Fanatic,
I am in a community of about 300,000. There are 37 OD's and 12 Ophthalmologists and about 3 independent Opticians. Out of those 12 OMD's, 3 are openly anti-Optometry (they are older, do little surgery and are in direct competition with some OD's practicing medical eye care- ME! The other 34 are great and I work well with them).
TPMOH,
I was afraid someone was going to ask me this. Corporate Optometry is and always has been a black-eye for Optometry. So much so, that the AOA at one time forbid membership to commercial OD's. Because of financial pressure, commercial OD's were allowed, and now encouraged, to join the AOA. There is strength in numbers and organized Optometry needs ALL OD's to contribute for legislative purposes....to maintain and expand practice scope and for inclusion into managed care programs.
BUT, aside from this need, the VAST MAJORITY of Optometrist (at least those in private practice and those employeed in a professional settings) view commercial OD's as sell-outs.
They give Optometry a poor image. They give the public the image of a quickie exam in the store between the hairdresser and the cigarette shop!
There is a growing rift in Optometry between those in professional practice and those in Corporate.
I know a few OD's in commercial places like Walmart and Lenscrafters. I have even worked in Sears (briefly, luckily). These places are more-or-less refraction mills. When I went to Optometry school, I thought much in the same way you do. I though it would be very cool to refract some people, give them contacts or glasses and make some good money in the process. What a cool job! What I found out was that doing 20-30 refractions per day and nothing else bored me out of my mind. You get no respect at Walmart or Sears. People don't go there to see you, they go to get a quick or cheap eye exam or for 2 for 1 glasses. I can't tell you how many patients I have seen that had no idea who gave them there last eye exam, only that it was at Walmart. There is also a high turnover at most commercial places and you will always have a boss. Sometimes, it will be a guy who was in the garden shop last week that got promoted to the optical shop. You will answer to him.
Commercial entities are not dumb. They have OD's there to write eyeglasses prescripitions so they can sell the hell out of glasses. There's nothing wrong with that as long as you realize that your only purpose of being there is to write eyeglasses rx's. You can not have a vision therapy, low vision, ocular disease etc. practice at Walmart or any other corporate place. You may not be selling glasses directly but if you don't write a certain number of spectacle prescriptions and they don't walk next door to fill them, you will be out. It doesn't matter if you have been there for 10 years, they will give you 3 months (if your lucky) to get out. I know people this has happened to.
So the bottom line. The OD's that work commercial are just as qualifed and do a great exam. They just hold back the profession and cheapen it in the eyes of the public and, more importantly, in the eyes of other professionals. You don't see OB/GYNs or Podiatrists or Chiropractors or Dentist or anyone else at Walmart (or the mall). The reason is that the corporation can't make material sales off of them. They use Optometrist like a cheap prostitute. The money is good initially ($80,000- $100,000 from the start if you want to work 60 hours/week, nights and Sat and sometimes Sunday- depending on if the store managers wants you there). But it usually peaks there because they can always get another new OD to work cheaper. AND there is a push by Opticians to gain independent refracting rights. This is already beginning to happen in Canada. Once Opticians get to refract, who do you think the superstore will be hiring to do their refractions? An Optician with 1 or 2 years of school and no debt will easily be able to give a quick 5 minute refraction (and be very good at it) for $15. All commercial OD's will be out overnight.
IMO, private practice is the way to go. You can be your own boss, make much more money and, most importantly, at least for me, take off as much or as little time as I want. You also have the respect of many more folks. You will be embarased to tell people that you work at the Eyeglass-O-Rama.
I have an article coming out in the January edition of Optometric Management on staring a cold practice. If you can't get the copy, I think you can view it online at
www.optometric.com
I am also on the editorial board of New OD magazine (a quarterly publication of Opt. Management). If you guys get into OD school, these magazines will be great educational tools for you....at least they were for me.
I am happy to answer any other questions.
