SOCIAL

  O.D. SCENE

THE ENTERTAINING SIDE OF OPTOMETRY

Q&A

Here, in part two of my interview with consultants, I speak with optometrists Neil Gailmard, Mike Rothschild, John Rumpakis and David Ziegler.

I am not sure why I spend so much time following the careers of these consultants. Wait! I do know! I thought I knew our industry as well as anyone, but each time I listen to lectures or read articles by these optometrists, I realize the massive knowledge we have available at our fingertips and, of course, how much more we need to know to excel today.

Neil, with his wife, developed one of the premier private optometry practices. Today, he is a full-time consultant who pays it forward by sharing his personal private practice success with others.

Mike has impressed me with his organizational skills.

John has mastered the art and science of managed care, as it relates to billing and coding. You better know what you are doing. Do it right: happy life; do it wrong: go straight to jail!

Dave has developed some interesting patient management systems. Enjoy!

Jack Schaeffer, O.D., F.A.A.O.,
Editor-in-Chief
O.D. Scene

OPTOMETRY CONSULTANTS WEIGH IN . . .

NEIL GAILMARD, O.D., M.B.A.
MIKE ROTHSCHILD, O.D.
JOHN RUMPAKIS, O.D., M.B.A.,
& DAVE ZIEGLER, O.D.

Q: WHAT IS YOUR MOST MEMORABLE CONSULTING CASE AND WHY?

NG: I’ve had many consulting cases where I helped an O.D. make important career and life decisions. Often, the client was simply not seeing an opportunity or had not considered an important factor. That new idea I bring to the table becomes a life-changing event, and that is truly rewarding. Examples include: buying real estate for a new building, deciding to sell or not sell the practice, opening additional office locations, hiring an associate O.D., or implementing dramatic changes for time management.

MR: I don’t think I can come up with just one “most memorable” case, but I have memorable moments from each relationship. My favorite is when someone with a new practice realizes that he or she is working so hard at the “other job,” that the doctor is choking the practice by not giving it the attention it needs to grow. Some doctors work full-time jobs and are building their private practice on the side. That’s great, I did it too, but the No. 1 thing has to be the No. 1 thing.

JR: I was handling my very first large practice sale/purchase, just a little over $2.5 million. It was a fairly complex transaction and I had performed the appraisal and was acting as a transaction consultant for both parties. It took nearly eight months to come to agreement on all issues and structure the deal to accommodate all tax issues. As in any practice sale/purchase, maintaining cash flow and not making any significant changes to the practice are critical within the first three to six months following closing. However, the buyer was hellbent on making changes immediately, despite all advice to the contrary. He fired all of the existing staff, changed the optical and changed hours of operations and prices — all within the first 60 days of closing. Needless to say, cash flow suffered terribly, there was backlash from the community, and the buyer ended up defaulting and giving the practice back to the seller. I learned a very sobering lesson — people won’t always follow your advice even if it is sound and objective. In this case eight months of hard work was lost…

DZ: I don’t have a single case that comes to mind. My efforts are very focused on a single area of running a practice and that is marketing programs that are personalized to the patient. I don’t consider myself to be a true consultant like others who offer a top to bottom evaluation of running the practice. I focus on personalizing brochures given to patients at the time of dispensing, recall and direct-mail programs that are also personalized and an iPad app at the iTunes app store called The Eyewear Stylist for the patient-buying experience.

1: Dr. Rothschild with Caroline and Samuel. 2: Dr. Rumpakis’ Magic Moonshine. 3: Dr. Rothschild lecturing. 4: Dr. Ziegler with Aaron. 5: Dr. Gailmard with Ryan and Sean at a baseball game. 6: Dr. Ziegler on a mission trip.

Q: WHAT DO YOU THINK IS THE MOST IMPORTANT MESSAGE YOU CAN GIVE TO PRACTICING OPTOMETRISTS TODAY?

NG: I recommend that practice owners join an optometric alliance and work with a team of consultants. Large corporations now are owning practices like never before, and the independent O.D. needs the resources of an alliance group to level the playing field. Many O.D.s belong to two or more groups. Alliances can lower the cost of goods and provide the advisory support to help grow the practice beyond what any optometrist can do alone.

MR: In the history of the world, there has never been a better time to be an optometrist. All of the things that we are worried are going to damage our profession, we have been worried about for a long time. It is important that we focus on the good aspects of the changes in our profession and use them to our advantage. The negatives need to be fought, but not feared. Don’t worry; just get to work.

JR: Be aware of the dynamic changes of the health care market around you, have specific goals on what you want your business to be, develop a strategic and tactical plan to succeed, stay focused, and give yourself time to properly execute it.

DZ: Find ways to differentiate your patient experience to give consumers a compelling reason to choose your practice. There’s no shortage of great ideas and ways to do this, but there is a significant lack of perseverance and follow through to actually implement the changes needed. I often mention the 80-20 rule at my lectures. Only 20% of the doctors will actually make the changes that they say they will, and 80% of them keep doing the same thing year after year. It’s about taking risks, not being afraid to fail and creating a patient-centered approach with staff who are empowered, all while following the vision of the leader.

Q: WHAT IS YOUR ADVICE FOR OPTOMETRISTS ON HOW TO GROW THE MEDICAL SEGMENT OF THEIR PRACTICES?

NG: Start with the fundamentals: 1) Sharpen your skills through medical CE courses. 2) Invest in the instrumentation to help you diagnose and treat, such as a retinal camera, OCT, threshold visual fields, macular pigment density screener and dry eye therapy devices. 3) Become a provider for all medical insurance plans, and bill these plans for services rendered. 4) Grow the whole practice through solid practice management principles, and the medical segment will grow with it. Medical eye care is within every population of people.

