Not everyone has transportation or access to reach an optometrist for an annual in-person evaluation and treatment. It’s also advantages for businesses and schools to bring these services on-site to reduce the amount cut back on the amount of time employees need to go off-site. As a result, investing in a mobile optometry unit can become a competitive advantage for a vision clinic. Remote mobile optometry clinics address these concerns by bringing optometrists directly to you.

Optometrists could broaden their presence towards where their patients work or live with a custom-built mobile optometry clinic. Optometrists can also extend their patient base by serving underserved groups. Mobile optometry clinics can be customized to meet the demands of optometrists and their patients’ treatment plans.

If you’re considering adding a mobile optometry trailer for your clinic, give us a call at 904-397-0246 or contact us by email here. We provide free blue-prints and consultations and can install any vision equipment you need.

What Can You Do With A Mobile Optometry Trailer?

Exam unit built by M&R Specialty Trailers and Trucks.

In many places, mobile optometry clinics could accommodate all members of a certain group like the elderly.
You may receive the same level of eye treatment from mobile optometry clinics as you would from a traditional optometry office. Most eye problems, particularly glaucoma, are diagnosed, treated, and managed at these clinics using cutting-edge technology. Doctors can also offer a selection of eyeglasses and lenses to you so that you may pick the ideal pair of glasses straight away.

The following are some of the services typically offered in mobile optometry clinics.

  • Comprehensive Eye Exams – Complete eye exams are an important part of maintaining your optical health and reducing the risk of vision loss. Routine eye exams are necessary even if you have great eyesight. Even though many vision-threatening eye disorders have no early signs, they can be spotted and detected during such routine eye checkups.

Optometrists use the ophthalmoscope to diagnose disorders of the eyes, including glaucoma and macular degeneration, as well as diseases that affect ocular functioning, like those of hypertension and diabetes. Whereas if anomalies in the detection remain, the patient will be exposed to additional testing. For instance, in glaucoma patients, the determination of pressure in the eye.

  • Screening for Low Vision – Low vision is a loss of eyesight that cannot be restored with glasses or surgery. People with limited vision may find it difficult to recognize faces, drive a car, write, read, or watch television. Low vision can be caused by a variety of factors, including accidents or diseases such as diabetes, congenital disability, eye diseases such as macular degeneration and glaucoma, and just getting older. The core cause of such visual loss is used to diagnose low vision. Only during comprehensive eye exams can this be done. Low vision instruments, such as magnifiers, are used to diagnose such tests. Other gadgets could be used to conduct the test and determine which ones are most effective for the patient.
  • Vision Therapy – Vision therapy is a totally individualized and personalized treatment program that aims to develop and help improve visual skills while also retraining the child’s visual system to process visual input more accurately and easily. Vision therapy is far more than just doing eye exercises; it enhances brain-eye coordination and the visual system’s effectiveness. Vision therapy aims to improve visual abilities such as eye-hand coordination, convergence, visual processing speed, focusing, eye tracking, and more. Vision therapy consists of specialized activities which use filters, prisms, lenses, occluders, and other equipment to improve visual abilities and process information through the visual system more effectively.
  • Patient Counseling and Evaluation – Optometrists offer pre-and post-surgical counseling to cataract patients, as well as advice on how to use contact lenses properly. To determine the patient’s eyesight status, previous medical data are evaluated.
  • Contact Lens Specialists – Special contact lenses, including toric and varifocal lenses, are prescribed for patients by optometrists who are experts in treating contact lenses for atypical corneal shapes.
  • Training and Research – Optometrists participate in studies on vision impairments caused by neurological abnormalities. Their goal is to show that their findings on patients with binocular vision, amblyopia, and other vision impairments are accurate. New professionals in the area are taught and trained by experienced optometrists.
  • Collaborate with Other Doctors – The pediatric ophthalmologist can effectively treat amblyopia in children if optometrists conduct a thorough examination of eye functions. Optometrists and ophthalmologists can collaborate in the integrated eye care approach to improve patient care.

