Optometry Reports Oct 2012

A recent report by Dun & Bradstreet has again highlighted the difficulties being faced by the Australian consumer market. The report notes that, despite Australians saving more than at any time in the past 20 years, there is a marked reluctance to put those savings to use in the retail sector.¹

Now this will come as no surprise to anyone involved in optometry, or indeed any other part of retailing or consumer service provision.

The question is, can consumers be persuaded to open their wallets at all – or is it a lost cause?

Why not come along and catch up with colleagues and consider staying on for some CPD

The answer – fortunately – is that yes, consumers will spend if the mood takes them.

Business Spectator magazine reports that consumer spending for May and June rose sharply before flattening off again in July.² However the signs are there to indicate that if consumer confidence improves, people will be inclined to open their wallets. The United States is seeing a similar pattern – at least there are some positive signs out there.

One of the key things to remember when consumers start to awake from their self-imposed hibernation is that you need to be positioned to take advantage of the mood swing before it starts.

It’s a good time to check your business and make sure your stock is contemporary (have a sale to get rid of all that old stuff lying about, taking up space). You’ll also need to ensure your pricing is competitive, but don’t try to compete on price alone – service remains one of the biggest decision-drivers when consumers are looking for health care and related products.

Take a critical look at the practice (be it yours or your employer’s) and see how it would look to an outsider – and if it needs a facelift… see how you might do that without spending a fortune. And employees remember: this is as much an issue for you as it is for your employer. If they aren’t doing well, your employment security could be very tenuous indeed. It’s in your interests to contribute to the performance of the business, just as much as it is the owner’s.

Reference:

1.www.dnbcreditreport.com.au/latest_news/australian_finances_under_pressure_despite_20year_high_in_household_savings/indexdl_8734.aspx

2. www.businessspectator.com.au/bs.nsf/Article/Fickle-shoppers-deal-business-anotherblow-XBJL2?opendocument&src=rss

OAA Vic

Terri Smith

There is something for everyone at OAA Vic in October.

Are you thinking of starting up or buying a practice? Are you thinking of retiring? Are you already in practice but don’t really know what the numbers in your business mean? ODMA has developed a financial model to assist optometrists understand the finances of your business in terms you can understand. Members are welcome to come along to this ODMA Business Seminar – Getting the numbers right: A financial model for any stage of independent practice from start up to retirement. The session will be held on Monday 15 October from 7pm – 8.30pm, with a light meal provided from 6.30pm.

Do you need to update your CPR certificate? OBA registration standards require optometrists undertake CPR training every three years. If you are due for an update we are offering a course at our office, 28 Drummond St Carlton, on Wednesday 24 October, from 6pm – 9.30pm, giving you plenty of time to meet the 30 November deadline. Contact [email protected] for more information.

For final year students we are offering an information session called Getting Registered: Getting Started. The session will tell you everything you need to know about how to get registered and get started. Find out how to get registered with the Optometry Board of Australia. Hear about the Australian Health Practitioners Registration Authority, find out about Professional Indemnity Insurance and learn how to apply for Medicare and PBS provider numbers. We will also answer any other questions you might have about starting life as a qualified optometrist.

The session will be held from 6.30pm – 8.30pm on Tuesday 23 October.

After the success of our member breakfast at the Melbourne Zoo last year we are doing it all over again. Why not come along and catch up with colleagues and consider staying on for some CPD. A breakfast buffet is on offer with plenty of time to have a good catch up on the events of the year. The breakfast will be held on Thursday 29 November. We kick off at 8.00am. At 9.30am we will offer an optional one hour CPD presentation. Stay tuned for further information but expect a session about eyes and the great outdoors! If you can manage some extra time why not stay on and explore the zoo for a little while or the whole day. All of this is offered free to members.

You can book for any of the above activities by emailing [email protected] or calling (AUS) 03 9652 9100.

