Ophthalmology

Nearly every cataract surgeon wants to do more surgery and spend less time in the clinic, even in the fast-emerging era in which (absent an owned ASC) profitability per hour of your time can be much higher in the clinic. 

Surgical volume is directly linked to your productivity in the clinic: See more patients and you’ll identify more patients to help with surgical care. There are a number of things you can do to increase your surgical yield, but the important starting point is to measure the baseline surgical density of your practice today.

Doctors often ask me, “How tough should I be with my staff?” Consider America’s marsupial, the humble opossum. Biologists know that “playing possum” is not some coy act. The animals actually pass out from sheer terror.

Do your staff members look similarly dazed when you approach them? Or, at the other end of the spectrum, are you ophthalmology’s Rodney Dangerfield, so meek that you get no respect?

Have you ever watched a children’s karate class? Do it, if you have a nearby studio, and especially if the kids are a couple of years and a few belts into their program. You’ll see little ninjas-in-training, all of about 10 years old, all going “Ayyyyaaahhh” at the top of their lungs under the watchful eyes of their sensei.

Based on current expectations, we could see a roughly 18% drop in Medicare fees within the next 5 years. Of course, private insurance companies index their payments to Medicare rates, so an across-the-board revenue drop should be plugged into one’s planning metrics as a practice owner or administrator.

Aloha from the Waikiki Yacht Club. Aurelia pulled into the dock here in Honolulu at 6:30 p.m. local time last night, after a 22-and-a-half-day passage from San Diego. This was 8 days faster than the last voyage 15 years ago owing to quite unusual weather patterns, more global climate change mythology at work, no doubt. It will take a few days to clean Aurelia up and get her packed for shipping back to San Diego; a few more months for me to put this adventure into perspective. I’ll be back ...

Aloha from Aurelia at 22 degrees, 0 minutes north, and 152 degrees, 35 minutes west at 12 Noon PST, on Saturday, May 26. Based on current conditions, Aurelia should be pulling up to the dock in Honolulu late Monday or early Tuesday. The major challenge left will be transiting the Kaiwi Channel which runs between Molokai and  Oahu. Gale force winds are predicted for the next 48 to 72 hours, and the narrow gap between islands concentrates both the wind and wave patterns. Hope your weekend is ...

Aloha from Aurelia at 22 degrees, 30 minutes north, and 150 degrees, 6 minutes west, at 9 a.m. Pacific Standard Time on Friday, May 25, Day 19 of the voyage. We are 440 miles from Honolulu. Somebody has to open a kite store around here. It’s been blowing 25-plus knots for the past four days. Aurelia is blasting along with just one-quarter of her usual sail area and getting an additional boost in speed in every wave we surf down. A boat designed to do five knots is now hitting ove...

Aloha from Aurelia at 22 degrees, 41 minutes north, and 147 degrees, 42 minutes west, at 9 a.m. Pacific Standard Time, on Thursday, May 24. This is Day 18 of the voyage. I woke up abruptly on the cabin floor just after midnight, when we fell off one of the waves from the recent storm. A brilliant sunrise directly behind us as we plow ahead to Hawaii. Two flying fish on the deck this morning, and yesterday afternoon, a beautiful white tern, with a long, split swallow-tail circled the boat for sev...

Aloha from Aurelia at 10 a.m., Wednesday, May 23, at 23 degrees (fades out), 145 degrees, 39 west. Sorry for the hiatus yesterday. Because of a high-pressure gradient, local winds and waves built to a level  (fades out) ... or since. This weather pattern is expected to linger until Sunday or Monday, so this blog site may stutter a bit over the next few days. We’ve exhausted the last of the ice fresh veggies and fruit, so it’s on to canned food and peanut butter and jelly sandwic...