Patricia Galassini is this Issue’s “LES Community Contributor.” Ms. Galassini is a motivated professional with the utmost passion for the eye care industry. She’s “grown up” in this field!
The Local Eye Site Team hopes you enjoy Ms. Glassini’s piece on how she created a “Technician Training Program” for her Denver, CO practice.
By: Patricia Galassini, C.O.T., Coordinator of Patient Support at Vision Care Specialists, Inc.
Last year, after 23 years as a JCAPHO Certified Ophthalmic Technician and 15 years with my current employer, I was given a promotion, to “Coordinator of Patient Support.” This new role and title has been a satisfying culmination of 15 years of expanding and sharing my tech skills and experiences with the other back office assistants in each of our 5 locations in the Denver Metro area. My CEO expressed confidence in my ability to continue growing into areas not previously assigned to anyone within our practice, and because of my long history with Vision Care Specialists (an employee owned practice), this promotion allowed me the time to extend my reach and have a larger circle of influence in our ESOP! I went from being a C.O.T. full time, to retaining two days in patient care, and expanding my tech background into various internal and external marketing projects, transitioning to a new Laser Center and all the marketing material production and training that went with that change, and the “tech certification” project! It was my desire to provide assistance to my fellow technicians, backed by the CEO’s commitment to require the non certified staff to become certified in their area of specialty that drove this project. It has been such a rewarding year, to see 13 unique individuals gain the self confidence, skills and knowledge to serve our patients at a higher level of competency.
For many years, I saw the limited training success our practice historically had with trying to make technicians out of whomever wanted to “try it;” pushing buttons on instruments but not understanding the scope of knowledge and skill it took to “be a tech.” For me, to “be a tech” one needed to be committed to have a complete understanding and ability to explain each of those tests to every patient, presenting electronically all the detailed patient history and information accurately, and to efficiently assist the doctor with all the preliminary testing and information gathering needed in the care of those patients. Since financially it was understandable that a practice might be resistant to hiring certified technicians to begin with, I felt there must be some middle ground. I took it upon myself to create a complete Technician Training Program that could be accessed from our 4 locations at that time via the computer that linked us together. I broke down all I had learned on my own as I navigated the COA/COT levels of JCAPHO certification. I detailed each of the things a beginner eye technician would need to understand: the basic structure of the eye, the “how” and “why” of each test our technicians were required to perform, an explanation of how they interrelate with each other, the complete medical and eye history of a patient, etc.
This Technician Training Program did give each of our assistants a more complete understanding of what it meant to be an effective, skilled assistant in an eye practice. They gained the basic knowledge and skills that took VCS to a new level. Some really took that access to the knowledge and skill sets I created and ran with it. Within this last year, I encouraged our practice to require a basic level of official certification, either through the American Optometric Association, the Joint Commission of Allied Health Professionals, or the National Contact Lens Examiners, knowing these were all excellent sources of education and certification, as well as continuing education opportunities. But most importantly, this has given our technicians the ability to serve both our doctors and our patients with a higher level of competency. I see every day the enthusiasm each of these individuals possess in their newly gained status; a complement to each of their natural people skills.
There is nothing more a practice could ask for- we are so fortunate to have such a motivated group of health care providers at all levels!
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