I released a PD....

[gatorbait]

I feel so dirty. I need to take a shower after that. I released a PD for a patient to buy her backup glasses off the internet. QUICK HOW DO I GET RID OF THIS SMELL!?

[Chris Ryser]

I feel so dirty. I need to take a shower after that. I released a PD for a patient to buy her backup glasses off the internet. QUICK HOW DO I GET RID OF THIS SMELL!?

You will not smell yourself, when you think that you charged her:

$ 25.00 for taking the PD
$ 45.00 for checking the finished glasses and adjusting them after delivery.

$ 70.00 total, purely for professional service and labour (if you did not do that you made the big mistake)

Nothing to smell and having to shower for. On Liners sell glasses by the thousands and they need your services for the measurements and afterservices. Your knowdledge is worth a commercial fee.

So take the money and don't feel bad.

[gatorbait]

Great idea... However, my practice is against charging for it.... I am all for it but I am the little man as an optician.

[Chris Ryser]

Start your own business, doing it. First in your free time and when you make enough to survive do it full time. You can not loose as the onliners are on the increase and their customers do need service.

[Judy Canty]

Start tracking the money the practice could have made by charging for professional services. That will probably change some minds.

[Golfnorth]

Start your own business, doing it. First in your free time and when you make enough to survive do it full time. You can not loose as the onliners are on the increase and their customers do need service.

So you are advocating that Gatorbait start a sideline business that would put him in a conflict of interest position with his current employer? Hmmmm I don't think that that is very good advice.

Regards,
Golfnorth

[Chris Ryser]

So you are advocating that Gatorbait start a sideline business that would put him in a conflict of interest position with his current employer? Hmmmm I don't think that that is very good advice.

I am wondering how this could be a conflict of interest..........if Gaitorbait starts his own optical service side business with consumers that are refused and not helped by his employer.

It looks that most B&M opticals refuse to deal with customers of on line opticals of which there are several thousand new ones of a daily basis.
This could actually become a good business without the need of stock in frames and lenses, all that is needed are some good tools.

[Patrick888]

You will not smell yourself, when you think that you charged her:

$ 25.00 for taking the PD
$ 45.00 for checking the finished glasses and adjusting them after delivery.

$ 70.00 total, purely for professional service and labour (if you did not do that you made the big mistake)

Nothing to smell and having to shower for. On Liners sell glasses by the thousands and they need your services for the measurements and afterservices. Your knowdledge is worth a commercial fee.

So take the money and don't feel bad.

I agree with Chris on this point, but the fees charged maybe should be lower. Couple of months ago, I pointed out that there will be very small BOX offices doing the PD and adjustments only and I predict this will be a NEW niche market for Opticians. The world is changing, and we have to adapt to the changes in the quickest manner. The smartest people are those who are able to do the adaption.

This will happen very soon. A "PD and adjustment office" will appear soon, believe me.

[Oedema]

I agree with Chris on this point, but the fees charged maybe should be lower.

Disagree, charge what the market will bear, I frankly don't see the point in charging/offering Rx verification upfront, but PD.... if you've chosen to do this, get what you can for it, I've charged close to Chris' total on occasion just for measuring the PD... Your time, and especially your expertise... it's worth considerable money, don't give it away.

[Chris Ryser]

Disagree, charge what the market will bear, I frankly don't see the point in charging/offering Rx verification upfront, but PD.... if you've chosen to do this, get what you can for it, I've charged close to Chris' total on occasion just for measuring the PD... Your time, and especially your expertise... it's worth considerable money, don't give it away.

Oedema............you are right. Charge what you can get away with. The "get away with" can change wiith location, from fancy downtown, to poor suburb, plus professional ability.

Patrick was also right.................there will be kiosks soon at street corners doing PDs and adjustments charging for time used or selling packages for their time.

I bet that some opticians will have some sorts of kiosk besides their regular B&M store under different names, to have their operations separated.

[cturtle77]

Our office charges and we have the patient sign a waiver that we are not responsible for the measurements if we do not make the glasses.

[hcjilson]

You ARE however, responsible for accurate measurements regardless of whomever makes the glasses.

[Judy Canty]

The VA state board for Opticians determined that an Optician may be held liable for "errors or ommissions" if we provide measurements for online retailers.

[John@OWDC]

The VA state board for Opticians determined that an Optician may be held liable for "errors or ommissions" if we provide measurements for online retailers.

