| Issue 33 | October 3, 2014 |
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Issue 33
The Gazette
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Contact Vision Source® at 888-558-2020 or [email protected]
Top Story
Vision Source® Unveils Updated Plan of Action
Extraordinary response from member satisfaction survey results in focused strategy
The 2014 member satisfaction survey conducted recently has been tremendously useful to the Vision Source® Member Support Center as we work toward strengthening our solutions for Vision Source® member practices going forward. First of all, thank you for the tremendous response; twice as many of you participated this year compared to last year. Your feedback helps us determine how best to focus our efforts and deliver the tools you value.
With each of these surveys, we learn more about our members' needs. In 2013, you told us you wanted more efficient, streamlined communication from the Member Support Center and fewer emails each week from Vision Source®. Therefore, we brought you the Gazette, which is emailed to members every other Friday with news and updates. You wanted upgraded websites; last month, the vast majority of our member practices had made the conversion to the Avelient sites. You wanted movement forward on managed care contracting. This year has seen tremendous progress, which is described in more detail below. You wanted examples and ideas from your colleagues who are having success; we’ve brought you the Trusted Colleague series of stories that shares best practices among members from across the country for you to leverage in your practice. You wanted new vendor programs, new learning modules and a more comprehensive message. Our vendor deals and cost-of-goods savings are industry-leading, and we have provided education through the member intranet, through which doctors and their staff have taken more than 45,000 courses. We appointed seven doctors to the new Administrator Advisory Panel to represent the voice of the Vision Source® membership because your valuable input is so critical for developing our future plans.
The 2014 survey results provide us direction as we develop the 2015 and forward strategy. Some topline results from the survey follow:
Fifty-seven percent of respondents said that the changing health care landscape is having a large impact on the practice. Vision Source® wants to help you weather these changes, and to do so effectively, the network needs to present a strong and unified force. Vision Source® administrators and others who are developing managed care and ACO relationships are representing you well. The number of practices, the accessibility to a network of progressive and talented doctors and the assurance that the payors' patients are going to be treated well are compelling.
We are developing a significant managed care pipeline with 70 active situations of which 20 are multi-state initiatives. About one-third of these situations have already advanced to the point where the medical groups or payors are sending patients to Vision Source® member offices or Vision Source® ODs are formally contracted in narrow networks or in serious discussions to implement such activity. Many have been announced on our website and in trade and regional publications. We will be launching a managed care operating model that can accelerate expansion into new markets.
However, only 18 percent of the respondents are measuring patient satisfaction using the Net Promoter Score (NPS) system. There is a great opportunity here. The NPS is a critically important element in presenting Vision Source® practices to payors who want a reliable indicator of patients' satisfaction over time. Vision Source® offers plenty of resources in developing a NPS-gathering process for your practice, and several vendors offer the service, too.
Fifty-six percent of respondents said they believe that Vision Source® vendor programs are most valuable to them overall. Programs and products offered to Vision Source® practices from vendors such as Essilor, which offers the exclusive TruClear products and recently extended its Viso rebate to Eyemed patients who select a Viso coating on any lens. Or Sauflon/CooperVision with Fresh Day™ lenses, as well as the many Elite vendors, like Alcon, Optos, Marco, Carl Zeiss Meditec and Safilo among others, who step up continually to offer branded or best-in-industry pricing to Vision Source® practices. The more that Vision Source® members can commit to using the products or services of Elite vendors, when clinically equivalent, the more interested these and other vendors are in bringing new, innovative and profitable programs and products to the organization and so that Vision Source® members can keep meaningful differentials versus other alliances.
Eighty-eight percent of respondents said they are seeking help with marketing support and social media expertise. This year we brought together new social media vendors to take your social media outreach to the next level. Integrating the Avelient website with the new MySocialPractice tools will improve SEO results. We will be simplifying the Marketing Toolkit inside the member intranet so that these resources strategic marketing resource are readily available and user-friendly. Fun marketing fact: We know that branded offices get higher search engine results, so continue your Vision Source® branding strategy in your practice. That includes converting to the Avelient website, just as more than 2,200 member practices have already done.
Sixty-nine percent of members requested help with retail optical management, such as sales training for in-office optical employees, merchandising, promotions and shop layout. As you'll see below, that has become one of our initiatives for 2015.
Vision Source® Member Support Center is focused on members' needs in 2015. Among the initiatives we're pursuing:
- Continuing to drive local, regional and national managed care relationships
- Maximizing optical performance for members through new merchandising, training and specialty programs
- Optimizing organic growth within members' practices through custom marketing and needs-based initiatives
- Developing improved resources for administrators to continue to hold world-class local meetings
- And of course, continuing to maintain lowest cost of good and the most progressive vendor programs in the industry versus all other alliances.
All that Vision Source® offers its members is amplified by what members offer each other. We believe that success drives success—and Vision Source® member doctors have always been generous with their time, expertise and ideas. That was, in fact, one of the founding principles behind Vision Source® —a core value that Dr. Glenn Ellisor has nurtured so ably all these years.
Again, I'd like to thank you for taking the time to respond to the survey. Your feedback drives our business decisions.
Be well,
Jim Greenwood
President and CEO
Vision Source®
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