Aug 19, 2025
Written By Elizabeth Cifers
Operating a successful retina clinic involves more than just high patient volume. With work-up, dilation, diagnostic testing, and exam, along with documentation that must meet compliance standards, retina visits require efficiency and coordination at every stage. Add to that the mix of injection-only visits and dilated exams, and the risk of bottlenecks becomes an everyday event.
Actual efficiency isn’t about rushing, but about flow. From the front desk to the exam room, every part of the visit impacts the patient experience, clinical outcomes, and financial performance. Let’s explore options to streamline operations across the entire clinic, achieving better outcomes and reducing daily chaos, well, as much as possible.
The front desk sets the tone for the day. Unfortunately, it’s often overlooked as a source of inefficiency. When check-in is slow or error-prone, delays ripple throughout the clinic. Staff should be fully prepared for the day ahead by reviewing the schedule, prepping paperwork (or digital equivalents), and arriving early enough to open the office without being rushed. Assigning an “early person” and a “late person” can keep things running smoothly. Staggering start and end times can help with overtime as well.
Online pre-registration, which involves uploading identification and insurance information, saves patients valuable time and reduces their frustration. For many elderly and visually impaired patients, it is usually a family member who completes the online registration, so don’t rule it out as a viable option for your patients. When in-office registration is required, accuracy is key. Monitor performance with key metrics such as Patients Checked-In Per Hour, and analyze trends to identify inefficiencies or training needs.
Inefficient clinic layout often leads to staff backtracking, wasted steps, and slowdowns that go unnoticed. To evaluate your setup, do a walkthrough from the patient’s perspective, from check-in to check-out, and identify areas where the flow breaks down, is sluggish, or inefficient.
You don’t need to renovate your space to improve it. Move commonly used equipment closer to the exam or injection rooms. Even small changes in room assignments or supply storage can significantly reduce unnecessary movement and expedite the visit.
Not every patient needs the same level of workup. Injection-only patients can and should move through a more streamlined workflow. When there are multiple new patients or annual visits in a row, without interspersing injections or quick follow-up visits, it slows everything down. The physician should never wait for a patient; there should always be another one ready to be seen.
Interspersing visit types, such as new patient or annual visits, injection-only visits, laser procedures, and follow-ups, facilitates better patient flow and keeps operations moving efficiently. We all know that sometimes a new patient requires less time than a follow-up patient, which is beyond our control. Therefore, focus on what you can control and base your approach on the best available information regarding average workup times.
Thorough, accurate documentation is non-negotiable, but it doesn’t have to slow down your day. One option is to use voice dictation or AI scribes to assist with documenting the visit. If charting is still overwhelming, consider real-time strategies, such as hiring a scribe who can do much more than type the findings from the exam. These minor workflow adjustments help keep documentation current and reduce the burden of completing after-hours notes.
Even the best-designed systems require continuous improvement. Use EHR data to track visit times, document turnaround, and patient satisfaction. Regularly ask staff and patients for feedback. If a process isn’t working, don’t scrap the effort—adjust it. Efficiency is a moving target, and improvement is an ongoing effort.
From the front desk to the back office, every step in a retina visit offers an opportunity to reduce friction. Whether it's prepping paperwork ahead of time, refining patient flow through the space, or tightening up documentation habits, these strategies not only improve care, they also increase capacity, reduce physician and staff burnout, and support a stronger bottom line.
If you're ready to make lasting improvements to your clinic’s efficiency and revenue cycle, Elizabeth Cifers offers decades of retina-specific consulting experience to guide the way. Book a free consultation and start transforming your practice today.
.png)
