New This Week
Choosing the Right Contractor
Barbara Wright and Patti Lynn Sharp of Barbara Wright Design advise that choosing the right contractor is critical in an office build-out or renovation. Select a commercial contractor with commercial contacts, insist on a detailed bid, and use your designer as your advocate in ensuring that everything is done on time and as contracted.>>READ MORE>>
Staff Management
Increasing Commitment: Four Keys to Retaining Valued Employees
By Melanie J. Denton, OD, FAAO
and Paul Johnson, MBA, PhD
Retaining and developing valued employees is critical to delivering superior care–while losing employees and having to rehire and retrain is costly. Four steps to building the commitment level that ensures employee retention.
Health Care Reform
Implications of Health Care Reform–for Independent ODs
By ROB Editors
Vision Source recently commissioned ROB to create the “Navigation Guide to Health Care Reform for Independent Optometrists.” Included in the report are strategy imperatives and action plans for independent optometrists. The focus of this first of three articles from the report: adopting EHR and Meaningful Use. >>READ MORE>>
Doctor-Patient Relations
Build a Pediatric Practice by Stressing Preventative Care
By Mary E. Boname, OD, MS, FAAO
Providing pediatric care leads to caring for entire families–and friends of families. Emphasizing prevention of eye disease and conditions brings it home to parents.
ROB Fast Fact
Geography Pays Off: Where Do Optometrists Make the Most Money?
ODs in the Northeast have nothing to complain about money-wise, findings from Jobson Optical Research’s 2014 ECP Compensation Study suggest. The average salary for all optometrists who reported receiving a salary was highest in the Northeast region at $118,003 and lowest in the Midwest at $96,380. The South came in at $114,859 and the West at $104,952.
Click HERE to read more from Review of Optometric Business professional editors Carole Burns, OD, FCOVD, and Mark Wright, OD, FCOVD, on how best to research and balance optometric salary with regional cost-of-living.
In Brief
Frames Data and FlexScanMD Announce “Immediate Data Access” Integration
Frames Data announced that FlexScanMD, an inventory software by Kestrel Software, is now compatible with Frames Data IDA (Immediate Data Access). This integration will allow users of FlexScanMD, who also subscribe to the Frames Data service, to access a database of frames over the internet to populate their product inventory.
>>READ MORE>>
CooperVision to Launch E-Commerce Service for Contact Lens Ordering
CooperVision is unveiling an e-commerce service designed to help independent eyecare practitioners build their contact lens business and provide patients with an online method of purchasing their lenses from the ECP’s practice.
<<READ MORE>>
Challenge –> Solution
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Practice Challenge…
How do I better manage my practice’s finances?From keeping costs of operation down to creating profit and loss statements, and financing a second practice, your success is dependent on effective financial management. Here is how two doctors and one financial consultant approach this challenge.
…Practice Solution
- Eight Steps to Cut Costs and Increase Profits
- Measure Profitability with a Profit & Loss Statement
- Key Questions to Ask When Financing a Second Practice Acquisition
Recent Articles of Note
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Getting There: Planning a Successful Optometric Career
By Robert Schultz -
Be Positive, and Always Thank Your Patient
An Optometric Minute video with Eric M. White, OD -
Capture Rate Booster: Train Staff to Fill Patient Prescriptions
By Stuart J. Thomas, OD, and Ellen Byrum-Goad, LDO
