it is for the practices to manage this influx and avoid disruption of those coming in during patient flow, the better. It also helps industry partners get to exactly who they need to get to. It’s about figuring out how to help industry partners not waste time or be a distraction by just walking into a practice. This is beneficial to the patients as well. It’s respectful to the time of physicians, patients, and staff at the practice, she said. 

At the end of the day, we are all working together to serve the needs of the patient, she said. Fostering seamless interactions between practices and industry partners is pivotal for embracing new opportunities, technologies, and services that ultimately benefit patient care.

---

About the source

Patti Barkey, COE
CEO
Bowden Eye & Associates
Administrator
Eye Surgery Center of North Florida
Jacksonville, Florida  

Contact

Barkey: pattibarkey@hotmail.com