Practices are always looking for new ways to win more patients, please their current clients and to enhance their business model but does audiology offer that opportunity?
Optician surveyed its readership during January with a series of questions on hearing care to supplement the usual questions on business confidence, sight examination costs and dispensing habits.
Addressing the question above our survey shows that nearly four in 10 (37.4%) of practices offer audiology services already. The majority (87%) says this service is popular with their patients. Typically the advantage of offering both sight and hearing services together is having both services under one roof. This is appreciated by patients both for the convenience and the more holistic care that can be provided by a single practice.
When asked what particular elements were popular with patients respondents cited the holistic nature of a dual service and having an extra string to your clinical bow. Negative comments suggested some patients would prefer to have hearing conducted under traditional NHS methods.
The effect on the wider practice business was also seen as positive with six in 10 of those questioned reporting that having audiology services helped retain patients in the optical side of the business. Those who felt hearing had helped their practice said the greater sense of loyalty and the one-stop-shop approach worked well. Those who felt hearing could be a challenge to the wider business mentioned issues around a lack of control over an outside provider, poor aftercare and the high cost to patients. This was seen to impact on the reputation of the optical side of the business and did not measure up to the quality provided on the optical side of the business.
Despite some negative comments 66.7% said they saw adding a hearing service as being financially worthwhile. For those with the space offering a hearing service in an otherwise unused room made perfect sense. ‘We have a spare room and so it costs us nothing and we get commission from the audiology company,’ said one. Where space was at a premium the case was harder to make. One practitioner suggested optical services could earn more from a spare consulting room. Another said uptake had been poor.
Among those who already offer hearing services 39.1% offer the service themselves with the remainder employing the services of an outside specialist. This also fits in with the frequency of the services offered. The majority of practices (54.3%) offer hearing services on just one day of the week, 13% offering hearing on two days a week, 17.4% on three, 6.5% on four and just 8.7% on five.
Attention next turned to those who do not offering hearing services. When asked why they did not offer a service 31.2% said they did not think it was financially viable, while 23.4% said it was not the role of an optical practice and the same percentage said they did not have the space. Lack of demand was cited by 22.1% while 15.6% had tried it and said it had not worked. The remainder said their staff would not like it.
Respondents were also given the chance to offer other reasons for not offering hearing services to their patients. Popular reasons for not offering audiology services were that they simply had not considered it, others had considered starting a hearing care services but did not have the expertise or were unable to find a supplier. Those who did not offer hearing care service are much more likely (72.7%) to use a specialist outside supplier if they did decide to offer the service. Demand among patients varied quite widely with 8.3% suggesting patients asked about such services every day, 9.9% at least once a week and 51.2% occasionally. Just over 30% said they were never asked about hearing services by customers.
January proved to be a cautiously optimistic month for optical practices. Just over half (54.5%) reported practice turnover up on last month. In the last market monitor that figure was 58.6%. Year-on-year sentiment was clearly down with just 46.3% of practices reporting turnover up year-on-year. In last May’s Market Monitor 66.7% reported a better practice turnover.
The number of eye examinations remained positive with 58.2% saying the volume of consultation had risen month on month. Year-on-year just 39.8% said the number of eye exams had risen, this compares poorly to last May when, year-on-year, 46.6% were reporting eye examination numbers up.
The proportion of NHS work being carried out by our respondents this month remained comparable with 13.9% having between none and a quarter of their eye examination paid for by the NHS, 15.6% between a quarter and a half. One half to three-quarters NHS work was conducted by 34% and the three-quarters to all work on the NHS conducted by 36.1%.
Eye examination charges were also broadly similar to previous Market Monitors with 45.5% charging up to £25, 29.8% between £26 and £35, 16.5% between £36 and £45, just 1.7% between £46 and £55 and 6.6% £55 and above.
Dispensing habits for lenses and contact lenses showed a continued rise in the march of progressive lenses with 65% and 69% reporting month on month and year on year increases in dispensing rates respectively.
The number of new contact lenses fits is finely balanced with 46.7% reporting dispensing levels as the same to the previous month with the balance evenly split as higher and lower. Year-on-year the picture is brighter with half describing new contact lens fits as the same but more (33.9%) reporting fits up than those (17.4%) reporting a downturn. The trend continues for daily disposables with hydrogel and silicone hydrogel types up 51% and 48% respectively month-on-month. Year-on-year daily SiHi lenses win out with 55% reporting an increase in fits compared with 51% for daily lenses in other materials. Cosmetic lenses and monthly hydrogels posted the worst falls. Year-on-year monthly hydrogels were down in 50% of practices and up in just 13%, cosmetic lenses were down in 34% of practices but up in just 5% of practices surveyed.
Over the coming months Optician will conduct Market Monitor on a quarterly basis and include a special area of interest to practices in each survey. The results are used purely for editorial purposes and no individual practices or people are identified as a result of taking part. Optician urges its readers to take part so it can publish the fullest possible picture of the market against which practices can compare and benchmark their performance.
If you would like to take part or have an idea for a topic on which to quiz Optician’s readers email chris.bennett@markallengroup.com.