Hari Singh Bird, Optician

Welcome,
Fellow Eye Care Professionals!

My name is Hari Singh Bird, Optician.

Points To Ponder

"Service is any human activity which
contributes to the well-being of another, i.e.,
anything we do that lightens somebody's load."

"An Optician's first purpose is to serve as a
highly skilled Health and Wellness Professional."

"It's time to end lecture-only venues for CE credit hours.
It's time for Opticians to get real, hands-on, tactile training
in order to re-humanize the dispensing of prescription eyewear."

"More and more eyewear is being purchased online.
The number one complaint of brick-and-mortar patrons ...
'Nobody adjusted my glasses. They just handed them to me.'
So, for these consumers there's little difference between the service
they receive in many of today's dispensaries and buying glasses online."

"Opticianry is ultimately defined by how well the eyewear makes
contact with the patient, not by the number of customers served.
Therefore, a conscious, precise, and personalized process of frame
selection, lens design, and in-place, hands-on fitting is required. In too
many cases unrealistic and excessive sales goals override the Optician's
mission of providing professional health care, whereby the personalized,
custom fitting of eyewear is given only the most minor consideration, if any."

"The customized fitting of eyewear involves more than just adjusting a nose
piece or bending a temple. It has to include the reshaping, bending, stretching,
twisting and artful sculpting of the frame components in order to personalize the
eyewear. Anything less will most likely compromise the patient's visual comfort
and long term wear-ability. The difference between adjusting and customizing is
what's different between today's eyewear merchants and yesterday's Opticians."

"Just as a Dentist cannot practice dentistry without direct Patient contact, the
Optician cannot effectively dispense without tactile contact with the Patient.
An unskilled eyewear merchant routinely hands over prescription glasses
with no hands-on assessment, nor the appropriate ‘touch-and-feel’ required
to custom fit the eyewear. Hands-on-the-Patient Opticians however, determine
for themselves by sense of touch how the frame feels in lieu of asking the Patient."
OpticalWorkshops.com

A Brief Personal History

I am a native of the Midwest. I am also a Sikh. My career as an Optician began following active duty with the U.S. Marine Corps and subsequent employment with an American Optical Company Branch Laboratory in 1958. I spent more than two years in all phases of Laboratory operations as a Lab Technician, which included hand surfacing, power generation, hand stone and automatic edging, bench work, finishing, final inspection and hands-on-the-Patient custom fitting. (At that time AO and B&L, Bausch and Lomb, laboratories dispensed eyewear to the public at the request of eye care practitioners, i.e., MD's and OD's. See OpticianryToday.com for additional background.)

I then became the Manager of an AO Branch Laboratory, and later a Sales Rep for American Optical lenses, frames, and ophthalmic instruments. I subsequently returned to Ophthalmic Dispensing with a joint MD-OD practice. I hold active Optician licenses in Florida and Arizona. I am also ABO, American Board of Opticianry, and NCLE, National Contact Lens Examiners certified. I am a member of POF, Professional Opticians of Florida, and I have several years experience as the owner of an independent, privately operated Ophthalmic Dispensary, and more recently as a Licensed Optician for a retail optical chain.

I am a passionate advocate of a) the resurgence of the Optician as a genuinely skilled Health Care Professional as opposed to today's Dispensers who are trained mostly as eyeglass merchants, b) resurgence of the Full Discovery and Disclosure Life-style Interview and Design of prescription eyewear, c) conscientious Hands-on-the-Patient delivery of prescription eyewear, and d) more effective hands-on training for aspiring Opticians in the art of custom designed lenses and the custom-fitting of eyeglass frames. I am currently an Ophthalmic Dispenser Training Consultant. See OpticalWorkshops.com.

A Special Note

As a senior Ophthalmic Health Care Professional and founder of OpticalCourse.com and OpticalWorkshops.com, I am interested in sharing my experience in the dispensing of prescription eyewear. If you are a Practitioner who recognizes the decades-old decline in dispensing skills and you are in need of additional training or consultation, or you need assistance in order to regain market share and improve the profitability of your practice, please visit these sites, OpticianryToday.com and OpticalWorkshops.com for more details, then contact me here, or call 407-628-4443.

Free Training Courses
For Eye Care Professionals
Sponsored by Opticians For Change

THEY'RE FREE
Whatever happened to old-fashioned
Hands-on-the-Patient Opticianry?

Contact Lens Care and Compliance

The Rap on Wrap-arounds

Hands-on Frame Fitting

Anti-Reflection Coatings

Books, lectures and tests can take an Optician's skills only so far.

It is time for direct, touch-and-feel, Hands-on-the-Patient training to happen.
Only one-on-one craftsmanship training does this. It cannot be learned virtually.

HANDS-ON-THE-PATIENT WORKSHOP TRAINING AVAILABLE HERE
"Opticianry is defined by how well the eyewear fits the patient."

American Board of Opticianry accredited and Florida State Board approved workshops
for Intermediate and Advanced Level Opticians in Hands-on-the-Patient Frame-Fitting
are currently being offered under the sponsorship of POF, the Professional Opticians of
Florida. Those professionals interested in attending similar workshops should inquire here.