Many health care practitioners are fleeing to join larger groups that offer “economies of scale”. This is happening for many reasons including decreased insurance reimbursements, increased equipment and personnel costs and the demands of electronic health care records with all the related expenses.

This trend is good for many doctors who will have fewer management headaches and can now have a viable exit strategy and retirement plan. Employee health benefit plans and other perks are also provided for those within the group.

This trend is also good for Medicare and commercial insurers since they will have fewer entities to deal with and can more easily control costs by imposing complex reimbursements formulas and regulatory constraints on these conglomerates.

This trend, however, is not necessarily so good for patients. Invariably, the larger organizations become more “faceless” and less “patient friendly”; waiting rooms resemble walk-in clinics or Emergency Rooms; staff turnover is common and patients often find themselves having to travel to other “satellite locations” for many services.

So what’s the “right size”? Small one or two doctor offices are becoming historical footnotes. Practice management complexities are just too much for these small practices. Conversely, as noted above, the patchwork “mega groups” and hospital-owned entities can be intimidating and unmanageable for many people.

We believe the “Goldilocks Solution” is in between these two extremes...a size and level of sophistication that is “just right” for the public as well as the doctors and staff who comprise the practice. This offers a level of service, flexibility and independence that cannot be matched by larger or smaller operations. The on-site availability of subspecialty physicians and ancillary services such as eye wear and other product offerings provide for a “one-stop” experience.

The Center for Eye Care and Optical represents such a “right-sized” organization wherein we are big enough to have all the latest equipment and management systems while not losing the personal touch. Once the dust settles and all the scrambling for cover has played itself out, we believe that this practice model will proliferate as demand increases and the larger groups become unwieldy and less desirable. You don’t have to wait for this to happen. We are here now and are constantly working on how we can better serve you and your family. We look forward to continuing to care for you and yours and welcome any newcomers that are looking for best-in-class care with friendliness and convenience.

We are driven by the idea of perfecting “the patient experience”. We would like your visit with us to be among the best parts of your day rather than an overwhelming, confusing and exhausting process. Our watchwords are “hospitality” and “efficiency”. Danny Meyers, the famous NY restaurateur, defines hospitality as “what is done for you” not “what is done to you”. Maximized efficiency allows us to manage all the complexities of a medium to large scale office while getting you through your exam and treatment in a timely fashion so you can get on to the rest of your day.

We think that, starting right at the beginning of the New Year when our major renovation is complete, you will find us to be the ideal eye center catering to all your needs in an extremely welcoming and comfortable environment. Besides all the construction-related issues, we are now daily hard at work refining all of our routines from parking to patient education and everything in between. We hope to hear a few “wows” from our patient guests who will be surprised that a visit to the doctor could actually be a most pleasant experience.

Hope to see you soon...