Eyeworld

72 | EYEWORLD | FALL 2025 P RACTICE MANAGEMENT by Liz Hillman Editorial Co-Director A new session at the 2025 ASOA Annual Meeting, "Aii: Building a Blueprint for Success," gave attend- ees a strategy for successful adop- tion, integration, and implementa- tion (Aii) of new technologies in their practice. The session was sponsored by iOR Partners, ModMed, Promptly, and RxSight. Led by Patti Barkey, COE, a former ASOA president, and Carrie Jacobs, COE, ASOA Presi- dent, this session provided the roadmap to help practices successfully bring in new technology and procedures. Infrastructure considerations for successful Aii include staffing, scheduling, revenue cycle expertise, facilities, marketing, and education. The program dove into each of these areas and how they can be factors when adopting, inte- grating, and implementing a new technology or procedure. Ms. Barkey said education is an area where many practices hit a roadblock. She said that Frank Bowden III, MD, said, "We're only as good as the least enlightened person" in the practice. Clarifying, Ms. Barkey said that if that person has a touchpoint with the patient and they don't understand what the practice is trying to accom- plish with a new technology or procedure, they could hamper that product. The session used real-world practice case studies to showcase successful Aii. Office-based cataract surgery Hugh Glatts, COE, Mittleman Eye, spoke about how his practice sought out office-based cata- ract surgery for several reasons—a growing pop- ulation, decreased OR time at local ASCs with limited resource availability there, declining reimbursements, and more. Office-based surgery (OBS) not only addressed several limitations that Mittleman Eye was experiencing, but it also provided an opportunity for a new revenue stream, training abilities, and efficiencies that could lead to reduced expenses. The steps to get a patient from the decision to have surgery to actually having the surgery takes 101 minutes/patient at an ASC, Mr. Glatts said. Several patients were dropping off somewhere in the process before they reached having the surgery. Office-based cataract sur- gery, conversely, takes 30 minutes. "We've had a dramatic increase in the number of surgeries we're doing because of our office-based surgery, and we've added no people to our employee list or our surgical depart- ment," he said. When it came to implementing office-based cataract surgery, Mr. Glatts said the first thing is to find the right partner. For Mittleman Eye, this was iOR Partners. From there, the practice con- sidered its projected and future surgical volume to help determine if the practice would need more than one OR. The practice also had to consider bringing in a femtosecond laser (which it did) and the other supplies and lens inventory it would now have to store, determine the space for the OR(s), decide on a surgical equipment vendor, and decide which staff would be trained to work in the office-based OR. Some of the challenge in implementation was changing the mindset of the doctors who were accustomed to performing surgery at an ASC. For these doctors, education about the benefits of OBS and visiting an established OBS was important. For integration, Mr. Glatts explained how iOR Partners took the lead. The company took care of the setup, supplies, training, and accred- itation. Mr. Glatts said the practice audited all their OBS cases and saw superior safety in this setting compared to the ASC. Mr. Glatts said they have had OBS for 3 years, completing more than 5,000 cases in this setting. They have had no canceled surgeries, though a few rescheduled. In the time since OBS adoption, implementation, and integration, Mr. Glatts said the practice has experienced an increase in conversions for advanced-technology IOLs and an increase in refractive lens exchange procedures. It has implemented ICL procedures (STAAR Surgical) and has seen an overall increase in surgical volume and patient satisfac- tion. Additionally, employees being offered new responsibilities and engagement has increased their work satisfaction. Case studies provide insights on successful 'Aii' in practices

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