Applies to:  All Employees

Florida Eye Consultants is judged on how we present our ourselves.  Therefore it is imperative that all employees maintain a neat and professional appearance.
 
5.17.  Employee Dress and Personal Appearance
 
You are expected to report to work well groomed, clean, and dressed according to the requirements of your position.  Staff are required to wear the proper attire as required as follows:

• Clinical Staff (technicians and assistants only) will be provided two new sets of scrubs upon hire. Tennis shoes must be worn and shirts under scrubs must be white or blue matching the royal blue scrub.

 

• Office staff - employees must always present themselves in a fashion which brings credit to themselves and the practice. No extreme fashions will be allowed. T-shirts or tank tops are not permitted at any time. Jeans or denim, of any color or style, is not permitted for either sex at any time while on duty (exceptions may be made for employees who are moving or installing equipment or on specific days approved by the practice).
  • Female employees may wear pants that are traditional in style and do not detract from the professional atmosphere of the practice. Skorts or shorts are not permitted. Skirts must be of modest length and not be more than 2" above the knee while in a standing position. Blouses, shirts or dresses cannot show cleavage.
    
  • Male employees are required to wear appropriate business attire. Professional dress slacks and business shirts are appropriate.
    
  • Appropriate footwear must be worn at all times. No tennis shoes may be worn or sandals with a slit between the toe.

Dress Down Fridays

• Clinic Staff – May wear ANY color of scrubs on Fridays.  They MUST be the same color, (top and bottom solid color, no prints please).  You may wear colored tennis shoes as long as they are work appropriate.  All other dress code rules apply.
  

• Office Staff –   You may wear work appropriate casual business attire however, Collared polo shirts are acceptable, however, NO jeans, yoga pants, t-shirts, tank tops, shorts, short skirts or sandals with slits between the toes. 

All employees are required to present themselves in a high degree of personal cleanliness for the benefit of patients and fellow employees. Hair must be kept clean. Hair should be worn in a style that does not hinder patient care. No extreme styles are allowed. The health and safety of the employee and the patient is of the utmost importance.

Grooming
All employees are required to practice good hygiene (including bathing, oral hygiene, and use of deodorant or anti-perspirant) and present themselves in a high degree of personal cleanliness for the benefit of the patients and fellow employees.
 
Hair
Hair must be kept clean, and neatly trimmed or arranged.  Hair should be worn in a style that does not hinder patient care or present an unprofessional appearance.  No extreme styles or hair colors are allowed.  For men, the hair should not extend beyond or cover the shirt collar.  Sideburns, mustaches and beards should be neatly trimmed.  The health and safety of the employee and the patient is of the utmost importance.
 
Nails
Hands and nails should be clean and conservatively manicured.  Clinical staff must keep nails trimmed and without sharp edges for the safety of the patients.
 
Makeup 
Employees may wear light make-up.  Makeup must be kept professional and conservative.
 
Jewelry, body piercings and tattoos
Employees may wear conservative jewelry (ex. Conservative earrings, necklaces, and bracelets that do not dangle and are not a deterrent to patient care or the workplace).  Visible body piercings other than small ears or nose piercings are not allowed.  Tattoos must be covered up entirely.
 
If you report to work dressed or groomed inappropriately, you may be prevented from working until you return to work well-groomed and wear the proper attire.

Objective
The Eye Institute for Medicine & Surgery is a service company; it provides important and valuable medical services to people. To accomplish this mission, it is imperative that every employee be present when scheduled to fulfill customer expectations.
The Eye Institute for Medicine & Surgery awards its employees with sufficient PTO (paid time off) and holiday days throughout the year. PTO must be scheduled and approved with one’s supervisor in advance (at least 24 hours for one or two days; two weeks’ notice for three or more consecutive days).
This policy details how absences and tardiness are counted for the purposes of maintaining excellent customer service throughout the business day.
Family and Medical Leave Act
Absences due to illnesses or injuries that qualify under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) will not be counted against an employee’s attendance record. Medical documentation within the guidelines of the FMLA may be required in these instances.
Absences and Tardiness
Prescheduled times away from work using accrued PTO days are not considered occurrences for the purpose of this policy.
An absence occurs when an employee misses more than three hours of work within a normal workday. An absence of multiple days due to the same illness, injury or other incident will be counted as one occurrence for the purpose of this policy.
A tardy arrival, early departure or other shift interruption is considered an occurrence.
Arrival and departure times will be determined by the time recording system through the ADP system.  An employee is considered late if he or she reports to work more than ten minutes after the scheduled starting time; an early departure is one in which the employee leaves before the scheduled end of his or her shift or without first notifying his or her supervisor.  If you are not going to be at work at your scheduled time, you must notify your supervisor two hours before your scheduled shift.
If an employee is scheduled to work overtime and either fails to report or reports after the scheduled start time, an occurrence will be charged as noted above.
 