Please don’t forget that we are here to help and love talking to members about matters big and small. If there is anything you want to ask us about or tell us about please just phone (AUS) 03 9652 9100 or email: [email protected]. We really do always enjoy hearing from members.

Meanwhile keep an eye out for further member activities on our website or through the OAA e-bulletins.

OAA WA

Tony Martella

With WAVE behind us and the end of the year coming up fast, our next big event in WA is purely about having fun.

Reputations are made and lost on the day. Stories abound with what could have been including the near misses and perfect shots being the order of the day.

The annual OAA WA Spring Golf Day will take place at the Vines Resort in Ellenbrook on Friday 26 October and it’s not too late to put your name down to come along.

This will be our seventh Golf Day and every year it just gets better with optometry, practice staff and ophthalmology – all coming together to play the 18 hole championship course.

If you’d like to join us for a great day or enter a team please contact the OAA WA office before Friday 12 October. Phone: (AUS) 08 9321 2300.

OAA Qld/NT

Cristy Ross

OAA QLD/NT Division continues to support the Queensland Primary Health Care Network (QPHCN) by regularly attending meetings, conferences and forums to ensure eye care is recognised as an essential part of overall health care.

The QPHCN is a group of primary health care related organisations, who have come together with a common interest – to network, share information and gain a collective understanding of the opportunities and challenges facing primary health care in Queensland.

At a meeting held in August, members of the QPHCN met with Mr. Chris Davis, Queensland’s Assistant Minister for Health, to discuss the key issues facing primary health care. Of the four key issues identified by network members, two were identified as OAA QLD/NT division priorities:

1. Ensuring an adequate and sustainable workforce, supported by appropriate training and accreditation:

A high performing primary health care sector is critical in reducing the current demands on our hospitals. Ensuring we achieve and maintain an adequate and sustainable workforce across the primary health care sector, supported by ongoing training and accreditation together
with improved public awareness, will reinforce our capacity to deliver exceptional health care.

2. Better access to services through improved referral pathways:

Promoting access to services through improved referral pathways will ensure health care services are universally available to all people, responding to the demographical diversity across Queensland. Collaboration and cooperation among primary health care providers ensures the right mix of services is delivered to meet the needs of patients.

Promoting the profession of optometry to general practitioners, pharmacists, other health care professionals and the wider community will assist us to improve awareness and develop sufficient referral tools to achieve the above.

Over the past few months OAA QLD/NT Division has met with related Associations, exhibited and attended primary health care conferences and networked with our industry peers to ensure good eye health and vision are recognised as a right for all Australians.

Improved relationships with our peers, primary health care related organisations and the wider community will ensure adequate, timely and affordable access to appropriate health care services.

OAA QLD/NT further reinforced this message with Minister for Health, Lawrence Springborg MP at a meeting in September.

OAA Tas

Geoff Squibb

Although numbers were down on 2011 record attendance, our recent annual Tasmania Lifestyle Conference (TLC VIII), sponsored by Alcon, was once again very successful with some fine presentations.

This year our overseas speaker was Professor Robert Greer. He was also the keynote speaker for the Australian Low Vision Seminar sponsored by European Eyewear.

The social highlight of TLC was a ferry trip to the award winning Peppermint Bay restaurant where delegates were entertained by optometrist and vocalist Sophie Koh.

Sophie also gave a presentation on the East Timor Eye Program on the opening night of congress. Following her presentation OAA (Tas) president, Karen Garner presented Dr. Nitin Verma with two tonometers for East Timor, which were purchased from the profits of fund-raising wine sales over the past year.

During the congress dinner, the Chairman of the Tasmanian Optometry Foundation, Mr. Chris Dobson announced the winners of three 2012 Foundation Scholarships.

This is the second year that the scholarships have been awarded from a fund which was established when the Optometrists Registration Board of Tasmania was wound up following the adoption of the National Registration and Accreditation Scheme in 2010.

The 2012 Awardees are:

Micheal Knipe – who will undertake a study of optometric services in Australian hospitals to provide a recommendation for a submission to have optometric services included in public hospitals in northern and north-western Tasmania.

