Our vision is a precious commodity. Most of us take it for granted that we can see and process all the sights and senses in the world. But according to the CDC, the economic impact of major vision problems is $145 billion annually. Unfortunately, it’s only anticipated to get worse as diabetes proliferates and chronic conditions grow with an aging population. And yet, many aspects of vision care fall outside our standard healthcare models and focus. In fact, vision coverage and preventative care is completely separate from most health insurance, which is a bit silly when you think about it. So, it’s probably not a big surprise that vision providers are often operating blind (shameless pun) when it comes to connectivity to other healthcare providers. What may be a surprise, though, is how simply, inexpensively, and quickly vision providers can electronically connect with the full spectrum of healthcare providers!
The Administrative Burden for Vision Providers and The Patients They Serve
While the rudimentary preventative eye exam is easy, peasy, “press your eye up here and don’t blink”-y for patients and vision providers, the more complex cases that define the critical role that visual healthcare services play in the greater picture of patient health are not at all simple. The sheer volume of paperwork to manage the costly cases we mentioned above, which are steadily growing year over year, is staggering.
In a case study that Kno2 did with Child and Family Vision Center, we learned that the clinic was limited in how much patient-centric care that could provide due to the hassle associated with sending, receiving, and tracking large volumes of physical paper records to support clinical claims, care coordination, and even legal matters. Not only is this extremely time consuming, but there is cost associated with maintaining and managing printers, paper supplies, toner, and more. No one is thriving with all this going on. We’ve highlighted before how much clinics can improve when healthcare staff are given access to better communication tools, and this is certainly an optimal use case for leveraging electronic records exchange and collaboration.
Specialty-Based Solutions Don’t Have to Be a Barrier to Connectivity
Where vision providers and their teams feel left in the dark (forgive another shameless pun) is that their clinical solutions are not usually integrated with some of the bigger, more robust EHRs that would pave the way for secure, efficient connectivity. And though that is where the conversation often halts, it’s important for vision providers to realize that they are not relegated to just a step up from the Stone Age. Kno2’s partnerships with vendors across the care spectrum – from Practice Management systems to EHRs to third-party apps like DocuSign – create a network that is simply a login and click away. The light switch moment of healthcare connectivity solutions for vision providers (or any post-acute provider often outside the orbit of major health systems and EHRs, for that matter) is that they can use whatever they have, even if just a web browser, to connect, collaborate, and keep care moving!
