EW
IN OTHER NEWS
70
January 2011
ties. They are loaded with germs be-
cause they're worn over and over
again without cleaning, Mr. Pinto
said.
There are plenty of other cost-
saving measures that practice own-
ers can take to help make their
practice more environmentally
friendly. Challenge staff to come up
with ideas to save costs and the en-
vironment, Mr. Pinto suggested.
While these steps don't have
much material impact in the average
practice today, they are going to
have rising relevancy in the future at
an economic and moral level, Mr.
Pinto said.
Mr. Pinto said he doesn't know
of any practice that has launched an
initiative to go green, but he thinks
that will change.
Relevancy of cost-saving green
measures in the future
Back in the 50s, petroleum engineers
projected that at this time, we would
be reaching the so-called peak oil
phenomenon; this means that we
would be reaching the point where
the amount of readily extractable
petroleum would just about match
what we need and no longer exceed
the demands of the industrial world,
Mr. Pinto said. As that occurs, the
cost of fuel stocks go up.
"Even though in eyecare we're
not running great factories with mil-
lions of kilowatts of energy being
burned, we are not going to be im-
mune to the impact of the peak oil
phenomenon," Mr. Pinto said.
A glimpse of what that's going
to be like can be seen by looking
back a couple of years when the cost
of oil at the pump spiked above $4,
Mr. Pinto said. Staff members started
to resign from their positions and
tried to find jobs that were closer to
home, patients were resistant to
keep their appointments, and it was
costing serious sums of money for
people who were driving 30 miles
round trip to see the eye doctor, he
said. The no-show rates crept up.
"I think that over the course of
the next 10-20 years, we're going to
see rolling impacts like this at the
staff level and at the patient level be-
cause it will be impacting patient
budgets. What they have left after
they pay for gasoline and home
heating to pay for eyecare is going to
depend on the environment that
we're all operating under," Mr. Pinto
said.
EW
Contact information
Pinto: 619-223-2233, pintoinc@aol.com
continued from page 69
Alcon Laboratories Inc.
Page: Cover 2, 10, 11, 12, and 29
Phone: 800-862-5266
Fax: 800-241-0677
www.alconlabs.com
Asia Pacific
Page: 67
Phone: 65-63278630
www.apacrs.org
Bausch & Lomb
Page: 7
Phone: 585-338-6536
Fax: 585-338-0898
www.bausch.com
Beaver-Visitec
International Inc.
Page: Cover 3
Phone: 866-906-8080
Fax: 781-893-7957
www.beaver-visitec.com
BioTissue
Page: 42
Phone: 866-296-8858
Fax: 305-412-4429
www.biotissue.com
ESCRS
Page: 47 and 56
www.escrs.org
Gulden Ophthalmics
Page: 66
Phone: 215-884-8105
Fax: 215-884-0418
www.guldenophthalmics.com
Katena Products
Page: 39
Phone: 973-989-1600
Fax: 973-989-8175
www.katena.com
Mastel Precision
Page: 58
Phone: 800-657-8057
Fax: 605-343-3631
www.mastel.com
Medownick Laser Eye Clinic
Page: 66
Phone: 800 37 39 37
www.Medownicklasereyesurgery.com.au
Multiview
Page: 62
Phone: 972-402-7070
www.multiview.com
New Orleans Academy
of Ophthalmology
Page: 25
www.noao.org
NexTech
Page:
5
Phone: 813-425-9200
Fax: 813-425-9292
www.nextech.com
Rhein Medical Inc.
Page: 13
Phone: 813-885-5050
Fax: 813-885-9346
www.rheinmedical.com
Santen
Page: Cover 4
Phone: 707-254-1750
Fax: 707-254-3648
www.santeninc.com
Ziemer Ophthalmic
Page: 23
Phone: 41 32 332 7052
Fax: 41 32 332 7071
www.ziemergroup.com
ASCRS•ASOA
Meeting Information
2011 ASCRS Symposium
and ASOA Congress
Page: 15
ASCRS Glaucoma Day
Page: 33
ASCRS Cornea Day 2011
Page: 41
Eye Surgery Education Council
Page: 44
ASCRS Membership
Page: 51
ASOA Membership
Page: 49
EyeWorld Programs
at ASCRS 2011
Page: 26 and 27
EyeWorld Corporate Events
at ASCRS 2011
Page: 35
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