In a time where big business and vertical integration are becoming the rule instead of the exception in our profession and businesses, I’m now more than ever looking for ways to diversify my office. In a video announcement of a merger between a major lens company and a buying group, the CEO of the buying group stated that it was going to be “business as usual”. Whether you believe the motives behind such a large purchase make that statement possible or not, it is a good time to look at how you practice and ask yourself, is it business as usual?
The one thing I know about our field and profession is that it is not business as usual. In the past, we hung a shingle, placed an ad in the paper or yellow pages (for you newer graduates, that was a big yellow book with lots of telephone numbers in it), and waited for the phone to ring. Those days are gone.
We now have online refractions posing as eye exams. We have online sale of glasses and contacts. There are companies wanting to remove our ability to prescribe specific contact lenses for our patients. Legislation is challenged on our prescriptive ability all the time – business as usual?
Our scope has grown. The options for us as doctors to provide better care improve every day. Certain states have legislated to provide laser vision correction by O.D.’s, never mind minor surgeries to remove lumps and bumps. And students are graduating better trained than ever before.
The contacts we prescribed 10 years ago were amazing improvements over their predecessors, and the contacts today make the legacy contacts look like a rotary phone compared to an iPhone. Daily contacts are gaining more and more popularity among providers and patients. In the past, daily contacts were a niche, but never as a full time option. Multifocal contacts are better than we’ve ever had.
Spectacle lenses are pushing the envelope utilizing digital technology. Progressive lenses are better than the lenses even two years ago. Peripheral distortions in progressive lenses are less than their earlier counterparts.
All these changes have happened in just under the last 5 years. Has our optical changed? Have we painted our exam room? Did we incorporate new technology into our clinic? Did we contact our legislator or contribute to AOA-PAC to preserve what we have fought for? Or do we expect to do business as usual?
– Dr. Kent Godfrey
Front Range Family Eyecare
