Let’s say you’ve decided to try out a new doctor who’s been highly recommended, but when you step inside the office, you feel as if you’ve just been transported back to 1991.
“People walk in here and they’re wowed, and in the long run, that’s going to be worth it,” says David Wolf, O.D., of the newly relocated Lake Oswego Vision Clinic and Eyewear Gallery.
If they haven’t bothered to update the seashell décor, do you think they sprung for the latest medical equipment? Even if they have, the way they’ve presented their practice suggests otherwise—and that matters when you’re trying to attract patients in a highly competitive market.
“Your facility conveys the image of your practice and sets the tone with patients,” says David Wolf, O.D., owner of the Lake Oswego Vision Clinic and Eyewear Gallery, who recently relocated to a brand-new office in Lake Oswego, Ore. “If you’re going to do it, don’t do it cheap. People walk in here and they’re wowed, and in the long run, that’s going to be worth it.”
Design is especially important in the optical, where patients are looking for the latest styles in fashionable frames. Many optometrists would much rather focus on eye care than eyewear, but investing in the optical could pay off on both sides of the practice.
“The success of my optical allows me to be that much better on the clinical side,” Dr. Wolf says. “If it generates revenue and you can afford new technology, new equipment, and take better care of people because you have the instrumentation to do that, it’s a win-win.”
Expanding Your Options
Kapperman and White Eye Care’s remodeled office design creates a spa-like atmosphere.
At Kapperman and White Eye Care in Chattanooga, Tenn., growth was the motivating factor for change. In the past year, the doctors finally reached a point where they felt the space they had just wasn’t working any more—for them or their patients. “We had the confidence and the patient base to know that if you want to grow, you’ve got to provide your patients with the products and the space they need and want,” says Mark Kapperman, O.D., founder and primary practice owner.
He also believed that it was the perfect time to take advantage of competitive pricing from contractors and attractive financing from lenders. They ultimately decided on a complete remodel, adding 2,200 sq. ft., three more exam rooms and several other areas in the office. The additional space not only provided the practice with more room, but also gave them the freedom to improve upon their old office design—particularly in the optical.
“If you’re working on an expansion, I think the key is identifying what problems you currently have,” Dr. Kapperman says. Where is the patient flow bottlenecking? Where are people running over each other within your current space? Before the renovation, patients were always lined up at the checkout because there weren’t enough stations, and in the dispensary because the opticians didn’t have enough desks to work with patients.
Dr. Kapperman called in some experts to come up with a plan that would address these issues and make the new office design more efficient and esthetically pleasing. “We can sit down and draw up a plan, but there are professionals who know how things flow and how space works,” he says. “That’s not something we learn in optometry school. In order to be successful, we have to utilize those resources.”
They chose to work with Eye Designs, a design company that specializes in planning, designing and outfitting an optical environment. Because a number of patients had complained that the practice didn’t have enough frames for them to select from, Dr. Kapperman wanted to increase their offerings and upgrade their displays. They more than doubled their inventory—from 500 frames to about 1,200—and purchased a number of sleek wall and floor display cases to show off their expanded selection.
“We’ve already seen a tremendous spike in our optical sales, just in the first couple months we’ve been in this space,” Dr. Kappermen says. And, they expect to see an enthusiastic response at their “Grand ReVision” launch on April 19, when patients will be invited to celebrate the new redesign and purchase discounted prescription eyewear.
A Change of Scenery 
For Dr. Wolf, the critical decision came when the lease was up for the office space he had practiced in for 14 years. It was located in an excellent growth area, but he couldn’t expand his space due to his location in the building. In addition to getting more room, he wanted to increase the practice visibility—at his previous location, he was limited in what signage he could use and he believed that his practice was buried amid all of the corporate offices in the building.
He decided on a new location in a freestanding building on the corner of a busy street, which gave his practice considerably more square footage and visibility. Since his first day in the new office on January 9, he’s had an overwhelmingly positive response from patients and even a few new faces from the neighborhood who saw the construction and decided to check it out. “Drive-by new patients totally sold me on the choices I made,” Dr. Wolf says.
And there’s plenty for them to peruse, because the new optical area is about three times the size of his old one. To bring more attention to his optical business, Dr. Wolf added the Eyewear Gallery tagline to his clinic’s name and worked closely with an optical design company to carefully choose lighting, colors and layout. “I wanted my optical to look like it was truly sales-oriented,” he says. “When you walk into Nordstrom’s, they
have lighting and displays positioned in a way that draw people toward what they want to sell—I wanted to apply the same principles.”
Lake Oswego now features high-quality frame displays as well as more computer stations so optical staff can help multiple patients.
Dr. Wolf opted to install some high-quality frame displays that offered a lot of space, a few that featured jewelry-quality trays to highlight the products and four separate computer stations so the optical staff could take care of multiple people at any station. “Work with good companies and trust what they’re going to do,” he says. “For us, Eye Designs did some incredible things from an interior design standpoint. We wanted to make it look like a high-end space so that people would walk in here and say ‘wow,’ and they do.”
Reinvigorate Your Practice
Like Dr. Wolf, Kimberly Friedman, O.D., and her husband, Les Friedman, O.D., reached a crossroads when the lease was ending for their office in Moorestown, N.J. They planned on moving Moorestown Eye Associates to a new facility, but opted for an expansion and remodel when their landlord made an “unbelievable offer.” One of the challenges was the atypical shape of the office space, which was designed to accommodate a number of small suites as opposed to one large practice.
They contracted an architect to draw up a plan that would address those issues, but the work was pretty extensive. They didn’t want to close the office, lay off employees or cut hours. So, shutting down for a few weeks wasn’t feasible. But, they also didn’t want to settle for less.
“We didn’t want to make a decision for short-term convenience that would have long-term ramifications—we didn’t want to compromise what our office was going to be for the next 10 years just so it would be easier now,” she says.
Instead, they decided to complete the remodel in three phases:
• Phase 1. Completely remodel the two suites adjacent to the current location.
• Phase 2. Move into remodeled suites while previous office is redesigned.
• Phase 3. Remove temporary wall and reconnect all four suites into one large office.
With phase 1 complete and phase 2 underway, the staff and clientele are already excited about the changes that have been made, even though some areas are still under construction.
Designer
cabinetry and pendant lights give the new redesigned optical (left) at
Moorestown Eye Associates a more elegant look than their previous suite
(above).
The expanded optical in the new space is up and running, with six dispensing tables as opposed to just two in the previous suite. This will enable their technicians to work with multiple people at once, doing repairs, dispensing and handling new selections.
The Friedmans worked with the electrical company to install recessed high hats and pendant lights for a slightly more elegant look, and consulted with Eye Designs on the cabinetry design. “It certainly might be easier for someone doing this for the first time to keep it all under one house, but we had become comfortable with the process of coordinating the work,” she says.
It’s a big undertaking, but the couple is confident about the eventual payoff. “Every time you want to invest a large amount of money into your practice, it’s always a little scary, especially in certain economic climates,” Dr. Friedman says. “But having completed three major office remodels and having purchased many large pieces of equipment, I can say that every single time we have invested in our practice, it has paid back multiple times over in multiple ways.”
After 21 years in the optometry business, Dr. Friedman says these investments have not only improved the bottom line in their practice, but also improved their overall sense of professional satisfaction. “It makes you fall in love with optometry all over again and makes you rededicated to what you do every day in a way that just staying in the same stagnant place doesn’t do,” she says.
