What The Heck Are Eye Care Associates?
Eye Care Associates seems o be one of America's most favorite names for the offices of eye care professionals. There are many spelling variations, but the three core words of "eye", "care" and "associates" are featured prominently. This apparently is not a chain of eye care health franchise. It's just a very strange coincidence that the name has popped up over eye care health specialist's offices for the past several years.
Where Are They?
There are Eye Care Associates (in one spelling form or another) in Raleigh, North Carolina; San Francisco, California; Minneapolis, Minnesota; New Orleans, Louisiana; Denver, Colorado; Fair Lawn, New Jersey; East Texas … and that's pretty much where I lost count. There are multiple Eye Care Associates in Alabama and Ohio. Suffice it to say, you'd have to be blind to miss all of the Eye Care Associates around America.
Why The Name?
The health care system has gone through a quantum change in America in the last fifty years. Any hospital, doctor's office or specialist will run his or her health care service like a business. Over fifty years ago, patients didn't have much of a choice when it came to finding a doctor. Less than a hundred years ago, you were lucky to live in the same town as one medical professional.
But that's all changed, partially due to the population explosion but also due to the steep rise in health care services. There are actually only a small percentage of health care professionals that actually make a profit. This is due to the costs of insurance, utilities and especially the drug companies, which make an obscene amount of money. It has only been in the last dozen years that doctors have been forced to advertise.
And part of any successful ad campaign is choosing the name of your business. "Doctor So and So" is not a good name for a business. It doesn't say what Dr. So and So is a doctor of. But by using a name like Eye Care Associates, you know right away that Dr. So and So is not only an eye care professional, but also sounds like he is part of some sort of official organization.
Also, with the rising costs of any kind of health care, people put off going to any kind of doctor unless they are having serious trouble. If you are frantically trying to find a specialist in your area and are confronted with a staggeringly long list of optometrists and ophthalmologists, a reassuring name like Eye Care Associates fairly leaps off of the page.
