Eyeworld

112 | EYEWORLD | MARCH 2021 P RACTICE MANAGEMENT continued from page 111 What are some of the things in your practice/ clinic/ophthalmology as a whole that you will never go back to doing post-COVID? "I don't think we will ever be able to go back to regular overbooking of our schedules." Bennie Jeng, MD Department of Ophthalmology, University of Maryland Baltimore, Maryland "Hygiene changes in the office probably will not change with the exception of masks if the numbers get really low. We have all learned how to wash our hands better and have learned to be a bit more paranoid about the patient world that comes to visit us." Jeffrey Whitman, MD Key Whitman Eye Center Dallas, Texas "We have changed the way we schedule our patients and how we roster our doctors' activi- ties (i.e., clinics, minor and major procedure lists, etc.), and this has made efficient use of our resources. This is something that we are likely to continue doing even in the post- COVID era." Mun Wai Lee, MD Lee Eye Centre Perak, Malaysia "COVID accelerated my practice transition from a comprehensive practice to a surgical practice. Manhattan was hard hit early in the pandemic, and we endured a protracted, 3-month elective surgery shutdown. […] After the lockdown, we reopened our prac- tice slowly—first 1 day a week, then 2 days a week. The limited schedule constrained me to only see surgical and emergency patients. As we got busier, I maintained this surgery-on- ly focus. The other practice doctors are still seeing existing comprehensive patients. Post- COVID, we plan to continue our transition to a surgical practice." Tal Raviv, MD Eye Center of New York New York, New York "We will not go back to same-day payment. Sorting all the payment details out before the procedure day has been a huge improve- ment. We will encourage patient-only visits. The clinics are less crowded, and the drivers appreciate the text message when it is time to pick up, as they can do their own thing rather than be stuck in the clinic waiting room. I will continue to do the postop flap checks myself. I took this over to simplify the patient expe- rience in the pandemic but discovered that I liked examining the flaps under the EX500 laser [Alcon] slit lamp as it allowed me to personally make sure that every flap interface is perfect before the patient leaves the laser room." Louis Probst, MD TLC Laser Eye Centers Ann Arbor, Michigan "Post-COVID, we will not be able to offer personal touches like a handshake, offering coffee or refreshments for waiting patients." Nader Iskander, MD San Antonio, Texas "We will never go back to unnecessary flights." John Berdahl, MD Vance Thompson Vision Sioux Falls, South Dakota "We may always do some type of patient screening upon entry into our building at least for the next year. Asking questions about infectious symptoms and temperature testing when entering our office has become a streamlined process. Limiting patient family members and family contacts in the office has also helped increase efficiency of visits and re- duced office traffic tremendously. I think our cleaning of rooms and equipment between patients has vastly improved in COVID times. Standardized clear screens attached to slit lamps separating patients and doctors have also improved." W. Barry Lee, MD Eye Consultants of Atlanta Atlanta, Georgia

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