How Much Does It Cost To Build A Mobile Optometry Trailer?

Mobile optometry might be a great way to supplement your present business with additional revenue. Having a mobile practice can greatly boost your patient base by partnering with existing institutions to provide treatment to large groups, rather than devoting a lot of time and energy to recruiting patients who are at risk to visit you. This gives you a great deal of power and lowers your acquisition costs.

You choose when and how you work in a mobile operation. The majority of your patients are sedentary. Take into account nursing facility residents and inmates, both of whom are expected to increase in the coming decade. You can come in and provide treatment on your own schedule since these groups are at set locations. You could provide service to big groups while saving time and money by having these patients in certain locations.

Putting up your very own mobile optometry clinic can be as costly as your brick-and-mortar office. The equipment you will put into your mobile optometry office would probably be the same as a stand-alone optometry clinic plus the cost of the trailer and the truck itself that would move you around unserved communities. Prices may vary depending on the manufacturer and equipment inside the trailer, and these are some of the figures we’ve come up with across the internet.

When it comes to the mobile optometry trailer and equipment alone, expect to pay at least $250,000 to outfit and customize the truck with the latest autorefractor, fundus camera, digital phoropters, and non-contact tonometer, and other equipment. This does not cover employee salaries or utility costs.

A breakdown of certain costs associated with build-out could be as follows:

$100,000 – Build-out (Which includes walls, carpet, stations, paint, sinks, etc.)
$5,000 – Insurance and licenses
$40,000 – Supplies and inventory
$25,000 – Furniture
$5,000 – Telecommunications equipment

What Equipment Can You Install On A Mobile Optometry Trailer?

A modern optometry office is one that uses the most up-to-date technology, provides the highest quality service, and gives much more comfortable customer service at a reasonable cost. All this comes down to the doctor and the tools the doctor uses, regardless of how many slots you have in your clinic. It is difficult to change a doctor, and if you are not a customer-centric physician, you should reconsider your strategy. The equipment, on the other hand, will enable the greatest doctors to do even greater work, further distinguishing them from their peers. Here are some of the most important things that your optometry office can employ to increase its chances of success.

Tonometer

A tonometer is a contraption that performs ocular pressure checks, however to the common person, it is the device that knocks the puff of wind into their eyes. Optometrists, on the other hand, understand the importance of this piece of equipment. Tonometers have advanced significantly since the days of the schiotz tonometer. Tonopens, which are the most similar to a schiotz tonometer in terms of appearance, is an economical option if you want to spend less money on equipment. There are also non-contact tonometers, which require the individual to rest their face during the procedure. This is necessary for any optometry business, regardless of what equipment you purchase.

Autorefractors

The best tool for determining the refractive index of the eye is an autorefractor. An autorefractor will ensure the most efficient customer service while maintaining a superior standard of care, whether you have a full-fledged office with the most cutting-edge ophthalmic tools or a mobile optometry clinic. Buying a handheld autorefractor is the best option. An autorefractor is now the most economical and transportable piece of optometry equipment, and clinical trials have been conducted to evaluate the device’s performance in a variety of age groups and populations. Because of the high throughput it delivers, an autorefractor is the greatest accessory to have in your lane with your phoropter.

Fundus Photography Equipment

To put it another way, fundus photography equipment is utilized to image the inner of your eyes. Such imaging pieces of equipment, also known as fundus cameras, are widespread among most ophthalmic equipment manufacturers, and they typically take up a large footprint in your office due to their desktop style. Although, in recent times, a number of low-cost equipment solutions have been available. With retinal imaging, they can be linked to a high-resolution digital camera or a camera in a smartphone. The effectiveness and accuracy of these less-priced alternatives are currently being contested.

OCT Imaging Equipment

The technology used to take images of the retina is called optical coherence tomography (OCT). One benefit of this technology is that it allows you to delve deep into eye problems and even diagnose the early start of numerous eye diseases and ailments. Should you decide to increase your practice’s medical scope, this would be one piece of equipment you should have on hand.