The results of the annual Optometric Management (OM) Readers’ Survey reveal challenges whose solutions, provided by your colleagues, can be found in the following pages of OM. As an example, the second biggest challenge cited by respondents in providing dry eye disease interventions was “patients understanding the importance of dry eye treatment.” In the 2024 article, “Educating patients on dry eye disease prevention,” Lisa Hornick, OD, MBA, FAAO, discusses the importance of patient education. (See https://bit.ly/OM2467DryEyeDiseasePrevention.)
Here, OM provides the charts of the top challenges noted by you, the reader, and a sampling of OM content that can help you overcome these challenges. (See “Fun questions,” below.)
CONTENT THAT CAN HELP
2024: Staffing: research job interview candidates: https://bit.ly/OM2403StaffingColumn
2024: 25 Creative recruiting ideas: https://bit.ly/OM2404Recruiting
2022: Attract/find a more qualified pool of job candidates: https://bit.ly/OM221112JobCandidatesPool
CONTENT THAT CAN HELP
2022: Coding Strategy: Appreciate the chief complaint: https://bit.ly/OM2209CodingStrategyReimbursement
2022: Coding Strategy: Reimbursement is a team sport: https://bit.ly/OM2204CodingStrategyTeam
2022: Beyond reimbursement: https://bit.ly/OM221112BeyondReimbursement
CONTENT THAT CAN HELP
2021: Stand out in a sea of opticals: https://bit.ly/OM2108SeaofOpticals
2017: Join the experience economy: https://bit.ly/OM1704ExperienceEconomy
2013: Optical: Overcome online retailers: https://bit.ly/OM1307OnlineRetailers
CONTENT THAT CAN HELP
2020: Maintain a profitable contact lens practice: https://bit.ly/OM2012ProfitableCLPractice
2018: Cornea: Identify and treat these conditions born from patient non-compliance: https://bit.ly/OM1801CorneaPatientCompliance
2016: Leading Off: ODs provide tips for patient contact lens compliance. https://bit.ly/OM1611LeadingOffCLCompliance
CONTENT THAT CAN HELP
2022: Glaucoma: Follow the three R’s: https://bit.ly/OM2203GlaucomaThreeRs
2012: Acquire medication adherence: https://bit.ly/OM2203GlaucomaMedAdherence
2010: Provide take-home tools for compliance: https://bit.ly/OM2002TakeHomeTools
CONTENT THAT CAN HELP
2022: Dry Eye: Overcome cost reluctance: https://bit.ly/OM221112DryEyeCostReluctance
2021: Dry Eye: Three ways to achieve treatment buy-in: https://bit.ly/OM2105DryEyeTreatmentBuyIn
2020: Dry Eye: Accurate Conversion Rate: https://bit.ly/OM2003DryEyeConversionRate
FUN QUESTIONS
• What is your dream location for your practice?
Tropical island 41.27%
Lake house 29.37%
Other 21.43%
Habitable planet 6.35%
Space station 1.59%
• How do you best relieve stress?
Exercise 48.41%
Other 24.60%
From a respondent: “Scream into pillows at the end
of the day, and then immediately go to sleep.”
Eat junk food 14.29%
Meditation/yoga 7.14%
Act cranky with family members 5.56%
• What is your biggest challenge in getting ready for work?
Other 35.05%
From a respondent: “Figuring out what to wear.”
Breakfast 22.68%
Getting the kids ready for school or day care 21.65%
Reigning in pets 13.40%
Finding my car keys 7.22%
• Number of times you’ve explained one is, indeed, different than two:
Over 100 times 39.18%
100 times or less 32.99%
No such number exists 21.65%
Other 6.19%
• Which one or more eye-related songs are on your playlist?
“Bette Davis Eyes” (Kim Carnes) 36.08%
Other 30.93%
Most popular: “Doctor My Eyes” – Jackson Brown
“These Eyes” (The Guess Who) 27.84%
“Ocean Eyes” (Billie Eilish) 24.74%
“Eyes Without a Face” (Billy Idol)
The folks who participated
A total of 126 optometrists took part in the survey, with most of them in private practice (30.95%). Other respondents were employed by private practice (18.25%); a corporate practice (11.11%); were the owner of a corporate sublease (9.52%), other (7.14%), employed by an ophthalmology practice (6.35%), worked in academia (3.97%), worked in a private-equity-managed practice (2.38%), or were a partner in an ophthalmology/optometry practice or the owner of a corporate franchise (both 0.79%). Additionally, an overwhelming number of respondents hailed from a single-location practice (66.67%), followed by a multilocation practice of less than five (18.25%), and a multilocation practice of five or more (15.08%). OM