MR: Step 1 is to get good at understanding disease and communicating it to your patients the way you would to a fourth grader. Step 2 is to invest in the equipment you need to do the job right. If you don’t think you can afford a specific device that you feel is needed to assist in the diagnosis and management of patients, consider a borrowing arrangement with a fellow O.D. until you can afford it. Step 3 is to keep getting better. Continue to learn, practice communication, and continue to invest.

JR: Building the medical segment of your practice is not a complicated thing; just take care of what your patients present with, accurately create your medical record, and bill properly for what you did. Don’t let yourself get in your own way of your own success.

DZ: Invest in equipment that allows you to provide higher levels of patient care, get trained on these areas of eye care, then market those services to the surrounding area. It’s hard to imagine practicing without an OCT, topography, meibography and aberrometry. We utilize these instruments every day to offer comprehensive care to our patients. Building a dry eye practice, myopia control services and specialty contact lenses are great areas for ECPs to explore.

1: Dr. Ziegler doing mission work.
2: Dr. Rothschild and wife, Christy.
3: Dr. Rumpakis and wife, Sarah.
4: Dr. Gailmard and grandkids.

Q: IF YOU COULD HAVE DINNER WITH ANYONE, LIVING OR DECEASED, WHO WOULD IT BE AND WHY?

NG: Babe Ruth. I am a big baseball fan, and George Herman Ruth had a tough childhood and a fascinating life. It would be fun to hear him tell his story.

MR: George Washington, and I would want to have the dinner in his time, at a camp during the Revolutionary War. I don’t know why I have this fascination with our first president, but I often find myself wondering what times were like for him. How did he command such respect? How did he project himself in such a way that everyone just knew that he was in charge? What did his voice sound like?

JR: Bob Hope and Johnny Carson – both were brilliant people who interacted with many individuals over their respective careers and for whom humor was their way to help others cope with the world around them.

DZ: Mother Teresa. She understood how to strike a balance between earth and heaven.

Q: WHO ARE THE MEMBERS OF YOUR FAMILY, AND WHAT DO YOU LIKE TO DO FOR FUN?

NG: My wife, Susan, is an optometrist and co-owner of Gailmard Eye Center. We have two sons, Ryan (banking executive) and Sean (professor of political science at UC Berkeley). Both sons are married, and we have six grandchildren, including a new baby who just turned 12 weeks old. Our lives revolve around family, and we see all of them quite often. We like to attend school and sporting events that the grandkids are involved with, and we like to travel with the family to Hawaii, Disney World and Yosemite National Park, for example, or have them visit our homes in the Bay Area of California and North-west Indiana.

MR: My wife, Christy, and I have two children. Caroline is a sophomore at Auburn University, and Samuel is a junior at Carrollton High School. For fun, I enjoy reading, writing and thinking of new ways to do things in optometry. As a family, we long for opportunities to just sit and be together, in a lounge chair or by a campfire.

JR: My wife, Sarah, daughters Alexandra (Ally) and Christina (Chrissy), and my parents, Mike and Louise and sister Michelle. I love to cook, lift weights, cycle and explore new hole-in-the-wall restaurants in cities around the globe.

DZ: Barb is my wife of 33 years, Kristen is the newest optometrist in my practice, Lauren is a yoga therapist in the Bay Area, Adam is a manager at Google in San Francisco, and Aaron is a geologist in Colorado. I do a lot of road biking. It’s not uncommon for me to spend four to five hours out riding on a weekend. There’s nothing like the mind-body separation that you get when you’re on a bike. I get my best ideas out there.

1: Dr. Gailmard and wife, Susan, in Cabo San Lucas. 2: Dr. Ziegler hanging out with Aaron. 3: Dr. Rumpakis joking around with Ally and Chrissy.

Q: WHAT IS SOMETHING FEW PEOPLE KNOW ABOUT YOU?

NG: I love electronics, and I have built four home movie theaters in various homes through the years. Each had a large screen video projector and state-of-the-art sound. My latest system features a 150-inch screen, a Sony 4K Ultra HD ceiling mount projector, Bose speakers and recliner seating for 14 people. We love to watch movies, TV and sports with friends and family.

MR: I once rode a bicycle from San Francisco to Charleston, S.C.

JR: I’m an avid wine collector, and I love to make craft cocktails. I make my own cask-aged manhattans and bottle it for friends and personal consumption. I call it “Dr. John’s Magic Moonshine,” and my slogan is “We’ll have you seeing double, but feeling single in no time.” I also play piano and was in a band called “the Pedestrians” while in optometry school.

DZ: Dr. Rod Tahran, from Essilor, and I were hot dog vendors in the stands at Anaheim Stadium (now Angel Stadium) to pay for optometry school. He keeps me laughing even today.

Q: WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE MOVIE, BOOK, BAND AND ADULT BEVERAGE?

NG: Movie: “Love, Actually” and “The Patriot;” Band: The Beatles; Book: “See You at the Top” and “Customer Satisfaction is Worthless;” Adult beverage: Cabernet Sauvignon from Napa Valley

MR: Movie: “Rocky;” Book: “Fred Factor;” and “The Old Man and The Sea;” Band: TCB Band; Adult beverage: single barrel bourbon.

JR: Movie: James Bond, “The Godfather” trilogy; Books ­— anything by Vince Flynn, Daniel Silva, David Baldacci; Band: Elton John and The Rolling Stones; Adult beverage: A Manhattan.

DZ: Movie: “Dumb and Dumber;” Book: “Wild At Heart;” Band: Bob Dylan; Adult beverage: Blue Moon. OM