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By Lavar Kofoed, OD
Nov. 20, 2019
When you graduate from optometry school, and begin your career, you look for ways to get ahead and become the doctor you dreamed of becoming.
With so much competition from online retail and large optical chains, that journey to find the best career for yourself, and to start a profitable practice, can be boosted by co-locating with an optical retailer.
Eyemart Express has helped me create a thriving multi-location practice that serves patients by delivering high-level care, while continuing to grow in profitability.
The growth of my practice since co-locating with Eyemart Express has been substantial. Each year we deliver tens of thousands of comprehensive exams across our nine locations, and have generated multi-millions in revenues.
A Model For Growth
I opened my first office next door to an Eyemart Express in 1996 in Boise, Idaho. At that time I didn’t have the vision of a multi-location practice. However, having an office next door to a well-known retailer was such a positive experience that over time we were ready to open our second location. We now have nine different locations, five in Idaho and four in Utah. Our largest is our home office in Boise, in which we have eight exam lanes. The other locations are not yet as large, but I believe they each have the potential to be just as big.
Advanced instrumentation in one of Dr. Kofoed’s nine offices. Doctors can lease such equipment from Eyemart Express, making it easy to practice a high level of medical eyecare.
Great Model for Optometry’s Future
Patients have many options for refraction and eyewear purchases. For that reason, having a practice in which the doctor can focus on medical eyecare instead of eyewear sales, is liberating and conducive to long-term profitability.
With no optical shop to manage, I am able to put my patient’s medical eyecare needs and services first.
We have advanced instrumentation, including OCTs, visual fields and automated phoroptors. All of our offices have great high technology and electronic health records that make it easy to share information between our offices, making it simple for patients to visit any of our locations, and receive the same level of care. It’s easy for practice owners to equip their offices with the most advanced and up-to-date technology, as doctors can lease instrumentation from Eyemart Express.
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We see – and care for –everything from macular degeneration and glaucoma to cataracts, dry eye and beyond. We also have a stable business in contact lenses, and care for patients of all ages, from children to the elderly.
Creating Happy Patients
The care a doctor provides in the exam room is only one part of a patient’s optical experience. The other part is the ability of the patient to then easily and quickly fulfill the doctor’s eyewear prescriptions. An optical retailer with the power of Eyemart Express means that patients can often get their glasses made the same day of their exam. Eyemart Express is able to make 90 percent of glasses the same day, most within an hour.
With such convenience, and such a high level of medical eyecare, our patients have no reason to look for any other provider. We are able to draw new patients in, and keep existing patients long-term, with many referring friends and family. We have a practice primed for continued growth–and continued great patient care.
Lavar Kofoed, OD, is the owner of Eye Pros, a nine-location practice with offices in Idaho and Utah. Dr. Kofoed is not an employee of Eyemart Express and the opinions expressed in this article are his own. To contact him: drkofoed@theeyepros.com
