The title of this post is a great question. As an optometrist, I never thought I would work from home, but here I am—listening to webinars, writing blog posts, and doing research from my house. 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 by a virus that, although deadly, has a relatively low mortality rate. Imagine a virus such as H5N1 (avian flu) with a mortality rate of 60%. Remember that one—it’s 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 are better prepared if something more dangerous—or something similar—comes along down the road.
To bring 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 don’t see those in any office waiting room. We’ve already removed ours, and guests can use our complimentary Wi-Fi while waiting. We will also have shields installed in key areas of the office to help protect staff and patients once we’re back to full operations. The number of people in the office at one time will be limited, and we will lean even more heavily on technology to minimize trips and touch points.
Optometry will be one of the first professions back to in-person work, in my opinion. It is important for people to see clearly, and our offices generally don’t see sick patients—we typically see healthy people, and aside from talking, mouths are kept closed during exams. There is always some risk, so we will do our best to minimize it. (I mentioned much of this in my last post.)
Since my last post, this segment aired on the Today Show that touches on the very point I was making:
Today Show: Who Goes Back to Work First?
Stay well, and we look forward to seeing you soon!
Dr. Jason
