Even well-run optometry practices can lose hours every week to small inefficiencies. A slow charting workflow here, a sticky-note workaround there, or an optical order that needs to be re-entered in another system. One delay or error doesn’t seem like a big deal until it happens multiple times a day.
But how can you know if your technology stack is working for your practice, or against it? This blog breaks down the five biggest hidden costs of friction in optometry workflows and how a fully connected, optometry-specific EHR can eliminate them.
Many optometrists know the feeling: you start the day strong, and everything is running on time, but by midday, you’re suddenly 30 minutes behind schedule with no clear reason. Most of the time, the reason isn’t patients or staff, but inefficient tools and fragmented workflows.
Think about when you see a patient with a complicated history. How many clicks do you have to make on their chart? How long does it take to load previous images? How many windows do you have to jump between for the exam, optical ordering, and patient history?
When charting pulls focus away from patient care, providers feel rushed, and patients feel ignored. It’s also a sign that something is broken in your exam workflows.
Where the friction comes from:
The hidden costs:
What frictionless workflows look like:
In a purpose-built optometry EHR, workflows fit the provider, not the other way around. Templates actually match the flow of a comprehensive exam and minimize clicks. Images are high-resolution and quick to load. Everything you need is on one screen.
When documentation is faster than the exam, you have more breathing room in your day to connect with patients and stay on schedule.
Quick and easy diagnostic imaging is crucial for efficient optometry practices. Providers should be able to view and annotate high-resolution OCT, retinal, and dry eye images directly in the patient chart without delay. But when your imaging workflow is slow or fragmented, those tools create stress.
Imagine your first patient of the day needs to have an OCT scan. Your tech runs the scan, but when you open the chart, the images still aren’t there. The patient is waiting, you’re refreshing your screen, and your next visit is already backed up. This results in your schedule being off track for the rest of the day, all because of an imaging bottleneck during your first visit.
Where the friction comes from:
The hidden cost:
Just a few minutes of delay per imaging can turn into an hour or more of lost time per day that could be spent on patient care and other tasks.
What fast, seamless imaging looks like:
A fully integrated optometry EHR brings images directly and instantly into the patient chart with no manual work or long waits. Providers can scroll, zoom, annotate, and compare without ever leaving the patient’s chart.
Before a patient even reaches the exam room, their experience is shaped by your front desk. Experian’s 2025 State of Patient Access Report revealed the following about what’s important to patients:
And front desk friction can have a massive impact on loyalty. In fact, 65% of patients who have a negative interaction at the front desk are likely to discontinue their relationship with a provider.
Where the friction comes from:
The hidden costs:
What smooth scheduling looks like:
With optometry-specific front desk tools:
The result? A calm front desk, more time back for your staff, and happy patients.
This is one of the most overlooked and expensive sources of friction in optometry EHRs. Many practices lose revenue because their optical workflows are manual, error-prone, and time-consuming.
Imagine a patient who has spent 30 minutes picking out the perfect frames that they’re excited to buy. But as soon as the optician enters the order, the prescription doesn't auto-populate, insurance won’t calculate, and lens measurements aren’t validating. Now the optician is jumping between screens, trying to piece everything together. The patient’s excitement fades, they start second-guessing the frames, and before you know it, they say they’ll “come back another day.” And just like that, your daily sales goal slips a little further out of reach.
Where the friction comes from:
The hidden costs:
Most of this friction comes down to one thing: Your EHR and optical tools aren’t truly connected.
What happens when optical tools are integrated into your EHR:
With fewer errors and a smoother buying experience, optical revenue increases.
To learn more, download our Guide to Choosing the Right Optical Inventory and Sales Technology.
Billing feels like a daily puzzle for many optometry practices. Without unified technology and automation, every task starts to feel like detective work.
Picture this: it's a busy Monday. Your schedule is packed, and everything seems to be going well until one denied claim triggers a chain reaction. Your billing coordinator opens the account, sees the error, and starts digging for the missing information. Then, another claim comes back with missing modifiers. Then another with missing documentation. Suddenly, they’re spending half their morning fixing errors from last week’s patients instead of completing billing tasks for today’s patients.
This is exactly what billing friction can look like—small inefficiencies that quietly hijack an entire day.
Where the friction comes from:
The hidden cost:
What connected billing and payments look like:
When everything works together, cash flow accelerates, patients leave happy, and your staff win back valuable time in their day.
To learn more, download our Guide to Choosing the Right Payment System.
Friction creeps up silently. An extra click here, a slow upload there, a switch between your optometry EHR and outside systems. Over time, these small inefficiencies add up, draining time and energy from your staff, frustrating your patients, and chipping away at revenue your practice should be capturing.
Often, this friction reflects disconnected, generic tools your team is forced to work around. When disconnected systems are replaced with an all-in-one, optometry-specific platform, everything changes. Exams move quickly, scheduling is smooth, optical ordering is error-free, and billing stops feeling like detective work.
That’s exactly what Sightview's Optometry EHR and Practice Management software delivers—connected, intuitive workflows designed for the way your practice works. When clinical, optical, billing, and administrative tools work together, your practice regains time and revenue.
Learn more about how Sightview's purpose-built optometry platform helps practices streamline their day and win back revenue that’s currently lost to friction.