One of the things that make Asheville so unique is the fact that the city is one of the most eclectic destinations in the country, with exclusive restaurants, shops and other retail outlets sprinkled throughout the downtown area.

Drs. Andy and Patty Champion of Champion Eye Center are an extension of the elite atmosphere of Asheville. The Champions began practicing optometry in Asheville in 1995 and opened eye care centers in Asheville and Sylva in 1997. They realized the need for professional eye care services in the South Asheville/Arden area, so they opened another office in 2006 to meet the optometric needs of patients on the south side of the city.

Whether you need reading glasses, transition lenses that change in the sun to protect your eyes or the latest fashion frames from Chanel, Champion Eye Center in Asheville is your comprehensive eye retailer.

Drs. Andy and Patty Champion have built Champion Eye Center into an eye care practice that believes that frames are much more than things that hold your glasses in place. The Champions believe that glasses frames should also be an extension of your personality.

Champion Eye Center is the only authorized eye care center to carry Chanel frames in all of Western North Carolina. Champion also carries fashionable frames for all styles from Lafont, Calvin Klein, Dolce & Gabanna, Polo Ralph Lauren, Ray-Ban and Vera Wang.

Champion Eye Center is also the only eye care outlet that features Varilux Ipseo progressive lenses. These cutting-edge Ipseo lenses are the only progressive lenses on the market that can be personalized to meet the unique visual behavior of each patient.

Ipseo progressive lenses at Champion Eye Center are customized depending upon whether a person is a head mover or an eye mover. Eye movers move their eyes and keep their heads still, while head movers move their heads and keep their eyes still. Ipseo lenses are tailor-made for each of these visual patterns.

Champion Eye Center also offers a comprehensive line of contact lenses, from the industry-leading Acuvue, to Bausch & Lomb and O2 Optix.

The Champions are long-standing members of the American Optometric Association, the NC State Optometric Society and the Mountain District Optometric Society.

To schedule an appointment and let Champion Eye Center change your perception of vision care, call 828-236-0099 or visit www.championeyecenter.com. 

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 Champion Eye Center
www.championeyecenter.com
(828) 236-0099
info@championeyecenter.com

CAMARILLO, Calif. [Aug. 18] – When a West Palm Beach, Fla., worker, Jason Moyer, was killed in May while repairing an elevator at a local apartment complex, authorities discovered that the elevator had failed an inspection a year earlier.

Meanwhile, in February, a 82-year-old Boston woman, Helen Jackson, was killed after she fell on an escalator at a Boston subway station and her clothing became entangled in the stairway’s teeth. Afterwards, Metropolitan Boston Transit Authority officials conceded that over the years there have been numerous accidents on its escalator system.

Jackson’s death caused Justine Silverman, a frequent transit passenger, to tell the Boston Globe: “I think they should shut it down until they make sure it’s safe for everyone.”

Neither of these incidents was surprising or unique. Each year, incidents involving elevators and escalators kill about 30 people and injure 17,000, according to Mike McCann, director of safety at the Center for Construction Research and Training in Silver Spring, Md.

McCann, who completed an extensive research project on the subject in 2006, said he believes nothing has changed since.

“The numbers are probably the same,” he said. “I haven’t seen any major [effort] toward doing something about it.”

McCann says he knows of situations where elevator doors open but there’s no elevator there and people plunge to their deaths. “Everyone thinks the elevator door won’t open if the elevator isn’t there. That’s only true if the maintenance is up to date and there’s nothing wrong with the control system.”

He also knows of incidents where escalators suddenly move from forward to reverse, without warning. “Episodes like that can get 30 or 40 people injured,” he says.

The problem is that cash-strapped companies aren’t keeping their maintenance programs up to date, says Robert Krieger, president of Certified Conveyance Training Corp. and one of the country’s leading experts on elevator and escalator maintenance training.
“Maintenance of your equipment that moves the pubic is one of those things you have to do, even in tough times,” Krieger says.

Krieger says the cost of maintaining elevators and escalators is cheap when you consider the legal ramifications of a single accident.

Such was the case in January, when the parents of Andrew Polakowski sued The Ohio State University two years after Andrew was crushed to death in an elevator accident in his dormitory. State inspectors later found that elevator’s brake failed. The university has since upgraded most of its elevators – too late for Andrew Polakowski and the lawsuit that followed.

Additionally, Krieger says that companies need to avoid handing out low-bid contracts to unqualified maintenance contractors. Rather, they should consider bringing the maintenance work in-house. If companies already have an in-house operation – even if it’s a reduced operation because of budget cuts – then they should make sure they are diligent in their maintenance schedules and that their workforce is properly trained.

“A topnotch training program can make a company’s existing maintenance workers better prepared,” Krieger says. “Better trained workers means fewer elevator and escalator accidents. That makes the price of the training programs extremely cost effective when you consider the alternative.”

