Optometry Podcast: Corporate Optometry with Dr. Maria Sampalis

When you talk with Dr. Maria Sampalis, the founder of corporateoptometrycareers.com and the Corporate Optometry group on Facebook, you realize that the distinction between corporate optometry and private optometry isn’t as strictly delineated as we often think. Her personal practice Sampalis Eye Care has a beautifully constructed website with all it’s own branding and appointment scheduling capabilities; it just happens to be with Sears Optical.  Dr. Sampalis breaks down how corporate optometry jobs can be as nuanced and entrepreneurial as you make them, and helps discuss navigating the fast-changing landscape of commercialized and corporate optometry in this week’s podcast.

• Use groups like Corporate Optometry on Facebook to find mentors and colleagues to help you look at contracts and learn whats fair market value for pay and work-life balance
• Brand yourself independently with an online presence, business cards, and social media to make it easier for patients to connect with you as their doctor outside of the corporate entity
• Check out corporateoptometrycareers.com for job postings and advice on getting started as an independent contractor
• Understand your worth – each doctor that defines what they will and won’t do, their hours, their pay, their marketing message (for example free eye exams?) is helping optometry as a profession. If we all stand up for what we believe, corporate employers who aren’t optometrists will be most likely to listen to what we value.

Finding the right work life balance as a working mom led Dr. Sampalis to the right career option for her as an independent contractor. In our ever changing world of managed care, massive mergers, and telemedicine, it’s more important than ever to band together as optometry and for all doctors across all career paths to have a strong voice in what they see as the future of our profession.  Check out her website and join her Facebook group if you want to learn more!