‘Every contact lens is specialist. If you start thinking any different, you’re not customising it for the patient,’ says contact lens optician and director of First Contact Opticians, Shelly Bansal. ‘The only difference is that some lenses are easier to fit and more accessible than others.’
It is a refreshing take from Bansal, who says the patient journey at First Contact is based around the practice philosophy of successful outcomes for its contact lens wearers.
‘What you define as success is open to negotiation because there are lots of variables, and I think one of the pitfalls with the profession is that we don’t negotiate well enough with our patients so we can match their expectations,’ he says. ‘Their expectation might be super vision, super comfort, 24 hours a day wear, but because it has never been addressed properly based on their physiology, their eye health, their visual needs, no one resets those expectations. So for us, it’s very important that we actually have a good understanding of our patient’s eye health and their prescription, their visual needs and their expectations.’
Open to options
For Bansal, a full suite of contact lens products is essential if the practice is to deliver a successful outcome. ‘We look at all the products in the marketplace and find the best supplier for that particular patient,’ he says. ‘If product A doesn’t work, we will try product B. We will look and fulfil those needs for our patients. We will try to find the easiest route because it’s better for everyone if we can keep it simple, but we’re not frightened of more complex and more specialised options.’
When patients do require a specialist contact lens, Bansal is in awe of the options available to the practice. ‘The magic of lenses today is that there are very, very few prescriptions that we cannot fit,’ he says. ‘Sometimes, the only thing you’ve got to be aware of is that you’ve got to go outside the normal channels of the big four or five companies and look at smaller specialist producers.’
Access to information
As contact lenses have developed, so too has the information available to practitioners. ‘In no way do I say this to the detriment of skill levels among contact lens practitioners, but information on fitting has been greatly simplified by manufacturers. Online calculators allow us to input data and tell you what the first trial lens is,’ says Bansal.
Direct professional support from contact lens manufacturers has also been bolstered in recent years and Bansal believes the clinical experience ‘on the end of the phone’ of manufacturers such as Mark’ennovy has been a real boost to the practice. ‘It’s great to be able to bounce ideas off another clinician who has experience with a whole portfolio of lenses. Where I might see maybe half a dozen people every month, when I need to do something custom made, they’re talking to that many practitioners every day,’ he says.
Repeatability
Bansal has been in the profession long enough to recall the days of soft toric contact lenses and the practice mantra of ‘fit, refit and refund’ when things didn’t go according to plan. Manufacturing advances have given contact lens practitioners new confidence in the repeatability of a specialist product, which Bansal says is crucial for successful outcomes for patients. ‘Once you have your first diagnostic lens on the eye, you can evaluate it and then can order what you want, knowing the repeatability is there,’ he says.
This, he adds, benefits the practice and himself on a personal level. ‘There’s great fulfilment in knowing you’ve done your job well and had a real positive impact on a person’s life. For me, that’s worth more than money in the till. But because you’ve done that, those same patients then become your biggest advocates – it just grows and develops your business. The loyalty that you get from patients because you’ve gone that extra yard is such that they’ll tell the whole world about you.’
Going over and above patient expectations is a process that begins with the very first appointment and it is at this point that potential dropouts can be mitigated – through the practice philosophy of achieving a successful outcome.
‘For the practice, each patient is an investment,’ says Bansal. ‘We commit a lot of time when we start patients with contact lenses. Their initial appointment might be for two hours with an examination, a contact lens assessment, trial fits and teaching. Patients then receive personalised phone call follow ups to see how things are progressing. We then offer a follow up appointment to see if the patient is happy and, importantly, if we have hit the mark or not.’ Given that less than 1% of private patients on the practice’s monthly fee scheme have dropped out over the past five years, it would be fair to say the practice really does hit that mark.