Planning an exam lane
Planning each instrument separately can create avoidable fit and workflow problems. This guide works through the decisions in the order they affect one another, which is not the order most practices meet them in.
The order the decisions constrain each other in
Six steps. The first two are the ones that are expensive to revisit, which is why they are first rather than because they are the first thing anyone gets excited about.
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The chair and the stand
Everything else in the room is positioned relative to these two, and both are the hardest to change later: the chair sets the patient's height and the stand decides what can be mounted and how far it swings. A lane planned around instruments and fitted with furniture afterwards is the one that ends up with a slit lamp that will not reach.
Exam Lane · 5 products
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The refraction end
Whether refraction stays manual or moves to a digital refractor changes the room more than any other single decision, because it changes what the technician does, where the data goes and how long the subjective takes. It also determines whether the stand needs a refractor arm.
Refraction Systems · 6 products
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What happens before the doctor
Autorefraction, keratometry, lensometry, axial length, acuity. This is the part of the lane most often assembled one instrument at a time over several years, which is why practices end up with four devices that do not talk to each other and one that measures something twice.
Pretest & Autorefraction · 10 products
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Imaging the retina
OCT and retinal photography, which is the largest single line item in most lanes and the one with the widest range. The comparison guides above exist because this decision has five reasonable answers rather than one.
OCT · 5 products
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Pressure and fields
Tonometry is quick to add and easy to change. Perimetry is neither, and it needs floor space and a quiet corner rather than lane space, so it is worth deciding early even when it is bought late.
Tonometry · Visual Fields · 7 products
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The slit lamp, and whether it images
A slit lamp that captures is the difference between describing an anterior segment finding in the record and being able to show the patient and compare it at the next visit. It is also the point where the stand and the chair have to have been chosen correctly.
Slit Lamps · 5 products
What to settle before anyone quotes you
None of these are about the equipment, and all five change what the equipment costs to install.
- The room, measured. Width, depth, ceiling height, door width and where the door swings. Instrument stands and chairs have swing radii, and a lane that works on paper can fail on a door frame.
- Power and network. How many outlets, where, and whether there is a wired network drop in the lane. Several of these instruments export DICOM and want an Ethernet connection rather than Wi-Fi.
- The record system. Which EHR, which imaging viewer, and whether the practice already pays for a DICOM gateway. This decides how much of the integration is included and how much is a separate line.
- Who runs it. A lane designed around a technician doing pretest is a different lane from one where the doctor does everything.
- Whether this is one lane or the first of several. Buying the first of four is a different decision from buying the only one, and it is worth saying out loud before the first quote rather than after the second.
Where a single rep helps, and where it does not
Carrying several lines means the whole room can be specified and supported by one person, which is the part of this that is structural rather than a claim about service. What it does not mean is that every answer is something I sell. If the right instrument for your room is one I do not sell, that is worth hearing from me early rather than discovering after installation.
Let's talk about your lane
I cover North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa. Tell me what you are trying to solve and I will tell you what fits, including when the answer is something I do not sell.