Better patient education equals better patient care

In December 2003, I needed surgery on both wrists for carpal tunnel syndrome. As it turns out, this is fairly common among microsurgeons such as ophthalmologists, although probably not at age 43. At the time I happened to be in the middle of the slowest, cruelest midlife crisis in the history of maledom — yep, another confessional column — even though there was literally no earthly reason to suffer even the tiniest bit of ennui, let alone something one would call a crisis. Long story short, my “crisis” stemmed from a degree of professional dissatisfaction.I had an epiphany: Medical care is the ultimate consumer service industry. Why couldn’t we engineer a medical eye care practice that starts from the patient’s experience and moves outward? Was there any reason why you couldn’t benchmark the customer-facing processes and protocols used by world-class consumer companies and bring them into the medical field? What could we learn from businesses such as Nordstrom or Canyon Ranch resorts that we could apply in our offices and hospitals to make medical care more pleasant? Our new practice, SkyVision Centers, went all in.