When will things get back to normal?

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The title of this post is a great question. As an optometrist I did not think I would ever work from home but here I am listening to webinars, doing blog posts, and research from home. Ultimately we need to get back to seeing patients and delivering top quality eyecare.

The answer to the question in the title is never. Our reality has been fundamentally changed and this was from a virus which although deadly, has a relatively low mortality rate. Imagine a virus such as H5N1 (avian flu) that has a mortality rate of 60%. Remember that one, it is still out there.....

We can't live our lives in fear, we can only control what we can control. Hopefully we learn from this and we are better prepared down the road if something more dangerous or something similar comes along.

To relate this back to eyecare and our office, I don't think you will ever see a kids play area or magazine rack again. Honestly, I would hope you do not see those in any office waiting room. We have removed ours, and guests can use the complimentary Wifi while waiting. We will also have shields installed in key areas of the office to help protect staff and patients once we are back to work. The number of people in the office at one time will be limited and we will look to use technology even more than we do now to minimize trips or touch points in the office.

Optometry will be one of the first back to work in my opinion. It is important for people to see and we are offices that do not have sick people coming to visit. We generally see healthy people and other than talking, we have people keep their mouths closed. There is always risk, so we will do the best we can to minimize it. I mentioned all this in my last post.

Since my last post this video came out on the Today show talking about the very point I was making.

Today Show - who goes back to work?

Stay well, and look forward to seeing you soon!

Dr. Jason

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