Its been six months since my last post.
We're still in Atlanta. Our condo will not sell. We cannot find a practice worth buying, although we haven't put a lot of leg work into finding an opportunity. I mean we look where people advertise but we haven't really gone out on our own to find/create an opportunity.
With the recent economic downturn it seems unlikely that a cold start would do anything but flounder for sometime. Would we even be able to get a loan?
In the last six months we've finished our work in Alaska. We've spent a month in Europe. Visiting family in Romania and then traveling in the Czech Republic and Hungary.
Upon our return from these travels we decided that we might as well devote the time we had while waiting for our condo to sell to try to find a public health position for me. If I could find a public health position in the US or Canada we would look into opening a practice in that city.
I sent out many unsolicited resumes and received some responses. Had some meetings. Nobody was really hiring but I began the very important process of networking.
I came across a temporary consulting position. I applied for said position. I was offered a different position in the same organization. They also offered my wife a position.
We've accepted these positions in principle and fully expect to be moving out of the country early 2009. This will be a minimum 2 year commitment. We will be training nurses and other health workers to do basic eye care in rural communities in developing countries.
We've contacted our optometric consultant and put our agreement on hold. I fully expect that we'll still open a practice. It just wasn't the right time. I still believe that private practice is the only way I can practice optometry. Not the only way to practice optometry just the only way for me.
In the meantime I continue to work fill-in jobs here and there trying to make ends meet.
By the time we return to the States (or Canada) we hope that our condo will have finally sold and that the economy will be more suitable to starting a new small business.
Life continues...
Friday, October 24, 2008
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Where are we?
So this blog has been stagnant for some time. An explanation is in order.
We’re confused.
A lot of our information on private practice comes from the least reliable and most pessimistic of places – the internet.
The internet, although filled with well intentioned people who insist on the benefit of private practice, create a lot of doubt as to the ability to execute a successful private practice.
One gets excited about the possibilities only to read the most pessimistic rantings and ravings. The task at hand then seems impossible at best.
And it is impossible according to Optoblog
While the extreme position taken by Dr. Langford is, well… extreme, it coupled with ODwire’s continuous moaning and groaning raise a million little red flags.
Even with these red flags the desire to work in private practice rather than commercial optometry is strong but we are faced with a few road blocks.
The first is that my wife has been unable to secure affordable healthcare. For much of her optometric career she was an employed optometrist and received health benefits as part of her compensation package.
During this time a chronic illness, fortunately and unfortunately, finally received a diagnosis.
She has since left her employed position and is now working as an independent contractor (we are splitting our time between Atlanta, GA and Alaska). She has been denied individual insurance (and this was a very high deductible HSA type plan) and both our broker and the insurance agency state that there are no other options available to her.
This puts a damper on our gung-ho lets-work-for-ourselves plan.
To further dampen our spirits we are really unable to choose a city to start a practice and live in. Practices for sale seem to be few and far between and those that are for sale…
Thirdly, we are not completely prepared to be married to a practice 365 days a year. The idea of practice ownership is attractive. The, in our minds, limits that being a new practice owner places on one’s ability to explore life outside of the practice are daunting.
We will not work in commercial practice more than part-time ever again.
Not because we are opposed to commercial practices or commercial practitioners but because we just aren’t those people. It isn’t a good fit for us. I don’t take direction well. I don’t enjoy feeding patients to opticals that support big business. It’s just not us.
Where does that leave us?
Well we’ve enquired about a few practices for sale in the Northwest only to be disappointed by the quality of the practice and astounded by the asking price.
We are, however, moving on.
We have listed our condo for sale in Atlanta.
We only have a couple more months left on our arrangement as temporary-fill-in-ODs in Alaska.
After that we are officially unemployed and will need to do something.
We’ll continue to work on our plans while in Alaska.
We’ll set a “must-decide-on-a-city” date in the near future so that we can get more specific and find a community that we can live and practice in.
To hedge our bets we’ve applied for a couple of other positions that do nothing to further our pursuit of private practice. They are just-for-fun positions that do little more than provide health benefits.
I think I’ll stop reading internet forums that offer little more than the pessimistic rantings of some very unhappy people. Perhaps that will clear my mind and allow us to approach this endeavour with renewed vigour and excitement.
I have up days and down days. Some days I feel like nothing would make me happier than running a practice. Other days we collectively dread the thought of it.
So far the good days outnumber the bad.
I’ll ask again.
Are you selling a practice in the Northwest or Alberta?
If so. Drop us a line. You may have some buyers.
We’re confused.
A lot of our information on private practice comes from the least reliable and most pessimistic of places – the internet.
The internet, although filled with well intentioned people who insist on the benefit of private practice, create a lot of doubt as to the ability to execute a successful private practice.
One gets excited about the possibilities only to read the most pessimistic rantings and ravings. The task at hand then seems impossible at best.
And it is impossible according to Optoblog
While the extreme position taken by Dr. Langford is, well… extreme, it coupled with ODwire’s continuous moaning and groaning raise a million little red flags.
Even with these red flags the desire to work in private practice rather than commercial optometry is strong but we are faced with a few road blocks.
The first is that my wife has been unable to secure affordable healthcare. For much of her optometric career she was an employed optometrist and received health benefits as part of her compensation package.
During this time a chronic illness, fortunately and unfortunately, finally received a diagnosis.