There was a pretty good webinar back a few months ago where this subject was brought up...
I really liked the idea of providing a patient with a PD if asked, BUT you give them a number written on an otherwise blank piece of paper.
No name, no date, no company name, no indication that it is for a PD.
Just 56, 60 whatever...
It is what I have been doing ever since.

[CCGREEN]

There was a pretty good webinar back a few months ago where this subject was brought up...
I really liked the idea of providing a patient with a PD if asked, BUT you give them a number written on an otherwise blank piece of paper.
No name, no date, no company name, no indication that it is for a PD.
Just 56, 60 whatever...
It is what I have been doing ever since.

The problem there with your advice is here in the great USA....regardless of what you may think....our judicial system is designed so that if you are ever accused of giving a wrong PD it is up to you to PROVE that it is correct. People THINK it is the other way around....but trust me....not so. All you have to do is be accused then you have to PROVE other wise. So blank pieces of paper with only a number on it gives you no documentation or defense of any type.

[hcjilson]

The VA state board for Opticians determined that an Optician may be held liable for "errors or ommissions" if we provide measurements for online retailers.

Fortunately the VA state board can only give an opinion in this matter. The law takes precedence. If your measurement is correct, and the glasses are fabricated elsewhere, using measurements that were NOT yours, there is no way under the sun that you can be liable.

[Barry Santini]

The VA state board for Opticians determined that an Optician may be held liable for "errors or ommissions" if we provide measurements for online retailers.

I gotta say it:

"What a crock...!"

B

[Eyecare Pro]

The VA state board for Opticians determined that an Optician may be held liable for "errors or ommissions" if we provide measurements for online retailers.

I've been searching for information regarding the liability for Licensed Opticians if we provide PD's and came across this post. (What prompted it was a patient / customer asking for PD and SEG height measurements. They had a frame with them and said the frame they wanted would be similar to the one they were carrying) I've searched the Opticianry Board website and cannot locate specific information. Would you be able to provide assistance and direct me to the regulation? Thank You!

[Chris Ryser]

I've searched the Opticianry Board website and cannot locate specific information. Would you be able to provide assistance and direct me to the regulation? Thank You!

Just give it a little more time we are now 7 years later and the situation is still the same.

The big Essilux merger has been approved by all affected countries and will now happen shortly.

That will change the optical retail and manufacturing business
right down into the basics.

They have done their footwork to influence decision makers world wide, over the last 15 years and will get their green light wherever needed.

Essilux will own the largest block of optical one liners, and have some 5,000 LensCrafter store (to start with) to service the work, while conventional optician haggle on who is responsible for having taken a PD, you can even take online these days.

Start facing the facts .....................the avalanche is coming down the mountain.

[Judy Canty]

I've been searching for information regarding the liability for Licensed Opticians if we provide PD's and came across this post. (What prompted it was a patient / customer asking for PD and SEG height measurements. They had a frame with them and said the frame they wanted would be similar to the one they were carrying) I've searched the Opticianry Board website and cannot locate specific information. Would you be able to provide assistance and direct me to the regulation? Thank You!

18 VAC 80-30-170 Accountability of Licensee

[Barry Santini]

You ARE however, responsible for accurate measurements regardless of whomever makes the glasses.

(I know..you baited me with this one)

"Just who determines what is "accurate"?

B

[hcjilson]

(I know..you baited me with this one)

"Just who determines what is "accurate"?

B

Let's face it, the are what they are!

[fjpod]

Why is it that opticians feel prescribers MUST release the spectacle prescription to the patient, but they feel they don't have to release the patient's PD?

[CCGREEN]

Why is it that opticians feel prescribers MUST release the spectacle prescription to the patient, but they feel they don't have to release the patient's PD?

Because big brother has ruled that if the pt has paid their account and there are no medical reasons not to release the Rx then the practitioner must release the Rx.......nothing has ever been ruled on in ref to a PD other then it must me accurate.

[fjpod]

Because big brother has ruled that if the pt has paid their account and there are no medical reasons not to release the Rx then the practitioner must release the Rx.......nothing has ever been ruled on in ref to a PD other then it must me accurate.

Ahh..then we'll have to fix this little loophole that forces ODs to comply with prescription release, but not opticians with the PD. Remember, Eyeglasses 1 was not passed so much by big brother, in a vacuum. It was passed at the behest of a small special interest group ...opticians.