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THE UNIQUE SIDE OF OPTOMETRY

Creating a One-Stop Shop

How I’ve grown my practice through interoffice referrals

DAVID A. COCKRELL, O.D., STILLWATER, OKLA.

When my wife, Cherry, and I chose to open our practice 34 years ago, it began as a primary care practice with the main goal of being able to meet the optometric eyecare needs of all our patients. We knew in order to realize that goal, we would have to add more O.D.s to increase the diversity of services.

As our practice has grown with the addition of more O.D.s, we have been fortunate to be able to expand the range of services provided as new services and procedures have become available. Those services range from an expanded pediatric practice to the full range of laser surgical procedures provided by optometrists. The two main reasons for our goals were: (1) Although all optometrists are trained in comprehensive care, no one doctor is adept at every facet; and (2) we could ensure practice growth by having an array of eyecare services under one roof.

Here, I discuss how we accomplished this.

We began by planning for growth

When we initially retained an architect, we specified that the building be designed for planned expansion. When we first began practicing, we were located in a building with no room for expansion, and through this dilemma we learned that designing a building for planned growth was a better decision for us than putting ourselves in the position of possibly relocating several times. (In fact, when the building was first constructed, I bought all the bricks needed for a phase 1, 2 and 3 expansion, because I knew that if I bought them as the practice grew, it was likely that the future brick color wouldn’t match.)

Currently, the practice is under phase 3 construction, which is an additional 5,000 square feet. When that is completed, we’ll be looking to hire another doctor — something we have been doing incrementally since the practice first opened.

More doctors equals greater success, says Dr. Cockrell.

We sought the best advice we could find

Cherry and I aggressively sought colleagues who had different areas of interest who we felt would bring value to the practice. We have added optometrists who are specifically residency trained in specialty areas, such as pathology. In addition, we developed a business agreement with a refractive surgeon to perform refractive surgery in our office.

Achieving our goal

Our goal of being everything to every patient has paid off. On any give day, the practice sees no less than 150 to 200 patients. Don’t limit the success of your practice by limiting its physical space and/or insisting on being the only doctor. The challenge is first developing a long-term goal for your office; what you think you want in the future at this point may change, so keep in mind flexibility is important. Second, a long-time goal, like a short-term goal, is not likely to be achieved without planning. It is critical to be as specific as possible with the plans you design to achieve your goal and to review this goal on an annual basis. OM

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