She has since left her employed position and is now working as an independent contractor (we are splitting our time between Atlanta, GA and Alaska). She has been denied individual insurance (and this was a very high deductible HSA type plan) and both our broker and the insurance agency state that there are no other options available to her.
This puts a damper on our gung-ho lets-work-for-ourselves plan.
To further dampen our spirits we are really unable to choose a city to start a practice and live in. Practices for sale seem to be few and far between and those that are for sale…
Thirdly, we are not completely prepared to be married to a practice 365 days a year. The idea of practice ownership is attractive. The, in our minds, limits that being a new practice owner places on one’s ability to explore life outside of the practice are daunting.
We will not work in commercial practice more than part-time ever again.
Not because we are opposed to commercial practices or commercial practitioners but because we just aren’t those people. It isn’t a good fit for us. I don’t take direction well. I don’t enjoy feeding patients to opticals that support big business. It’s just not us.
Where does that leave us?
Well we’ve enquired about a few practices for sale in the Northwest only to be disappointed by the quality of the practice and astounded by the asking price.
We are, however, moving on.
We have listed our condo for sale in Atlanta.
We only have a couple more months left on our arrangement as temporary-fill-in-ODs in Alaska.
After that we are officially unemployed and will need to do something.
We’ll continue to work on our plans while in Alaska.
We’ll set a “must-decide-on-a-city” date in the near future so that we can get more specific and find a community that we can live and practice in.
To hedge our bets we’ve applied for a couple of other positions that do nothing to further our pursuit of private practice. They are just-for-fun positions that do little more than provide health benefits.
I think I’ll stop reading internet forums that offer little more than the pessimistic rantings of some very unhappy people. Perhaps that will clear my mind and allow us to approach this endeavour with renewed vigour and excitement.
I have up days and down days. Some days I feel like nothing would make me happier than running a practice. Other days we collectively dread the thought of it.
So far the good days outnumber the bad.
I’ll ask again.
Are you selling a practice in the Northwest or Alberta?
If so. Drop us a line. You may have some buyers.
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Moving along
It has been a long time.
I did say that this would be sporadically updated... at best.
News on our front. We have both quit our jobs.
Done as of February 14th.
Never to return.
We have not yet found a practice. We have not yet found a location to open cold. We are simply fed up with our jobs and our lives here in Atlanta, GA. It is time to move on.
I feel that it will be much easier to find a practice or a practice location if we are actually living in/nearby the community we end up settling in.
To help ease our transition back to the Pacific Northwest we have taken a temporary position in Nome Alaska. We will be working in and around Nome for 3 weeks every 6 weeks or so until September.
Our first three weeks begin with our departure from Atlanta to Nome on February 14th. We will then have a week of Diabetic eye exams, a week of flying into small villages around Nome (sleeping at the clinic eating TV dinners) and then a week of general care in Nome.
We are very excited by this opportunity. Number one it will be a great adventure to add to our many previous adventures and number 2 it will challenge us professionally.
Having worked predominately commercial optometry for the past 5 years I really feel that my skills have eroded somewhat. It will be nice to be the only eye people in the community and be forced to deal with whatever presents. It will be a mini optometric boot camp.
Following our three weeks in Nome we'll be visiting some friends and family in the Northwest and then back to GA to put the finishing touches on our home to prepare it for (hopefully a quick) sale. We'll then head back to Nome for another three weeks.
During our off time from Nome we'll do fill-in work and scope out the Northwest for practices for sale and locations if we can't find a good practice to purchase.
Our proposed venture to Private practice had an initial deadline of Fall 2008. This may be extended as we've also applied for a position that may or may not be available come next January (position is in New Zealand).
As of February 14th, however, we are done working commercial unless it is supplementing a private practice.
We're excited!
I did say that this would be sporadically updated... at best.
News on our front. We have both quit our jobs.
Done as of February 14th.
Never to return.
We have not yet found a practice. We have not yet found a location to open cold. We are simply fed up with our jobs and our lives here in Atlanta, GA. It is time to move on.
I feel that it will be much easier to find a practice or a practice location if we are actually living in/nearby the community we end up settling in.
To help ease our transition back to the Pacific Northwest we have taken a temporary position in Nome Alaska. We will be working in and around Nome for 3 weeks every 6 weeks or so until September.
Our first three weeks begin with our departure from Atlanta to Nome on February 14th. We will then have a week of Diabetic eye exams, a week of flying into small villages around Nome (sleeping at the clinic eating TV dinners) and then a week of general care in Nome.
We are very excited by this opportunity. Number one it will be a great adventure to add to our many previous adventures and number 2 it will challenge us professionally.
Having worked predominately commercial optometry for the past 5 years I really feel that my skills have eroded somewhat. It will be nice to be the only eye people in the community and be forced to deal with whatever presents. It will be a mini optometric boot camp.
Following our three weeks in Nome we'll be visiting some friends and family in the Northwest and then back to GA to put the finishing touches on our home to prepare it for (hopefully a quick) sale. We'll then head back to Nome for another three weeks.
During our off time from Nome we'll do fill-in work and scope out the Northwest for practices for sale and locations if we can't find a good practice to purchase.
Our proposed venture to Private practice had an initial deadline of Fall 2008. This may be extended as we've also applied for a position that may or may not be available come next January (position is in New Zealand).
As of February 14th, however, we are done working commercial unless it is supplementing a private practice.
We're excited!
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