Patients asking for PD's to order online...what do you do?

[Den]

I told her we charge for that to discourage people from buying online and she had a sudden look of "well I guess now I know why!"

Maybe you(we all) should change the tactic?

"Wan't your PD?! Of course! Here it is! Charge? No, no charge? Why?
90% of those who ordered on-line come then to us and we:
a) take charge for adjusting their new frame fit;
b) make new glasses for them, cause they hardly can see anything in their "cool-prised-on-line-ordered-stylish" glasses."

What do you think?
I wrote it like a joke, but as you now, a joke consist of joke only for 50%...

[Hayde]

I had an interesting one the other day...pt got her glasses online. Rx is about -9.00 sph -2.00 cyl SV. Although the RX was accurate, the pt measured her own pd and used binocular. She ended up scheduling an apt with the OD because she couldn't see with her new glasses. Glasses were made with an OTC reader frame... not adjustable plastic with hinges that had screws that would not be replaced if they should come out. The kind that you would buy in a 3 pack at Costco. The OC was way off and the only way she could see was if she pulled her glasses sideways half off her nose. Even if we had given her Pds, she wouldn't have seen right anyway because of the OC and poor fit of frame. So... I guess I am thinking maybe not such a big deal to hand out Pd (maybe with warning about ordering online). We currently charge in our office. She did ask about her Pd and I told her we charge for that to discourage people from buying online and she had a sudden look of "well I guess now I know why!"

Superlative example of the issue. Don't opticals, especially those tied to doctors' practices, have a responsibility to patients that implies at the very least we won't contribute to their course of harming themselves? I could sell PDs all day and give myself a very nice bump in gross revenue with negligable cost. But patients like this would slip through the cracks. I wouldn't feel very proud of my PD $ policy at that point.

Perhaps there's an argument that my attitude is too paternalistic. But if Hippocrates doesn't echo like he used to, I still agree with drk about the nature of American law. With statistical certainty we can say someone, somewhere, will see this angle someday and milk it for all it's worth, reminding us of Hippocrates for a hefty fee and bad press just like 'Duty to Warn' about shatter-resistant lens materials. The fact I'm willing to lose money for the sake of risk aversion sits better in my gut than buying my raffle ticket for a date with industry legal history.