EYE HOSPITALS
Moving Patients from OPD to Surgery in an Eye Hospital
A family reaches the OPD at eight, sees the optometrist, the doctor, then waits for the counsellor, who is with another family. By noon some have gone home with an advice slip and no appointment. The theatre list for tomorrow has gaps, and the OPD team does not know.
We advise on managing the hospital. That covers how patients move between departments, how counsellors work, how theatres are scheduled, how optical and pharmacy are run and which numbers go to the owner. Clinical care and infection control stay with your doctors and the regulator.
Discuss your priorities ↗COMMON CHALLENGES
The pressures
we often see.
- 01Patients are advised surgery in the OPD but are not handed to a counsellor on the spot, and many leave without a date for the procedure.
- 02Each department keeps its own register, so nobody can see how many OPD patients reached retina, cornea or glaucoma and how many were lost on the way.
- 03Surgeons have different preferences for list order and turnover, and the theatre manager changes the list late, which unsettles the pre-operative checks.
- 04The optical shop and pharmacy inside the hospital buy stock in separate cycles, with different suppliers and margin rules and no combined view.
- 05Counsellors and the front desk are paid fixed salaries even though conversion varies widely, and the hospital does not review who converts well and why.
OUR FOCUS AREAS
Where the work
usually starts.
- 01A referral slip from OPD to each department that records who was sent and what happened
- 02OPD-to-surgery conversion by doctor and by counsellor, tracked on one sheet
- 03Theatre list cut-off time and rules for changes after the cut-off
- 04Turnover time between cases, recorded by the theatre nurse for each theatre
- 05Optical and pharmacy margin by category, reviewed together once a month
- 06Patient wait at each station on the OPD route, sampled on a typical morning
- 07Counsellor roster aligned with the hours when most surgery advice is given
- 08Billing estimate versus final bill for surgery cases, checked before discharge
START THIS WEEK
Things you can do
before you call anyone.
- Follow ten patients from entry to exit on one OPD morning, noting time at each station. Share the map with the department heads and ask each to name the longest wait in their area.
- Hypothetical example: if the OPD advises surgery to 60 patients in a week and 30 get a date, conversion to scheduling is half. Ask where the other 30 went and who spoke to them.
- Ask the theatre manager for the last four weeks' lists as planned and as done. Count late changes and their reasons, then agree a cut-off with the surgeons.
A PRACTICAL ENGAGEMENT
Start with the priorities
that matter most.
We begin by understanding how your business runs today, find the gaps, and agree the scope in writing. Recommendations are shaped around your team, your resources and your goals.
- A patient route map with every waiting point and the handover to a named counsellor
- A conversion tracker by department that the administrator updates weekly
- A theatre list protocol: cut-off, change rules and the pre-operative check each case must clear
- A combined monthly review sheet for optical, pharmacy and OPD
Not the right fit when: An adverse-event inquiry, licensing matter or infection-control investigation needs qualified professionals and the regulator before anything here. A single-doctor clinic is better served by a simpler routine.
Explore a business audit ↗LET’S MOVE YOUR BUSINESS FORWARD
