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ZEISS VERACITY Surgery Planner and The Curious Case of Declining Revenue

1 February 2025
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About the expert Jonathan Solomon, MD Dr. Solomon practices at Solomon Eye Physicians and Surgeons in Bowie, Maryland.

Cataract and refractive surgery training focuses on the elegance of surgery and the engineering of IOLs, but it hardly asks future surgeons to consider the business fundamentals central to the financial viability of a practice. When we sense that our surgical centers are not living up to their potential, it can be difficult to identify underperforming elements or diagnose the underlying issue. That’s where ZEISS VERACITY Surgery Planner steps in.

Seeking deeper insights into a clinic’s underperforming revenue streams requires physician-businesspeople to become physician-detectives. I agree with Sherlock Holmes when he said, “It’s a capital mistake to theorize before one has data.” As you don your deerstalker cap, turn to ZEISS VERACITY Surgery Planner for those data, which will serve as clues about the source of lost revenue.

The game’s afoot! Join me on The Curious Case of Declining Revenue to see how ZEISS VERACITY Surgery Planner can be the sidekick you need to unlock the case.

The Facts of the Case: A Mysterious Drop in Revenue

Consider this scenario: you’re a refractive cataract surgeon whose practice relies on a fee-for-service business model driven by premium IOL conversion and premium service election. Of course, you still perform insurance-limited surgery for patients who don’t want the latest technology—after all, you’re a surgeon driven by a passion for helping your patients. Still, your practice’s model relies on meeting forecasted revenue, and that revenue is realized when a specific percentage of patients opt for premium services.

As a physician-businessowner, you’ve been tasked with keeping an eye on clinical revenue, which is typically fine. But suddenly, a ping comes across your radar: overall revenue is down this quarter.

ZEISS VERACITY Surgery Planner Reveals Clues

Surgeons have written elsewhere in this series about the benefits of tracking surgical vision outcomes with ZEISS VERACITY Surgery Planner. This collated data may be used to track real-time surgical trends within the clinic itself, too.

In this instance, the physician-detective turns to ZEISS VERACITY’s outcomes data matrix to track surgical volume and trends. Because data are updated instantaneously in ZEISS VERACITY, the surgeon doesn’t need to worry about lag between the present moment and the scope of the investigation.

The order of your inquiry proceeds thus:

  • Surgical volume. One possible source of declining revenues could simply be declining surgical volume. But a quick review of month-by-month trends shows that the number of surgical cases has not dropped significantly and has met or exceeded forecasts.
  • Fewer premium IOLs. Could a drop in the percentage of premium IOL cases be the source of declining revenue? Toggling options in ZEISS VERACITY Surgery Planner shows that, no, the monthly rate of premium IOL selection has remained within the forecasted range, eliminating this possibility that fewer premium IOLs are responsible for a drop in revenue against a landscape of expected surgical volume.
  • Reduced volume of laser arcuate incisions. If the number of cases remains as expected and the rate of premium IOL selection remains constant, perhaps premium procedures within the actual surgical cases are down. Sure enough, ZEISS VERACITY Surgery Planner shows that the number of laser arcuate incisions held steady at your practice until 3 months ago, when a sharp decline occurred. That decline has remained steady, resulting in a 25% drop in the number of laser arcuate incisions, a percentage commensurate with the revenue drop you’re investigating.

ZEISS VERACITY Gave You the Data—Now Apply Your Expertise

Congratulations, detective: you’re on the way to cracking the case. But now the second phase of the investigation begins: Why has there been a decline in laser arcuate incision volume? The answer quickly becomes clear.

The clinic’s patient education program relies on surgical consultants who help patients decide which surgical options fit their needs. One of your top surgical consultants recently left the practice. The smaller staff, still tasked with seeing the same patient volume, has clearly been effective at explaining the benefits of premium IOLs, as evidenced by the consistent rate of premium IOL placement. A quick interview with the remaining staff reveals that, indeed, they simply don’t have the time to thoroughly review the advantages to laser arcuate incisions, which has led to a reduction in adoption rate.

Eureka! Case closed. The solution: tweak staffing and get back to realizing revenue and helping your patients experience world-class technology. Now, thanks to ZEISS VERACITY Surgery Planner, the physician-detective swaps their magnifying glass for scrubs and resumes their role as physician-businessowner.

Close the Case and Use ZEISS VERACITY to Shore Up Your Business

We surgeons employ staff who rely on us for economic certainty, and we owe it to those who depend on us to analyze the underperforming aspects of our clinics. If you find yourself faced with a confounding economic underperformance, it’s time to play detective.

Where to start? Why, elementary, my dear physician-detective: You start with ZEISS VERACITY Surgery Planner.

The statements of the author reflect only his personal opinions and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of any institution with whom he is affiliated.
The author has a contractual or other financial relationship with Carl Zeiss Meditec, Inc. and has received financial support.


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