Practice Perspectives: Creating a Personalized Patient Experience with Dr. Michelle Cooper  

For independent practices like Dr. Michelle Cooper’s, personal connection is a critical part of not only the everyday operations, but practice philosophy. Though face-to-face interaction has always been important to her, switching to Eyefinity Practice Management and Eyefinity EHR allowed her to unlock a whole new level of warm, friendly patient experiences.  

Dr. Cooper’s own migration to Eyefinity’s cloud-based solutions was steeped in personal interaction. Since the '90s, Dr. Cooper has treated patients at her self-titled practice in Greenville, South Carolina. After using OfficeMate and ExamWRITER for years, she began to tire of redundant workflows and an outdated user interface in her optometry software. She decided to conduct independent research on several different platforms, and eventually landed on Eyefinity’s cloud-based software after a demo at a tradeshow sealed the deal. Once she got an in-person walkthrough of the intuitive setup, end-to-end integration, and native iPad EHR app, she knew she had to switch.  

Details Make the Difference 

Since migrating to Eyefinity’s cloud products nearly a decade ago, Dr. Cooper and her staff have witnessed the difference that automated, integrated optometry software makes not only for the practice, but also for their patients. 

Dr. Cooper specifically appreciates Eyefinity’s integration with ECR Vault, which allows staff to digitize paper records. Once forms are scanned into the system, staff can easily access patient information and prepare reports each morning. Then, when the patient arrives, all that’s needed are quick updates, leaving room for friendly conversation that might not happen if staff had to track down details manually for each visit. Even if a new staff member has never met a patient before, the Eyefinity optometry software makes it easy to learn about patients and personalize their experience.  

From the clinical to the conversational, from small updates to big life changes, Dr. Cooper and her staff can capture it all in their practice software. One great place for this is Eyefinity EHR's sticky notes, an internal tool that allows providers to capture slice-of-life details about each individual patient.   

"One patient recently lost her spouse, and there was a note in her file," Dr. Cooper said, "I was able to know that ahead of time and be empathetic. That's a nice thing to know about someone without it actually showing up in the patient record." 

Creating Connections with Automation 

In the exam room, Dr. Cooper loves that Eyefinity EHR learns her workflows. The software even enables her to create a library of her most frequently utilized exam types ahead of time and save them as templates. Now, rather than worrying about whether she’s captured everything, her standard exam procedures populate all the fields she needs, allowing her to shift focus to the patient, not the protocol.   

"Everything's so automated," she said. "It's just right there at my fingertips."  

Since the iPad provides an engaging, conversational environment during her exams, Dr. Cooper finds she can provide patient education during visits, investing patients more deeply in their own health, rather than just gathering data from them. The iPad makes it easier to explain exactly what she's seeing and show patients exactly what she’s doing, such as prescribing medications.  

"That gives them another level of comfort," she said. "They see these things being done right in front of them, so they know what actions are being taken toward their care." 

Reliability When it Matters Most 

While Dr. Cooper’s optometry software allows her to give patients an enhanced experience, she’s also been on the receiving end of personable support from Eyefinity.  

Every so often, mistakes happen and things don’t function as expected, as with any technology we use. Whenever Dr. Cooper has a question or concern about her cloud software, she knows she can count on responsive and knowledgeable support. Calls to Eyefinity Customer Care have provided not only a warm, professional response, but a swift resolution.  

"When we call in, I find either they're already working on it and it's fixed quickly,” Dr. Cooper said. “Or if we're the first ones telling them about it, they do their best to fix the problem right then and there. If they can't, they'll kick it up to the next level very quickly." 

Building Lasting Relationships 

For a small practice like Dr. Cooper's, efficiency and personal connection are equally important, but she never has to choose one over the other. Even though she sees an average of 20 patients per day, she makes each visit friendly and warm by being able to recall individual details that personalize a patient’s experience. 

Going the extra mile creates a bond between Dr. Cooper and her patients (and sometimes gets a laugh). One of her favorite things to do with patients she's seen since childhood is to show them old photos from their Eyefinity EHR profiles.  

"You know, I've got their old picture and now it's years later," she said. "I do not recall one patient that doesn’t laugh and smile when I do that.”  

Dr. Cooper believes that as an independent practice that's been part of the community for decades, a unique, person-to-person approach to treating patients is something that sets her apart. With efficient integrations, intuitive interfaces, and a personalized patient experience from start to finish, Eyefinity is proud to help providers like Dr. Cooper give excellent, empathetic care for years to come.