The delay list is a very important task that improves communication from our practice to our patients to ensure their patient care experience is top notch. Each week the optical tracker will pull a report of the late jobs or pending jobs. The tracker is in constant communication with the labs, vendors etc. Once he tracker is aware of a delay on a patient job she will send you are todo.
- Step one: Read the todo fully:
- Step two: Call the patient and let them know of the delay
Make notes of communication attempts or conversations (ex: spoke with patient on 4/12 and let them know of the estimated arrival of 5/1 for their eyewear. Patient was understanding and thankful for the call” or “left message on machine for patient 4/12”
If you get a voicemail or their mailbox is full, send a text through doctible and notate that in the todo.
If a patient is very angry create a QC and send to QC manager
YOU ARE DONE! J MAKE SURE YOU ARE CHECKING YOUR TODOS DAILY.
Detailed below is the Standard Operating Procedure for the Delay/Late list
as of 2019
The Delay/Late list consists of eyewear job's that are going to be delayed for patient's or are already late! This is something we keep track of based on lab and the reason for the delay!
Once the optician submits the eyewear to the appropriate vision benefit company, they make sure to send the job to the appropriate lab as well. After doing so, it is hard for the optician to keep track of every job they have submitted within the last two weeks. Because of this, Heather keeps track of where the job has been transmitted, what the status is, and what the estimated ship date may be. Heather receives about 85% of delay notices and will filter them to you! She will do so via email or sending you a "to-do" on the file of the patient that needs to be notified. From here you will do the following:
Upon receiving the to-do/email:
You will read the details to determine what is wrong with the patient's eyewear and why they need to be notified of the delay.
You will then contact the patient using the information we have for them on file. You will need to get into contact with them no matter what to let them know what is going on. Try to call them first and if you are unable to do so, exhaust your other resources (ie. text message or email).
After contacting the patient:
You will notate in their file how you contacted them along with the date you contacted the patient (For example: 01/01/2019 - lmom regarding delay/[your initials]). You will put this in their glasses screen. Simply click on the teal glasses button at the top of your Eyecare screen. From there, you will click on the tab labeled "Lab Info". You will write your notes under "Order Notes". These are the two large blank spaces in the middle of the "Lab Info" screen.
You will then open your spreadsheet labeled "Delay/Late Jobs of [Year]". You can find this spreadsheet by opening any folder and clicking on the "E" drive. From there, you will click "Shared". Then "Public". You will scroll down to a folder labeled "Delay List". In this folder, you will find all of the delay spreadsheets starting in 2016. You may use these for reference as well if you are having trouble!
Notating in the spreadsheet:
There are five things that we keep track of on the spreadsheet: Patient name, the date they were contacted, the delay issue (why the eyewear is late), how it was resolved (how you contacted the patient) and which lab the eyewear came from.
I'd say the first two things on the list of things that we track are pretty self explanatory, so let's move on to the nitty gritty: the delay issue! Below is a list of every reason a patient's eyewear may be late and how to determine which category the delay needs to be classified as:
Lab error
When eyewear is received into our office the boutique optician checks it in to make sure the job was made correctly. This means checking the transitions (if it was supposed to be made with them), checking the AR and checking many other components of the lens. If the optician has to send the job back to the lab to be remade it is considered a lab error if the eyewear was received into our office with the wrong AR or without AR at all, the transitions color was wrong or it came without transitions, the lenses were supposed to be tinted but they were made without the tint. Lastly, if the lenses fail inspection at the lab, it is considered to be a lab error. You will notate this in the "delay issue" tab on the spreadsheet as follows: "Lab error/*reason why it is considered a lab error*".
AR Defect
There are two ways to determine whether the issue was an AR defect or not. If the boutique optician checks the job in and notices there are any scratches or chips in the lenses, it is considered an AR defect. 90% of the time, you will not receive delay notices from the labs regarding AR. The lab will often say the lenses failed their final inspection with no information. As outlined above, you would notate it as a lab error.
Breakages
We do not get notified very often of any breakages that happen at the labs. Most of the time, we only find out because Heather has contacted said lab to see what has been taking so long. The lab will not specify why it broke unless it was the frame that had been broken upon inserting the lenses. At this point, you will notate the breakage. If it was the frame that had been broken you need to make sure the appropriate optician is contacted so that we can get a new frame to the lab. Sometimes, the frame is broken and it turns out they no longer carry that style/color. Simply ask the optician before calling the patient what their options would be so you can relay that information to the patient while speaking to them, leaving a message or texting/emailing them.
Optician Error
This error is often easy to determine. The error is considered an optician error if the job was submitted wrong. For example, if the glasses screen says the job was supposed to have Blue Zero, but we find out the optician did not notate that on the order to the lab, it is considered an optician error because the lab did not have the proper notes to complete the job. This can also happen if they job was submitted with the wrong Seg. Height, transitions color, tint, AR, prescription, etc. As always, these errors are often determined when the boutique optician checks the eyewear in.
Non-Human
Last but not least, we have our non-human errors. These are also fairly easy to determine. If the frame is on back-order or we get word that there was some trouble with the delivery of the frame to the lab, this is considered a non-human error because it could not be helped. If the frame is on back-order for a long time, speak to the appropriate optician before notifying the patient of the delay to see if there is anything we can do to speed up the process!
how did you resolve the issue?
This one is easy to notate! All you need to do is notate how you contacted the patient. You would notate like so: "[initials] lmom regarding delay". You would edit according to whether or not you spoke directly to the patient or someone related to the patient and if you needed to send a text/email to the patient.
Which lab was it? We only, technically, track jobs from two labs: VSP and Toledo (Walman). Any other lab (Central or Classic) would be labeled under "Other". A few times, I have come across some contact lens delays. My personal preference is to stick them on the spreadsheet just so we have documentation. Any contact lens delay would be labeled under "Other".
MAKE SURE YOU SAVE!
final notes on completing the delay list:
One last thing, never be afraid to call the lab yourself to find out what is going on with a patient's eyewear. Especially if doing this allows you to get the correct notes. This also makes the patient happy to know you contacted the lab directly yourself! It helps put the patient's mind at ease knowing you want to get them the correct, most updated information!
If there is one tip I can give for delay calls it is that the patient's appreciate your honesty when it comes to their eyewear. That being said, we cannot give full disclosure all the time. If it is going to take you a day or two to obtain all the information regarding why the patient's eyewear is going to be delayed simply tell the patient that it looks like the lenses failed inspection at the lab. Once you receive all the information, update your notes accordingly. If the patient asks you directly while on the phone with them why they may have failed inspection you can simply tell them that you are waiting on all the notes to come through and that you will update them when you can! A lot of the time there is no real reason why the lenses have failed inspection. If you are at a loss you can simply tell the patient it could be a number of things and explain the inspection process to them. You can let them know that their lenses go through at least four inspections before being sent to us for one last inspection before they receive them!
What do you do if a patient is upset with you about their delay?
You can first try to explain to them that we have to send their glasses off to a lab off-site to be made. A lot of patient's don't understand that we do not make their eyewear in our office! If this does not seem to calm them down you can offer to call the lab to get a clear understanding of what is going on so you can relay that information to the patient. If this still fails you can talk to your Quality Control manager, make a tab and have him/her follow up with the patient about their unhappiness!