Optometrist - Profile

**EyeCon** · 10-17-2001, 12:31 PM

I am in the process of bringing on an Optometrist and I'm looking to have one in place by the end of November ( when my volunteer duty is up )...I have had at least 2 discussions with regard to the opportunity I am offering...I feel my 2 conversations went as expected...One OD told me he'd be glad to come in to my location and he would do contact lens fittings 3 days a week!...the other discussion evolved around at least 15 appointments a day!...THIS OD claims she can do an eye exam every 15 minutes!!! I, frankly couldn't give her a well defined response....no matter!!! I didn't wanna make either of them an offer I could live with.
Can anyone give me sort of a profile as to personality traits, characterization etc, of what makes a good Optometrist? Not just in terms of skill or academic background but a more human profile....I'm sure if I were to ask the generation behind me this one question....Who are you?...most people, including my parents would probably respond by telling me what they did for a living i.e., I'm a Chef, or CPA or Engineer ( dreadful profession )... I'm looking for the kind of person who would respond with, " Well, I'm a wife/husband and mother/father, brother/sister or uncle,
and I just happen to be making a buck as an Optometrist!

**harry888** · 10-17-2001, 09:22 PM

Eyecon,

Much of this depends on your state laws. Is the optometrist independant or employed by you?

Interviewing the for the position, I'd be mostly concerned with where the optometrist thinks he'll be in the next few years.

There are multiple cases of leasing ODs who build a practice in an optical shop, then take the records and open up not too far away.

So, you want someone good with people but not too aggressive or interested in the business or optical end.

Myself, I am an OD in private practice who opened cold a few years back and needed extra income. So I've also been the leasing OD at an optical shop a few afternoons a week. The private practice now can't spare the time, so I'll be leaving the otpical shop and leaving the records behind.

My friends think I'm crazy to leave the records behind, they feel I've built a practice that should be sold. But leaving the records was part of the agreement when I started.

Harry

**chip anderson** · 10-21-2001, 06:57 PM

I think I know the answer to this before asking and if I am correct cudo's to Harry 888. Will you still see patient for the optical shop at your private location and allow the patient's to take Rx to them?

Chip

**harry888** · 10-21-2001, 09:23 PM

I'm a little unsure what the question was, but will answer it as I seem to understand.

Optical shop is owned by an optician friend (actually became a friend after I'd been working there) and is a half hour drive from my private optometrists office. Rarely has there been crossover of patients, but when there is crossover to my own dispensing office, I send the patient back to the optician for specs.

Last month we had the reverse. Patient had to get seen today and called my optometrists office, I was at optical shop and patient was told I was at that location. So patient went to optical shop and bought the glasses there.

My Optometrists office has no plano sun specs, so our phone calls always get referred to optician for the Oakleys etc.

Harry

**Johns** · 10-24-2001, 09:19 PM

Eyecon:

Harry hit the target when he said, "...became friends after I'd been working there..." It is all about relationships. Of course his peers think he's nuts for not taking the records, but he's not going to screw his friend.

Don't enter into any agreement unless it is someone with whom you can envision a good working relationship with. These are some of the rule of thumb I've used:

1. We won't waste their time. We'll keep them booked as solid as possible. We won't make them wait around for walk-ins.
2. We don't want 15 minute exams. Most pts. get dialated. Most exams take 30-45min. We're profesionals, we want professional ODs as well.
3. They might be the doctor, but you're the owner. Don't lose control of your office to anyone.
4. Although al the opticians in the office are licensed contact lens fitters, I allow the ODs to fit as a way for them to make more $$.
5. The name of the game is to create an environment where the OD will want to be at your office before any other (even their
own) the way to do this is to make sure they are making $$. When they make $$, you make more.

**chip anderson** · 10-24-2001, 10:07 PM

Never forget the first rule of the optical business: "Never trust anyone!.

**Johns** · 10-25-2001, 02:26 PM

Chip,

While I'm assuming (second rule is problably don't ever assume) that your first rule is tongue in cheek, all business is based on trust. For instance: When was the last time you asked for a photo ID from a customer when they presented an Rx to you ? How often do your customers request to see the packaging that the uncut blanks arived in ? You trust that the say they are who the claim to be, and they trust that you will give them the products they paid for. I have never called an optometry college to verify that an OD's diploma was not fraudulenty manufactured at the local Kinko's. I trust most people, and in more than a few decades in the field, have not been badly burned because of it. But then there's always tommorrow...I trust.