NEW YORK—The national average for gross revenue at ECP locations increased last week, Sept. 13-19, at a rate of 18 index points, regaining most of the 20 index points this category lost the previous week (Sept. 6-12) due to Labor Day falling on Sept. 6. That leaves gross revenue 3 index points above where it was at this point in time (Week 38) during 2019 and 10 index points below where it was during Week 38 of last year, according to Jobson’s most recent Practice Performance Tracker.
 
All optical sales categories increased substantially last week, reversing most of the decline experienced during the previous week. Of the three categories that lost -19 index points last week, exams/refractions recouped 18 index points, frame units regained 16 index points, and lens pairs returned 17 index points. Contact lenses regained 12 of the -16 index points lost during the previous week.
 
Rebounding optical sales brought all categories to a higher index level (based on an average week in 2019, the index baseline assigned a value of 100 for this Optical Business Tracker), but only one category, gross revenue, matched that of an average week in 2019. All other categories remained below an average week in 2019, ranging from 7 index points below for lens pairs to 13 index points below for contact lenses.
 
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