When you’re an optometrist hundreds of kilometres and many hours away from other eyecare professionals, you need quality ophthalmic devices you can rely on. One remote practitioner believes she has that part well covered.
Eyre Eye Centre’s long relationship with ZEISS began with something of a challenge.
It was before they had established three South Australia practices in remote centres far from Adelaide, and long before taking on six optometrists and 12 support staff, all now with access to the very latest ophthalmic equipment.
Before all of that, they had one visiting ophthalmologist with a specific, expensive request.
Optometrist Ms Elise Pocknee-Clem was early in her journey towards multiple practice ownership.
She and husband Phil had not long purchased the Port Lincoln practice – their first. The practice was successful and they had good relationships with the two visiting ophthalmologists.
The retinal specialist of the pair came with a request: “He wanted to start doing intra-vitreal injections [IVI] in Port Lincoln but was unable to get the hospital to buy an OCT for him,” says Pocknee-Clem.
“He was also very specific that he wanted a Zeiss OCT so that the data was easily comparable to his own practice in Adelaide.”
So Pocknee-Clem and her husband agreed they would buy the Zeiss OCT and the opthalmologist would send his IVI patients to them before treatment.
Having the numbers from the specialist gave them the confidence to buy what was leading-edge technology – understood to be the first optometrist-owned OCT in South Australia at the time.
Not only did it help grow their patient base and further cement their business, that purchase became an initial investment in a ZEISS ecosystem that is, more than two decades on, the beating heart of their enterprise and all three practices within.
Those practices are in Port Lincoln, Ceduna, and Whyalla, between five and eight hours from Adelaide and established ophthalmology services.
That means the practices see a large variety of significant vision issues and eye disease. And rather than test, treat and move patients on to ophthalmologists, often they are relied on to manage much of their patients’ healthcare journey.
“Because we’re a rural location, obviously quite remote, we have only periodic visiting ophthalmology services, so the scope-of-practice is very large,” says Pocknee-Clem.
“We perform a lot of emergency eyecare, including red eyes, foreign bodies, post-surgical issues and eye injuries.
“We also see and manage the full range of eye diseases, including neurological cases, so we’ll liaise with ophthalmologists in order to save sending the patient seven or eight hours’ drive to Adelaide.”
That communication needs a common, easy-to-understand language.
And that’s where the practices’ array of ZEISS solutions comes to the fore.
“We have Clarus wide field cameras and CIRRUS OCTs, various models, and the Humphrey Visual Field analysers in each practice,” she says. “We also use the ZEISS Visuphor and VisuConsult refraction system in one practice.”
At the core of that ecosystem – helping to convert all of the data from the individual devices into usable, insightful information for practice, patient and professional – is ZEISS Forum software.
“We use techicians to do most of our ancillary testing, so data is transferred seamlessly between Optomate and Forum to ensure accuracy and save time.
“Technicians can then move straight into acquiring the OCT scans, taking photos and doing the visual field, before the patient sees the optometrist. And we then can bring up all their data in the consulting room at the push of a button.”
She says that makes the workflow more efficient, helps with clinical assessment and produces imaging and reports that help the patient better understand their condition and its progress.
Those reports and the data that supports them are valued by other professionals as well.
Like that first ophthalmologist who challenged the pair to invest in a ZEISS OCT, other professionals are familiar with the quality and accuracy of the company’s devices.
“With the ophthalmologists we work with closely, we can send them the data and images and then ask them for opinions or advice on how to manage the patient, which is quite different to just discussing over the phone,” says Pocknee-Clem.
“The quality is that good that it’s almost as if their own technician has performed it in their own practice.
“Then the confidence that they have in us, and the confidence that the patient has in us, is much greater.”
She is confident that she is sharing accurate and quality data because of the way the Forum platform works.
“It’s all linked to Forum, so as long as the patient data is in Forum, then it pushes the patient details through to each bit of equipment. So Forum stores patient data and helps with communication between the devices.”
The breadth and depth of that data is one of the reasons why they have remained loyal with ZEISS, despite occasionally having their heads turned by other devices at various trade shows.
“We now have 20-25 years’ worth of data, which means it’s not easy to shift,” Pocknee-Clem says, noting the importance of longitudinal data for diagnosing and managing chronic, progressive eye diseases.
The couple also have an excellent reputation with patients and the community because of their suite of top-of-the line ZEISS equipment.
“The patients notice it straight away,” she says. “They will say, ‘Oh, wow, you’ve got a lot of high-tech gear here’.”
The patients also notice the quality of the reports and treatment plans produced by that equipment.
“Their understanding is greater. You can educate them on conditions and therefore they’re more likely to comply with their treatment.”
And come back. The quality of the equipment, aligned with the couple’s clear strategy to offer modern, well-designed facilities and spaces, is an attraction for staff as well.
Recruiting staff in the regions and remote centres is a challenge around Australia.
Pocknee-Clem says investing in quality ZEISS devices has given her practice an edge.
“In terms of advertising for staff, it makes a significant difference,” she says.
“If you’ve got good equipment, optometrists are much more likely to want to join and they will very much appreciate the equipment you’ve got.”
Join and stay.
“That’s been a big part of attracting and retaining optometrists in recent years. Once optometrists have been in an environment that is attractive and well designed, with great equipment, good connectivity between the rooms – then it’s very hard for them to leave.”
Pocknee-Clem understands that.
On top of the quality of the imaging, data and analysis, she’s impressed with the support from ZEISS, despite the remoteness of the couple’s three practices.
Part of that comes down to the relationship they have built with the company over the past two decades.
They too won’t be leaving any time soon.
