Readers Predict Growth for Their CL Practices
BY JOSEPH T. BARR, OD, MS, FAAO, EDITOR

We recently received information from 128 readers who participated in a survey about a number of issues. This survey indicates that about 50 percent of respondents estimate that 20 percent to 39 percent of their gross revenue comes from contact lenses; 25 percent estimate that 40 percent or more of their gross revenue comes from contact lenses. Forty-nine percent of their new fits and refits of contact lenses were hydrogel and 39 percent were silicone hydrogel. Seventy-two percent of the respondents plan for their contact lens practice to increase. Regarding fits and refits of GP lenses, six percent are spheres, three percent are aspheric single vision, two percent are toric, three percent are bifocal/multifocal and one percent are orthokeratology. While 67 percent of respondents see their GP practice as stable and 15 percent see it decreasing, 18 percent expect it to increase.

The respondents report that on average, 56 percent of the lenses they use are spherical soft, 20 percent are toric soft and nine percent are multifocal soft. They estimate that 22 percent of their fits and refits are for extended wear with soft lenses and two percent are for extended wear with GP lenses.

It appears that half of our respondents' presbyopic contact lens wearers use monovision while half use multifocal lenses.

While two-thirds of the respondents prescribe up to 10 prescriptions for allergy per week, 15 percent prescribe 11 to 20 such prescriptions. Seventy-seven percent prescribe up to 10 antibiotic prescriptions per week and nine percent prescribe 11 to 20 antibiotic prescriptions. Ninety percent of the respondents were optometrists.

One alarming statistic that this survey revealed is that 38 percent of the respondents fill contact lens prescriptions only when asked and two percent never fill them.