Step Discipline
Absences and tardiness or early departure will be counted together.  Occurrences are counted in a rolling six-month period. Occurrences expire six months from the date of the incident.
Step one
Five occurrences (absences and tardiness combined) in any six-month period will be the basis for a verbal warning between the employee and direct supervisor. The purpose of the verbal warning is to make the employee aware that he or she has been absent or tardy frequently enough to draw attention and to be certain that the employee understands this policy and the consequences of violation. The verbal warning will be documented in the employee’s personnel file.
Step two
Any additional unscheduled absence or tardiness in the same six-month period is cause for a written warning with documentation in the employee’s file. The written warning, delivered by the employee’s direct supervisor, serves to notify the employee that he or she is in violation of this company policy and that additional occurrences will result in further disciplinary action.
Step three
The next unscheduled absence or tardiness to the above in the same six-month period will trigger a final written warning putting the employee on formal notice of violation as mentioned above.  An additional unscheduled absence or tardiness in the same six-month period is cause a one-day suspension (without pay). This is considered the final step in the disciplinary process regarding attendance and punctuality.
Step four (final)
An additional unscheduled absence or tardy to the above steps in the same six-month period is cause for termination of employment.
No-Call/No-Show
Not reporting to work and not calling to report the absence is a no-call/no-show and is a serious matter, creating increased administrative burdens and emotional upset. The first offense may result in termination of employment with no additional disciplinary steps. Any no-call/no-show is considered job abandonment and will result in immediate termination of employment.
If the employee has already begun the step discipline process for attendance/punctuality when a no-call/no-show occurs, the disciplinary process may be accelerated to the final step.
Management may consider extenuating circumstances when determining discipline for a no-call/no-show (for instance, if the employee is in a serious accident and is hospitalized) and has the right to exercise discretion in such cases.
Procedures
No disciplinary actions will be taken without the direct involvement of the human resource (HR) department as counsel to management. All warnings will be delivered by the direct supervisor, manager, or HR as circumstances require.
Management reserves the right to use its discretion in applying this policy under special or unique circumstances.
Although occurrences will roll off an employee’s record after six months, habitual offenders (those who have established a pattern of absences, such as consistently having six or more occurrences in any given six-month period or routinely calling off on Mondays or Fridays) may trigger step discipline even though six-month old infractions have fallen off, if he or she continues to incur occurrences.
Management reserves the right to amend or discontinue this policy at any time without notice.
Step Discipline—Unscheduled Absences or Tardiness in a Rolling Six-Month Period
 
5th occurrence total
Verbal sessions documented in file

6th absence or tardiness
Written warning documented in file

7th absence or tardiness
Final warning in file

8th+ absence or tardiness
Termination of employment

Applies to: Dr. Darlington and McManus Techs, Assistants, Clinic Supervisors, Front Office Receptionists, Surgical Counselors, Front Office Leads
 
With the intention of ensuring that our post-operative cataract surgery patients enjoy the best possible comfort with the least possibility of post-operative inflammation, a change has been made to the post-operative steroid regimen.  Going forward, and beginning this week, the new steroid eye drop regimen will be as follows:
 
If Durezol: 1 drop 3 times for 21 days and then 1 drop once per day for 7 days, then D/C
If Pred Forte: 1 drop 3 times a day for 21 days, then 1 drop once per day for 7 days, then  D/C
 
Note:  IT will be updating the PO Patient instruction sheets to reflect this change.  The previous steroid regimen was:
 
If Durezol: 1 drop 3 times for 7 days and then I drop 2 times a day for 14 days, then D/C
If Pred Forte: 1 drop 3 times a day for 21 days, then D/C
 
There are no changes in terms of the antibiotic eye drops or the NSAID eye drops.

Applies to:  All hourly employees
 
Hourly employees are required to record their work time each day of work.  You need to clock in every day in the ADP system upon starting your work time (not necessarily when you arrive but at the beginning of your shift), in and out for lunch and at the end of day.  Clocking in before 10 minutes prior to your shift starting is not allowed.  All employees should take a minimum of a 30 minute break for lunch unless otherwise directed by your supervisor. 
 
If you miss a punch, please contact your immediate supervisor or the Human Resources Manager to correct your timesheet. 
 
You should check on a daily basis the ADP timekeeping system to ensure that you have clocked in and out as appropriate for the day. At the end of the pay period, please review your time to make sure it is accurate and punches have been missed.
 
If the system goes down, please keep track of your time by paper and notify Human Resources so that your times may be entered when the system is once again available.

Applies to:  All Employees
 
It is essential that each computer device is used, maintained and stored in a manner that will ensure the Practice obtains the maximum life from it.
 