Paul Graveson – who will undertake a review of current thinking about low vision and contrast sensitivity loss and their effects on reading fluency and comfort, including the psychophysics of reading and associated rehabilitation strategies.

Scott Taylor – whose scholarship will assist with costs involved in obtaining a therapeutic qualification at the University of New South Wales.

Annual General Meeting

The Tasmanian Division’s AGM was held during TLC and for the first time a ballot was required for the election of four directors to serve for the next two years. Retiring directors Ian Bourchier, Andrew Hogan, Diane Jones and John Kingshott were all re-elected. At a subsequent board meeting Karen Garner was re-elected president.

Life Membership

Members at the AGM also voted to award Life Membership to long serving but now retired optometrist Brian Sims. Brian came to Australia as a “10 pound pom” at the invitation of optometrist Ken Iredale. He was a significant force in building the Total Eyecare optometry group in Southern Tasmania where he practised until his retirement in 2001.

Brian always worked on 60 minutes per patient. This resulted in a much lower income for both him and his partners but he believed the patients he saw needed extra time and was prepared to give it.

Brian was interested in trying novel approaches to help patients make the most of their remaining vision and understood that a number of professions needed to be involved. Ophthalmologists, optometrists, orthoptists, occupational therapists, welfare support, orientation and mobility instructors, audiology and peer support were all drawn upon to give a “holistic” approach to maximising the quality of life of a visually impaired person.

In 1973 Brian arranged for a “low vision” clinic to be set up in the Eye Clinic at the Royal Hobart Hospital (RHH), which employed him.

In 1976 he was awarded a Churchill Fellowship to study low vision consultation techniques and clinic structure in the UK and USA. Based on this visit, he developed the philosophy of the “Hobart low vision clinic model”. He established in-home assessment of the important aspects of lighting and safety in an effort to assist visually impaired elderly people to maintain independence in their own homes.

Brian lectured/taught in low vision (as a volunteer) to optometrists, teachers of visually impaired students, visually impaired people, occupational therapists and optometry, medical and ophthalmology students.

He also served as a volunteer board member of the Tasmanian Society for the Blind and Deaf and was a foundation member of the National Vision Research Institute of Australia.

In 2006, Brian was officially recognised for his many years of dedicated service to his profession and to his patients by the award as a Member of the Order of Australia.

OAA SA

Libby Boschen

Next month, for the first time, OAA SA will host an event aptly titled: ‘Q’s LAB: OCTs and Retinal Cameras Unplugged’. The event, which takes place from 1.30–6pm on 15 November immediately preceding SA Blue Sky Congress, has been planned to provide you with the facts you need to make an informed decision about whether to invest in – or upgrade – an OCT and retinal camera.

Despite the current slow economy, many of our members are discovering that providing an OCT scan and/or retinal photograph (or other digital imaging) as a core component of a standard eye health check is a highly effective strategy for maintaining their position as a market leader in the community.

Patients are happy to pay for this additional service, because they instantly see the benefits and achieve peace-of-mind when their optometrist explains their eye health using digital images as a focal point. The continuum of patient care is improved as a natural consequence of more accurate patient records: even if you can paint like Michelangelo, your sketch in a record card of an optic nerve won’t be in the same league as a photograph!

As an optometrist, having access to the latest tools of your profession, also potentially empowers you with greater diagnostic ability, supports more efficient referral and handover and leaves you with greater peace of mind. If you have a nagging feeling during the day that you may have missed something crucial, at least you can pull up your patient’s records and scans and study them further.

If you are not an optometrist, but own or manage an optometry practice, your passion may be driven by excellence in dispensing and providing the best optical appliances. The leading technology in lens materials and frame design may excite you and your customers, but have you also considered that technical excellence in the consulting room also excites your optometrist and their patients and is potentially a complementary business strategy for maintaining your competitive edge?

