Doctor Locator Rules of Engagement

What is this?

The Doctor Locator (Optometrist Finder) search result web page will display a practice and its optometrists only if certain conditions are met, both for the optometrist member and the relationship business. Zip code distance searches are zip code centric, not actual location centric.

Why?

The Doctor Locator is a service for paying AOA members. In order to service members properly, the data regarding their membership and practice and relationship links needs to be accurate.

Who is displayed?

1. Only records connected to active members are displayed. Displayed membership types are: 'ACTVMEM','PRTPRAC','OPTEDUC','LIFEMEM','DISTMEM','INTNATL','POSTGRD' --retired removed 7/20/2016 on request by Jennier F, Debby and Christy
2. Only company records with active relationship link of type employee or owner to a member with above active membership are displayed. It is not dependent on a linked address. The address primary flag has no affect on the DRL presence or display.
3. The linked company records must have a constituent class of Practice, Clinic or Hospital. Update: As of 6/16/2014 the DRL is open for ALL business types. Revoked on 11/28/2018 in TeamDynamix ticket 7694276 "Removal of "Non-Clinical Setting" locations from doctor locator" so again only Practice, Clinic or Hospital are displayed.
4. Eliminated on 1/31/2017: Those with primary business address being a PO Box. This is because the application geo locator would only find the zip code's post office location, not the optometrist's office.

What is displayed?

1. The member’s full name and credentials is displayed and no other info from the member is displayed.
2. The linked company record’s business name, primary good business address and business phone is displayed. In addition, the company work web address, Twitter web address and Facebook web address is displayed.
3. A company’s primary business address being PO Box is NOT displayed (which makes sense as the practice location becomes the location of the actual Post Office)
4. We only display business address if the business class is of type "practice", "clinic" or "hospital". Thus no schools as the OD is most likely a teacher.
5. Multiple active employments by an active member will result in multiple Doctor Locator listings (see point 3 above in section "Who is Displayed?".
6. Member information: Member’s Bio, Emphasis, Languages Spoken
7. Practice information: Practice's Bio, Practice Hours, Services, Insurance Accepted
8. SEE TO LEARN is displayed in Committee_1 field if member in See To Lean local affiliate committee (as of 1/31/2017)

How and when is data updated?

1. Data can be updated by AOA staff with update access to the Personify member record.
2. All active members can themselves update or add employment info on their profile page at aoa.org (Member Login – Optometrists – My Profile – Business Addresses)
3. The Administrator Services at AOA is managing relationship linked business address info in Personify for changes requests originating from the profile page. All other constituent info on the profile page is updated in Personify automatically after the member submits updates.
4. Relationship links and membership status changes in Personify are reflected in the Doctor Locator overnight. Names, location and contact information changes in Personify are reflected hourly.

How can I improve my ranking in the DRL listing?

You cannot improve your ranking. The ranking of the Doctor Locator result is first by distance from the zip code, next alphabetically by company name, next alphabetically by last name and lastly alphabetically by first name.

The Doctor Locator is zip code centric. This means that all practices that have the same zip code are zero miles from that zip code center. A search on any zip code with a distance search of 10 miles will show all practices within the searched zip code and all practices that have a zip code which center is within 10 miles from the searched zip code. In short, the address of a location is ignored in distance and zip code searches and only the location's zip code is considered. In addition, a city name search is not translated into a zip code search. The city name must be in the location's address to be find by a city name search.

Because of the zip code centric nature of the application, practices that are located in physical close proximity to another zip code might not show in a close proximity search if the zip code center of the practice is far from the zip code in the search.  

The End.