All staff members are responsible for knowing and following the rules set forth in this policy.  They are:
 
Effective immediately, no drinks or food are to be brought into the examination rooms or other areas where there are computers.  This is to help ensure that no damage is caused by spillage of any sort.  Alternatively, you may keep drinks or drink cups in the technician areas (on the same counter as the sink).
 
Computers are to be used as per the guidelines established during your training.  There is to be no use of computers for activities unrelated to work.  You may not introduce software of any type or download materials or programs from the internet.
 
Should your computer not be working properly for any reason, DO NOT MOVE or TRADE your monitor or keyboard from another room.  You are to immediately contact IT and explain the difficulty you are having.  

Applies to: Clinical, Clinic Leads, Front Office Leads, CEO, HR

Prior to leaving any office both technicians and assistants should be cleaning up their own rooms and their work areas.  Make sure that all machines are off, lights off, any papers cleaned up especially patient papers, etc.  We need to be considerate of the next team coming in the next day.  This is not the sole responsibility of the late tech. 

Applies to: Surgical Counselors, Front Office Leads, Clinic Leads, Jason K. Darlington, M.D.; Eric Straut, O.D.

There are a significant number of one week PO cataract surgery exams on his schedule that should be scheduled with Dr. Straut. 
 
Dr. Straut can see all patients for their one week PO cataract surgery appointment, except: 

• Those patients that Dr. Darlington specifically requests to examine personally;
• Patients referred by outside Optometrists;
• Patients referred by Dr. Michael Mandese – they should see Dr. Mandese for their one week PO visit, unless he is out of the office for the week;
• Patients who have had a multifocal or accommodate lens implant (ReStor, Tecnis Multifocal, Crystalens, or Trulign).

 
Patients who have had toric IOLs can be placed on Dr. Straut’s schedule, unless they were Optometric referrals.
 
(One week exams on patients referred by outside Doctors’ of Optometry typically see that doctor, but this refers to cases in which Dr. Darlington wants the patient seen here one additional time prior to the return to their family eye doctor).
 
If a patient refuses to see Dr. Straut for their one week PO appointment for any reason, email the particulars to the CEO, cc’ing Dr. Darlington, Scheduling Supervisor, Clinic Leads.
 
For clarification:
Cat, Cat/istent, YLC can be seen postop by our OD or referring OD.
Glaucoma, Cornea, Lid will need to see Dr. Darlington postop.

Applies to: Surgical Counselors, Front Office Lead, Clinic Leads, Billing Lead
 
On all elective cases, we need to get payment up front.  There are simply too many scenarios in which, when this does not happen, one of two things result:
 

1. We spend an inordinate amount of time pursuing the payment;
2. We do not get paid.

 
Therefore  do not make payment plans on the day of surgery because monies may not collected. It is a key responsibility of the each of the Counselors to explain that their (estimated) copayments, co-insurance, deductibles, and other amounts due for surgery (FEC and ASC) must be paid in advance of surgery.  The Counselors also need to explain that if the payments due in advance of surgery are not made, unfortunately, their procedure will be cancelled. This is especially important with regard to patients having DSEK and Transplants (PKs).
 
We should not be ordering corneal tissue – which costs ~ $4600 – until the Counselor confirms that any copayments, co-insurance, deductibles, and other amounts due for surgery (FEC and ASC) have been paid in advance of surgery.
 
All such scenarios – concerns/issues related to payment must be brought to the attention of the CEO, Billing Supervisor, ASC DON and Scheduling Supervisor.
 
Patients are not to pay for premium IOLs, LRIs, copayments, deductible, co-insurance and other patient financial responsibilities on the day of surgery,  these monies are to be collected in advance of the day of surgery.  Some people may not be prepared to make payment at the time of pretesting/Counseling, but they could do so at any time in advance of surgery.
 
Some patients who may not feel comfortable providing you with credit card information over the phone.  They can drop a check off in advance of surgery or pay by credit or debit card in person if this makes them more comfortable.  They can also pay via our patient portal.  (If you have questions regarding this, ask the Billing Supervisor).
 
This should be explained to patients at the time of pretesting to ensure that the payments we need to receive are, in fact received prior to surgery.

From: Louise Anastasio
Sent: Thursday, August 06, 2015 12:14 PM
To: FrontDesk&ClericalUsers

Scheduling in time order is the protocol to be followed for ALL of our physicians.  Not following this protocol creates a need to have to move the patient to another time. 

Applies to: Clinic Leads, Front Office Leads, Anterior Segment Assistants
 
Paracentesis is occasionally performed in the clinic.  It is not ever performed for diagnostic purposes but rather only for therapeutic purposes, to the best of the CEO’s knowledge.