Objective Advice

Making an informed decision about whether to forgo the digital imaging route, take the plunge or choose to upgrade what you have is a challenge, but it’s one worth investing in. Finding the information you need is time-consuming. It’s also very difficult to access objective and non-biased information. ‘Q’s LAB: OCTs and Retinal Cameras Unplugged’ will provide the answers.

At this specialist OCT and camera purchasing event, you will have the technology explained by independent expert Roman Serebrianik from the Australian College of Optometry. He will also explain the benefits of different features and identify pertinent questions that you can ask equipment suppliers in an effort to determine the best equipment for your practice. Additonally, optometrist Elise Pocknee-Clem, who has been using this technology as a key business-building tool in recent years, will explain how to effectively integrate the technology into your practice as part of your regular eye health check. She will also share her pricing models and how she and her practice team effectively sell the service to patients.

A consultant from Investec will provide a brief overview of how this business-building investment can be effectively financed.

Following the presentations, delegates will be split into five small groups to complete a round-robin of our equipment suppliers during which they will spend 20 minutes with each to hear the key features and benefits. To conclude the event, we invite delegates to stay on for drinks and nibbles, and to ask questions of our speakers and suppliers. All of our suppliers and Investec will also be available at SA Blue Sky Congress during the following two days, should you wish to follow up with further queries.

This event is being hosted for optometrists, practice owners, practice managers by OAA (South Australia) as a stand-alone event on the day before SA Blue Sky Congress. The event is supported by our sponsors: BOC Instruments, Designs for Vision, Optical Manufacturers, Investec Medical Finance, Optos and Zeiss.

‘Q’s LAB: OCTs and Retinal Cameras Unplugged’ – well worth the trip!

For details please go to www.optometrists.asn.au/southaustralia and click on the ‘Q’s LAB’ button.

NZAO

The New Zealand Association of Optometrists

In New Zealand the team at National Office has been busy gearing up for the NZAO Conference, which will be held at Taupo’s Wairakei Resort from 26–28 October, where an international golf course and steaming hot pools provide just some of the attractions. Once again this year, the conference offers a wide range of lectures with support from Alcon, Essilor, Abbott Medical Optics, Bausch & Lomb, Carl Zeiss, Corneal Lens Corporation, Hoya and Johnson & Johnson, representatives from which will all be there to socialise and exhibit their wares.

This year’s speakers include Dr. Bruce Onofrey, clinical professor at the University of Houston and Executive Director of continuing education programs; Dr. Joanne Wood, Professor in the School of Optometry at Queensland University of Technology; Dr. Ken Robertson, Professor Emeritus from the School of Optometry, University of Waterloo, Ontario and currently a Professional Teaching Fellow at DOVS. Additionally, Dr. Derrell Meyer, an ophthalmologist with the Rotorua Eye Clinic; and Peter Grimmer and Greg Nel, practicing optometrists in Wellington. There will also be other interesting presentations from the researchers at DOVS, Dr. Nicola Anstice, Dr. Joana Black and Suti Misra.

The conference’s 12.5 hour CPD program will assist delegates to reach their 2012 target – or get a good start on 2013. It’s not too late to register. Visit www.nzao.co.nz/node/299 for details.

Save Our Sight Month

In September optometrists from around New Zealand participated in ‘Save Our Sight’ a month long public awareness campaign headed by NZAO.

The campaign aims to raise the profile of eye health and reduce the number of people who go blind or lose vision from preventable causes.

This year the campaign used television and bus shelter advertising to promote the message. Optometry practices were also supplied with a range of brochures and posters to display and distribute. The television target audience was people aged between 40 to 64 and the key message: “Take time to save your sight, ensure the ongoing health of your eyes with a comprehensive eye exam”, and a nine point checklist summary for patients receiving a truly comprehensive eye examination.

The annual Save Our Sight campaign has been running since 2002 and in that time, campaign efforts have yielded an improved understanding by the public and greater uptake of advertising, which emphasises the importance of comprehensive eye examinations.