What is your logic for not hiring an OD who has worked for Americas Best?
What about OD's who have worked for Walmart, Lenscrafters, etc? Basically, all corporate/commercial entities.
What about graduates from new schools?
I would not hire an OD who was employed or leased from (other than part-time fill in because that's usually done out of a desperation for $$$) and America's Best IN PARTICULAR because after they've worked in such a location they're a ruined OD. America's Best has ruined many OD's because that doctor is no longer a doctor working for them. America's Best has the WORST reputation amongst all of the chains.
I mean ... requiring you to see a maximum of 50 patients a day???? Come on! If you're an OD willing to sign such a contract, that tells me that you're willing to sell out your patient to make a quick buck, that you're willing to sacrifice ALL of your training to make a quick buck, that you have no respect for the value of your patient's quality of life, and that you're willing to sell out your professionial colleagues who work their a*s off in order to provide real eye exams! Plus, they make OD's look like dumb oxes in the eyes of our MD colleagues.
If any OD were willing to sign such a contract at any time for any reason that tells me that person has no integrity, no morals and would be a liability, not an asset to my practice.
Now, part-time fill in OD's at such locations are different because they're private contractors that are working for the leasing OD. They haven't agreed to the faustian contract and in most circumstances are victims themselves. The leasing OD or the OD actually employed by America's best have no excuse. In my eyes, they are no longer real optometrists. There is NO WAY an OD could provide quality comprehensive eye exams in an environment where they have to see anything more than 20 patients per day (and that's will tech support - at least 2 tech's and an receptionist for that capacity).
As for the smaller chains ... the corporations don't have their thumb on them quite as much. I was able to get away with 1 hour exams for along time at rural locations. Busier places I got away with 45 min per exam. The locations were too small to have a receptionist or tech, so I did it all myself.
The JC Penney locations seemed OK. I'd interviewed with them.
Sears used to be wonderful to work for, but they've gone downhill and have adapted a more National-Vision like model since they were bought out by Luxottica.
I'd hire an OD that worked as a leasing OD at a Vista, Sterling, JC Penney, Sears. possibly Eyeworks or Binyon's (they're going downhill a lot though and I'd have to research in what capacity they were employed), Lens-Crafters (I'd have to do some research on their particular location and the particulars of how they practiced prior), Wal-Mart (again, I'd want to know how fast they were doing their exams) but NEVER would I in a million years hire an OD who had leased from an America's Best (WORST!!). Never.
Truth be known, all the older ODs HATE HATE HATE America's Best for all the aforementioned reasons.
Career suicide! If you did part-time fill in at an America's Best, I'd omit that from my resume. But just know that it's hard to hide the fact that you leased from a place though. We'd have to ask about the apparent gap in your CV employment history. Plus, we'd find out from your insurance credentialing applications or CAQH database.
Also, if you call your business a PC or LLC, we older OD's will look up the address of your business and find out where you practiced out of. Then cross reference it with the chain locations. A lot of OD's try to hide their association under another business name, but older OD's are smart enough to figure it out. We do background checks, now.
So, basically, if you start down this path from the beginning, you'll be stuck in commercial optometry FOREVER unless you start your own private practice.
And in my case, even though I'd worked the smaller chains, it's still scarred my reputation. If they won't hire me, they'd NEVER hire and AB doc. I opted to start my own private practice because no one will hire me. And it gonna be awesome!
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