Eye Doctor & Optometrist Network Eye Recommend Increases Overall Revenue, Resulting with Clinics Seeing a $7k Monthly Jump

Kallpod, a customizable communication device that streamlines customer service in a variety of settings, gained traction in the healthcare industry after Canada’s Eye Recommend installed the technology in many of its clinics.

The Kallpod platform allows immediate communication between doctors, clinic staff, and patients. Eye Recommend, a network of independent optometrists and eye doctors with approximately 500 clinics first piloted the use of Kallpod in the fall of 2017. Kallpod has since been used in several Eye Recommend clinics to enhance the patient experience, resulting in considerable improvements to labor & operations efficiency, and a smoother patient experience.

Revenue and sales growth

In terms of revenue, Kallpod has improved Eye Recommend sales. One clinic increased revenue by $12.13 per patient, and in two and a half months, increased monthly revenue by $7,000, according to Eye Recommend Senior Trainer Joyce VanRooyen, who is responsible for developing and implementing training programs across the Eye Recommend system.

“Some of the offices track their conversion rates to see how many patients purchase glasses in the office, and [because of Kallpod] they are increasing eyeglass sales and also increasing revenue per patient,” VanRooyen said. “The percentage is different in every office but there is an overall revenue increase. One doctor sets monthly sales goals for his staff and he says that since they brought Kallpod they’re smashing their monthly goals.

Office efficiency has gone up and the communication between staff and doctor has improved, which positively affects efficiencies and the patient experience.”

Office efficiency improvements

Kallpod has also brought major workflow improvements to the optometrists and opticians. After implementing Kallpod, they’re able to complete administrative work during normal business hours instead of having to stay after work to complete it.

“The other thing we hear is that the office is running more efficiently,” VanRooyen said. “They are on time with appointments because they don’t have to find a staff member to exchange the patient with, and the staff gets the information they need on the patient. One doctor would stay two hours after work to complete file work and within two weeks of using Kallpod that doctor was able to complete their work during normal business hours.

Another doctor was able to see the same number of patients in fewer days with this program. This doctor wanted a half-day to do administrative work. She needed time to do payroll and didn’t want to have to take time out of her personal time.

Within the first two weeks of using Kallpod, she was able to find that extra half-day without compromising the number of patients she saw.”

Another way in which Kallpod enhances the patient experience, VanRooyen said, was with the patient handoff process. Once their eye exams are complete, patients need to either go to the doctor’s office’s front desk to check out or see a staff member, such as a technician or optician or other licensed professional, to help them pick out a pair of glasses to purchase. Before Kallpod, that transition was far from seamless as VanRooyen states.

“When a patient is finished with their eye exam, they either go to checkout or to the frame room,” VanRooyen said. “Before we used Kallpod, the doctor would say ‘You’re done’ and the patient would wander back into the office and wait to either be directed to the front desk or the dispensary to pick out their glasses. There was a big disconnect there because the patient wouldn’t always know where to go. Using Kallpod makes the patient’s visit easy.”

Implementation and customization

Kallpod stood out to Eye Recommend because it would allow staff members to receive real-time notifications on wearable watches.

“We wanted something that was reliable as well, and the service from Kallpod has been excellent,” VanRooyen said. “Kallpod worked really closely with us to figure out what we needed and they customized their system for each clinic they worked with. Some offices have their Kallpods programmed with the name of the staff member the doctor wants to transfer the patient to, while other offices program the position names, such as ‘Technician,’ so that every staff member with that title can go into the exam room to take the patient to the next step.”

At Eye Recommend, the doctor can also use Kallpod to page a staff member into a private room to share patient-related information with them. That way, patient information is exchanged in a private setting instead of speaking in a lobby or public setting.

Eye Recommend plans to implement Kallpod across more clinics in the coming months.

“We take pride in the versatility of the Kallpod model, which allows our team to fully customize it to fit so many different settings,” said Kallpod CEO Gabriel Weisz. “The system has greatly benefited doctors, staff members and patients. We plan to expand & serve more healthcare settings to help change the way our partners and their staff serve their patients."