NEW YORK—The national average for gross revenue at ECP locations increased last week, March 20 – 26, when compared with the previous week at a rate of 1 index point. That places gross revenue at a level 3 index points above where it was at this point in time (Week 13) when compared with last year (2022), 5 points above the same period in 2021, 98 points above 2020, and 5 points above 2019, according to Jobson’s most recent Practice Performance Tracker.

Most optical sales categories were up last week when compared with the previous week, at rates of 1 index point for gross revenue, 1 index point for exams/refractions, -1 index point for frame units, 0 index points for lens pairs, and 2 index points for contact lenses. When comparing last week’s optical sales with the same period last year, all categories were down with the exception of one, with the highest increase of 3 index points for gross revenue to the greatest decrease of -4 index points for frame units, lens pairs and contact lenses. The last category decreased at a rate of -3 index points for exams/refractions.

With most optical sales categories increasing last week, most of the categories still reached levels at or above an average week in 2019—the index baseline assigned a value of 100 for this Optical Business Tracker—with the exception of two. These ranged from a high of 120 index points for gross revenue to a low of 93 index points for contact lenses. The other three categories reached 100 index points for exams/refractions, 104 index points for frame units and 104 index points for lens pairs.

Jobson Optical Research selected 1,500 optical locations that have been operating and reporting their sales to its partners, GPN and ABB Analytics, since 2019. The index has been rebased to an average week in 2019. Going forward, this new index base will be used as an arbitrary benchmark and assigned a value of 100.

Click here to view the complete Jobson COVID-19 Performance Tracker