A Roadblock That Can Slow Down Your Optometry Practice

You’ve finally got a solid team, the schedule’s packed, and it feels like you’re gaining momentum, until things start to slow again. You’re answering more questions, fixing more mistakes, and somehow doing more, not less. It’s frustrating, especially when you’ve made what felt like the right hire. The real problem isn’t your team or your leadership. It’s a time drain most clinics don’t see coming until they’re already in it: onboarding.

In this blog, we’ll break down why it slows you down and how to address it the right way.

Why Onboarding Slows You Down Even With the Right Person

The EHR Familiarity Gap

Electronic Health Records (EHRs) are central to everything from charting to billing, but they’re not always intuitive. New hires can struggle with documentation flow, selecting the right codes, or even navigating your preferred templates. These slowdowns delay patient handoffs and backlog billing, disrupting cash flow. A study from the National Library of Medicine¹ found that EHR onboarding time directly impacts provider efficiency and satisfaction, especially in smaller practices.

Let’s take a common example: a newly hired front-desk coordinator who’s unfamiliar with your EHR tries to check in a patient, document a copay, and set a recall, all within the same visit. Instead of a smooth 2-minute workflow, it becomes a 10-minute process riddled with questions and second-guessing. Multiply that delay across a day’s appointments, and you’ve just added an hour of wasted time.

The Scheduling + Insurance Learning Curve

Vision insurance and scheduling aren’t just complex; they’re inconsistent across clinics. New hires often struggle with:

• Benefit coordination: Misunderstanding primary vs. secondary coverage
• Eligibility checks: Not knowing when or how to verify
• Pre-authorizations: Missing steps that delay or deny claims

Clinic-specific scheduling rules: Like recall prioritization or buffer slot protection

When the Doctor Becomes the Trainer

In most clinics, onboarding falls to the OD or practice owner; someone who already doesn’t have enough time. That means walking through software, double-checking entries, and correcting mistakes on the fly. It takes away from patient care and pulls you out of the leadership seat. The result: your productivity drops just when you were hoping to scale.

The Optical Retail Turnover Trap

Why Optical Roles Are Harder to Replace Than They Look

Optical staff aren’t just salespeople, they’re stylists, educators, and insurance navigators all in one. Patients expect expert guidance when choosing frames or understanding lens options. When optical staff turnover occurs, it’s not just lost labor; it’s also lost sales. And since much of their training is verbal or based on tribal knowledge, it’s difficult to transfer quickly.

To put it into perspective: losing a seasoned optical staffer who sells $600/day in frames and lenses means you’re potentially losing $3,000 a week while their replacement gets up to speed. And that assumes they stay. Each turnover cycle eats into your revenue and damages the customer experience.

To protect this knowledge, start capturing your top-selling optician’s product demos, pricing scripts, and common troubleshooting tips. A simple video library or shared guide can reduce the knowledge gap for new hires.

Your Floor Looks Staffed, But Isn’t Truly Functional

A new hire behind the counter might seem like a win, but if they lack the confidence to recommend lens upgrades or explain pricing clearly, patients can pick up on the hesitation. They’ll often delay purchases or walk away altogether. The result? Poorer patient experience and missed revenue.

What Most Clinic Owners Miss About Hiring

The “Relief” Is Delayed; Not Immediate

Many practice owners believe hiring someone will lighten their load. In truth, the first few weeks usually add to it. You spend more time answering questions, fixing errors, and checking behind your new hire than you would just doing it yourself.

You’re Not Just Hiring a Person; You’re Building a System

If your training depends on you personally, it’s not sustainable. Without SOPs or workflows in place, every new hire starts from scratch, relying on shadowing or verbal explanations. Over time, this inconsistency can compound inefficiencies. According to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)², poor handoffs and informal training increase the risk of operational failure in outpatient settings.

Let’s Compare: Traditional Hiring vs. Plug-and-Play Support

Typical Onboarding Timeline for In-House Staff

• Weeks 1–2: Complete paperwork, gain EHR access, and begin shadowing for front desk or optical workflows.
• Weeks 3–4: Continue shadowing with more hands-on involvement, but still rely heavily on team assistance.
• Weeks 5–6: Start to work independently with fewer corrections, though not fully autonomous.
• Weeks 6–8: Function independently, assuming there’s no turnover or process bottlenecks.

Virtual Assistant Onboarding; Streamlined and Systemized

A trained optometry VA comes in with knowledge of scheduling software, EHRs, insurance workflows, and patient communication. Instead of starting from scratch, they integrate into your systems in a matter of days, freeing you up to lead rather than train.

The ROI of Reducing Onboarding Time

Sometimes what’s slowing your clinic down isn’t what you see on the schedule, but what’s happening behind the scenes. The lost hours. The staff’s frustration. The extra questions at your door when you’re trying to wrap up a chart note or move to your next patient. It doesn’t always show up in your monthly report, but it’s there, stealing momentum quietly, every week.

And often, the root of it is this: onboarding that takes too long, costs too much, and never fully sticks.

Here’s how the numbers play out:

Let’s compare two real-world scenarios.

When It’s Time to Stop Repeating the Cycle

Know the Signs You’re Stuck in the Onboarding Loop

Here’s how to know onboarding is holding your clinic back:

1. You dread hiring more than being understaffed: The training burden feels heavier than the relief.
2. You find yourself repeating the same instructions: New staff keep asking about workflows you assumed were clear.
3. Patient experience suffers: Miscommunications and delays become visible at the front desk or in optical sales.
4. Admin errors spike in the first 30 days: From billing issues to scheduling mix-ups, the learning curve costs you.

No one on your team owns training: There’s no clear person or process to onboard effectively.

Reclaim Your Time Without Sacrificing Quality

The solution isn’t to avoid hiring, it’s to hire smarter. Delegating patient communication, insurance verifications, chart prep, and schedule management to pre-trained professionals gets you real help faster and with less friction. The right support should feel like a lift, not another project.

Final Thoughts: A Better Way to Staff Your Practice

The root problem isn’t bad hires, it’s a broken onboarding process. Optometry clinics need help that fits into their systems quickly, functions independently, and brings relief, not more stress. That’s where Teem comes in.

If you’ve been stuck in a loop of hiring, training, and retraining, it might be time to think differently about how you grow your team. A VA might not replace every role, but they can absorb the admin burden that keeps pulling you away from patients.

Here are three signs you might benefit from a VA before your next hire:

• You’re spending more than 5 hours/week fixing or reviewing admin work
• Your team is constantly behind on recalls, verifications, or billing
• You avoid taking time off because things fall apart when you’re not there

Virtual support doesn’t just fill gaps, it prevents them.

If you’re ready for support that actually saves you time, reach out to Teem HERE.