OCT: the business considerations - part two

It is essential that ‘ownership’ of the OCT lies with the practice as a whole and not just the optometrist. It is equally essential to avoid the feeling by front-of-house staff that it’s another ‘new toy’ in the consulting room.

At our practice in Hove we addressed this issue early on by making sure that all of our staff were enthusiastic about the benefits of the test. This was achieved by appropriate training, in simple and easy-to-learn terminology.

Newer members of staff have a crib sheet which they can refer to. In the case of our Retina Scan Duo, because it is an automated piece of equipment, each full-time member of staff has been trained to use it and their results have been explained in simple terms. To keep interest up I have found that presenting short two-minute case studies are always well received by everyone.