Efficiency in your eye care practice is more important than ever. Cost to maintain a practice continues to rise, while shrinking reimbursements require you to deliver quality care to more patients just to keep the lights on; you need to retain existing patients while recruiting new ones. Here’s how you can optimize your practice. The last thing you want to do is double your work. By having multiple platforms—still common among eye care practices—you’re forced to enter information at least twice. Choose a health IT partner with a platform that incorporates all the needs of your practice—both clinical and operational. Think of an enterprise-level platform as a means to connect ophthalmology, optometry, ambulatory surgery center (ASCs), and the optical shop—according to the demands of your business model. Whether you’re in private practice or part of a larger organization, a health IT solution that includes the ability to integrate your clinic with your ASC is essential. For example, with an enterprise platform, you can enter surgical orders and details in the patient’s clinical chart knowing this information will seamlessly travel into the patient’s ASC chart—eliminating the need for staff to move this information manually. Such capabilities free valuable time for you and your staff, so you can focus on patients instead of on paperwork. An enterprise platform allows you to keep charts separate between clinic and ASC, as well as operational data such as tax IDs, but with information rolling up for purposes of operational and financial reporting and analysis. Your administrative staff doesn’t need to merge reports that come from multiple departments within your practice or multiple practices within your organization—this saves time and improves access to business information.