selves to a fearless and faithful performance of the duties prescribed, demanding that each member act in accordance with the rules of conduct so set down. Those who fail to make their business conduct conform to our craft standards of practice are not privileged to continue as members of this Association. They automatically show themselves to be unworthy of recognition by the American Association of Wholesale Opticians. OPTOMETRY AMERICAN OPTOMETRIC ASSOCIATION CODE OF ETHICS OF OPTOMETRY We do agree to these things: 1. Render the public the best service within us and constantly strive to improve that service. 2. Conduct ourselves in a manner becoming to profes sional men. 3. Aid worthy civic movements, and be considerate of fellow practitioners. 4. To meet and study at frequent intervals with other optometrists to keep abreast of the best practices in optometry; and to aid and consult with fellow practitioners when requested. 5. To make examination of the eyes the paramount feature, not the sale of glasses. 6. To impress upon the public the importance of careful and correct ocular service. ments. 7. To equip our offices with the latest and best instru 8. To discontinue the sale of merchandise which has no place in optometry. 9. To limit our publicity to: (1) Conservation of Vision. 10. To charge for, and to collect, a reasonable fee for eye examinations. 11. To charge a fee openly, both by verbal statement and upon the bill, not concealing said fee within the cost, thereby giving the patron reason to believe that service is rendered "free". 12. We consider that optometry may be best presented to the public through organized effort, rather than individual. To this end we will endeavor, at proper times and in proper places, to preach the conservation of vision, and to teach methods whereby this may be obtained. 13. We believe that organized optometry can best be served by group publicity, as also by magazine and newspaper articles in which the author does not seek to present his own personality. 14. We believe that newspaper "card" is the correct way of presenting ourselves in the press in a direct advertising sense. 15. We agree to discontinue the use of handbills, billboard advertising, billposter advertising, large painted signs on buildings, all types of novelties, stickers of all kinds, except inside of cases; blotters, manufacturers' literature, freely distributed; street car advertising, theater program, theater curtain, lantern slides, and signs reading: "Eyes Examined (or tested) free". 16. Not to advertise the prices of lenses, frames or supplies. 17. To discontinue window advertising, except in dignifred and legitimate manner. 18. To discontinue and remove from refracting rooms, waiting rooms and other public rooms of our business places, signs of manufacturers relating to supplies. To discontinue advertising articles or supplies as "better" or in any way superior in quality for the price asked, to that of other optometrists or refractionists. 19. To discontinue publicly advertising business ability as superior to that of others; reliability as superior to that of others; professional ability as superior to that of others. 20. To discontinue methods of practice which are manifestly "unfair" by those recognized practices of the public within which we dwell. 21. Where others who are doing refracting work are unethical and resort to unfair and unethical means, we are not to retaliate in kind until we have sought by all reasonable means to win them from errant methods, to interview them personally, or by letter, or by friends, or by judicious printed matter, publicly proclaimed, and in terms which will in no way lower our own dignity, seeking thereby to elevate their own standard of procedure and win them to our side of justice. 22. When others practice optometry and they are manifestly unqualified for the work, we are to seek them personally, by letter and by other just means, seeking to elevate their moral tone, their educational status, their equipment, or their other deficiencies, endeavoring to bring them to a higher and proper level. When other means have failed, we should bring them to the attention of higher authority. 23. When there is a difference of opinion with respect to ethical and non-ethical practices, customs or behavior, we should seek to bring about a meeting of all those engaged in Optometry and have a dignified discussion, endeavoring to establish rules of practice. 24. It is unprofessional and prohibited to split fees, pay bonuses or offer, or to receive, any pecuniary benefits from others who may at various times refer patrons. 25. It is unprofessional and prohibited to enter into mail-order advertising of eye-glass service. 26. It is unprofessional to seek out patrons by bribes, rebates, discounts, or other profit-sharing means, through friends, relatives, or patrons. 27. It is unprofessional to seek patronage by solicitous means, personal or through others. 28. It is unprofessional and unethical to promise cures, relief or benefit from lenses, or from treatment, or by other means than that one will do as well as lies within his power to correct and neutralize the errors of refraction and muscular anomalies, with the hope but not with the assurance of benefit or relief. 29. It is unprofessional and unethical to undertake practices under a name of a company or organization in which the principal member or members of the organization are not actively engaged in the actual practice of refraction. 30. It is unprofessional to conduct an optometric practice in which the name or names of the principal men are not named publicly in their printed matter upon door-plates, and other similar announcements. 31. It is unprofessional and unethical to travel from town to town, putting up in hotels and houses and doing refraction work without proper equipment and lighting facilities. 32. It is unprofessional and unethical to use low-grade lenses or lenses of a pattern which are not as properly designed and adapted to the correction of the errors of vision as are possible to obtain, basing the price of service and such supplies upon their cheapness, unless it is patent that the patron cannot afford to purchase the higher grade and perfected lenses, and in all such cases the factors should be carefully explained. 33. It is unprofessional for an optometrist who holds an office in any optometric association to use such position for advertising purposes. 34. It is unprofessional and unethical for an optometrist to make use of his diplomas and certificates in such a way as to be considered advertisements. 35. No member should advertise in a way which would lead to the supposition that he had a medical training unless he has such a training. But it is not unethical to permit himself to be styled "doctor" by his patrons. 36. It is unethical and forbidden to keep open office or place of business on national holidays, State holidays, or Sundays. |