Doing more with less is the mantra of businesses today, whether they are one-person operations or members of the Fortune 500. What “doing more with less” basically means hepling companies maximize profits while minimizing costs.

Mark Hinton and eYeFacilitate have taken this idea of doing more with less and have tailored it to the optometry and ophthalmology industries. Hinton has helped eye care professionals grow their practices, reduce risks, and improve patient communication through his proven model at eYefacilitate.

Hinton is a consultant who utilizes his 30-plus years in the optical industry to help doctors fine-tune their practices to maximize their profits and improve their customers’ experiences. In addition to being an American Board of Opticianry-certified educator, Hinton transformed his own eye care practice into one with $1.5 million in annual sales.

By coming to a practice and learning its needs, Hinton is able to craft an effective plan of action to build a proactive risk management strategy that leads to increased revenues and patient satisfaction. One of eYeFacilitate’s proactive business strategies has helped eye care practices throughout the Southeast increase annual sun protection eyewear revenue from the national average of 4.7 percent to approximately 30 percent.

Hinton also helps optometrists and ophthalmologists empower their support professionals to become a problem-solving and sustainable “team” instead of a “staff.” By teaching eye care professionals how to implement eYefacilitate’s proactive Solar Risk Management Strategy, Hinton teaches eye care professionals how to become CEOs instead of COOs.

Hinton has been invited to close out a prestigious eye care industry convention in Key Largo, Florida later this year. He will inform close to 200 eye care practitioners about how to remain inspired in their practices and in their lives.

To learn more about how eYeFacilitate can help you transform your eye care practice into one that is more profitable and more customer friendly, visit www.eyefacilitate.com or call Mark Hinton at 828-215-5510.

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Mark Hinton
www.eyefacilitate.com
mark@eyefacilitate.com
828-215-5510

In Kevin Costner’s famous movie, “Field of Dreams,” the classic line was, “If you build it, they will come.” In our country’s challenging economic times, that movie line would read more along the lines of, “If you build it, it will probably remain vacant for quite some time.”

That is why ISC Executive Search has responded to the decrease in Land Development, Commercial Construction and Commercial Architecture by expanding its search resources in the areas of Geotechnical Engineering, Materials Testing and Special Inspections. ISC, which had an established Civil Engineering network of more than 10,000, has also increased its employment resources in the areas of Water & Wastewater Treatment, Transportation Engineering and Traffic Engineering.

ISC began recruiting and placing employees into management positions in the fields of Architecture, Engineering and Construction in the early 1990s. ISC’s recruiting professionals have proven track records in placing job candidates in career-enhancing opportunities in all phases of the building industry.

Shifting marketing priorities, though, have created the need for ISC to expand its recruiting network. And while jobs in the areas of Civil Engineering, Architecture and Land Development might be more difficult to find, ISC’s recruiting professionals have an inside track on the employment areas that are on the rise.

“Over the past several months, we’ve seen dramatic shifts in hiring nationally – decreasing in areas such as Commercial Construction and Land Development, and increasing remarkably in the realm of Infrastructure Development,” said Thurman Williams, the firm’s President.  “Because our work is a reflection of hiring demand, ISC is reallocating its own resources, redeploying our assets in information and research, and assigning additional account executives to address this increased demand.”

This specialization allows the firm to focus in better on these key hiring areas, developing even greater domain expertise.  What does this mean for candidates seeking employment? It means that ISC’s recruiting professionals are better connected to building industry jobs, whether they are on the coast of California, the coast of Connecticut or overseas.

Some of the Account Executives at ISC Executive Search who are contributing to this
employment industry transformation include:

Bill Voegele manages ISC’s West-Coast office in Truckee, CA, and is working with Transportation Engineering, Traffic Engineering and Geotechnical Engineering clients in the Western U.S.

Allan Henke is continuing to build upon his expertise in Water and Wastewater treatment Plant Construction and Operations, and now oversees all of ISC’s work in the sector nationally.

Lauren Soldwisch a veteran recruiter in Commercial Construction, Heavy / Civil
Construction and Civil Engineering, is adding to ISC’s emphasis on Geotechnical &
Foundation Engineering.

Mark Carter has long maintained ISC’s work with Civil Engineering in Texas and the Central U.S. He has also developed remarkable niche expertise in Traffic and Transportation Engineering.

ISC is, indeed, building extraordinary companies(tm). Interested parties should not hesitate to contact the firm’s President, Thurman Williams, at (828) 253-2828 or visit www.iscexecutivesearch.com.

Let ISC Executive Search help you find a new career, not just a new job. We look forward to working with you!

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Contact: Thurman Williams
ISC Executive Search, Inc.
www.iscexecutivesearch.com
Office: (828) 253-2828