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.