This issue is all about ebb and flow. Are you going with it?

In our cover feature, we dig into the critical topic of how to handle patient flow in corporate optometry, where walk-ins are a must-factor fact of life.

Think walk-ins are a distraction and make efficiency difficult to manage? One of our experts—Joseph Alexander Gowen, O.D., who is leasing from Eyemart Express in Pueblo, CO—has a very different perspective. “I am a big fan of walk-ins in our practice,” he says, with an eye to this patient component as a pure practice builder.

For three smart strategies for managing walk-in traffic in the mix of a full day in practice, check out our Patient Overflow? feature (starting on page 10), penned by Corporate Optometry Today!’s contributing editor, Maria Sampalis, O.D.

On page 8 in our Get Involved Business Insider column, Eyecare Business Editorial Director Emeritus Stephanie K. De Long puts the focus on how O.D.s, including those in the corporate realm, can easily and seamlessly get involved with a worthwhile giveback effort for their practice. Here, she outlines three easy-to-implement programs from Essilor Vision Foundation and the American Optometric Association’s Optometry Cares initiative, to help optometrists support their own communities with vision care and eyewear for those in need.

There’s also much, much more in this content-rich issue of COT!, so keep on turning the pages. Not to be missed is our exclusive + enlightening interview with Dean Butler, founder of LensCrafters and the UK’s Vision Express—and now on several boards, living in a 410-year-old manor house in Worcestershire, England and hand-raising baby peacocks. Here, he answers COT!’s 6 big questions—and believe us, you’ll want to read his feedback.

Want more? Check out our Facebook page: @CorporateOptometryToday!

We hope you enjoy the issue!

Erinn Morgan
Editor-in-Chief + Editorial Director
Corporate Optometry Today! + Eyecare Business