Blog

May 2, 2013 By Howard Purcell, O.D., F.A.A.O., and Senior Vice President of Customer Development, Essilor of America I recently read a story about Great Expressions, a network of 200 dental offices nationwide, which has seen significant growth through the acquisition of independent dental practices to 2,300 employees and annual revenues of $275 million.  The [...]

March 19, 2013 By Howard Purcell, O.D., F.A.A.O., and Senior Vice President of Customer Development, Essilor of America In independent ECP forums across the country, we’ve had some healthy discussions about our patients’ growing acceptance and reliance on technology to get informed and, sometimes, to make health care purchases.  Clearly, this has an impact on [...]

March 13, 2013 By Howard Purcell, O.D., F.A.A.O., and Senior Vice President of Customer Development, Essilor of America I know that many of you plan to attend Vision Expo East this week in New York.  I always look forward to this annual trade show to learn about advances, challenges and opportunities in our industry, especially [...]

January 29, 2013 By Howard Purcell, O.D., F.A.A.O., and Senior Vice President of Customer Development, Essilor of America In a previous post, I wrote about the Vision Loans program, a practice transition program funded by Essilor of America, VSP Vision Care and Vision One Credit Union.  Recently Vision Loans announced a significant milestone:  its 200th [...]

January 17, 2013 By Howard Purcell, O.D., F.A.A.O., and Senior Vice President of Customer Development, Essilor of America In my last blog, I addressed the need for independent ECPs to embrace technology, particularly in dispensaries.  Clearly, technology can be a great means to improve our business, just as it can present challenges.  Merely keeping up [...]

January 2, 2013 By Howard Purcell, O.D., F.A.A.O., and Senior Vice President of Customer Development, Essilor of America As we start the new year, it’s common for many of us to make resolutions to improve our health and well being.  Many of you also may be thinking about your practices – and how you can [...]

December 10, 2012 By Howard Purcell, O.D., F.A.A.O., and Senior Vice President of Customer Development, Essilor of America It’s an exciting time for optometrists, and we certainly can all agree with the recent ranking by CNNMoney naming optometrists to their Best Jobs in America list. Optometrist was ranked 12th on the list of 100 jobs [...]

November 21, 2012 By Howard Purcell, O.D., F.A.A.O., and Senior Vice President of Customer Development, Essilor of America In the last post, I addressed the costs of running an independent practice and the hurdle that expenses – such as marketing, rent and inventory – represent.  In my opinion, the most significant cost associated with owning [...]

November 6, 2012 By Howard Purcell, O.D., F.A.A.O., and Vice President of Customer Development, Essilor of America In my previous post, I recapped some of the robust discussion that we’ve had at forums designed to generate good conversations about sustaining independent optometry, especially in the wake of imminent competition from mass retailers like Specsavers.  One [...]

October 26, 2012 By Dr. Howard Purcell, O.D., F.A.A.O., and Vice President of Customer Development, Essilor of America. In the past two weeks, I’ve traveled to Chicago, Anaheim and Kansas City to meet with independent eyecare professionals.  In Anaheim, we simulcast the meeting, giving an opportunity to ECPs across the country to tune in, ask [...]