Member Spotlight: Opening a New Optometry Practice
By: Stacy Turner, OD & Patti Bushnell, Practice Manager
PECAA Members Since 2015
I have been a practicing Optometrist since 1988. From 1990 until 1998, I was the leaseholder of a Master Eye Associates in Plano, Texas. In October of 1998, I moved my practice to a private setting in Plano.. This practice (including all patient records) was subsequently sold to a partner in April, 2015. In October, 2015, I opened a new practice in McKinney, Texas. Although I have had some patients from my previous practice find me, the majority of the patients we see are new to the McKinney office.
PECAA fits into our budget & offers a wide array of services.
During the summer of 2015, we began to explore options for buying groups. After investigating many options, talking with some of our representatives, other eye care professionals, and interviewing many groups, we decided that PECAA had the most to offer and was at a cost that would fit into our budget. PECAA seemed to have a wide array of services available to the practice and they were very responsive to us when we had questions.
Website & Social Media Services:
Initially, we took advantage of the buying power with the vendors. We also signed up for Glimpse so that we could keep an eye on how the practice was doing on a daily basis and as compared to other practices. As the need arose, we used PECAA for printing our business cards and office brochures. Then we decided to have them create a website for us, as we weren’t pleased with the support we were getting from the previous company. The website PECAA designed is beautiful and incorporates our office colors. It is new, fresh, and uncluttered. Any changes we want to incorporate are done quickly. The web design staff is friendly and very responsive. Because PECAA designed the website, we decided to also use them for digital media. They put new material out frequently and have helped with Google+, Twitter, Facebook and website campaigns.
Personal practice visit with our MBA.
Stephanie Neilson, our MBA, has been to the practice twice. She schedules time to sit down with us and help us determine areas that need extra attention. She has also fielded questions we have had about many aspects of the practice, including optical sales and merchandising. We have confidence that if we ask her a question, she will either have the answer or will know how to get the information we need.
Peer-to-Peer Dinners:
So far, we have been able to attend all the Peer-to-Peer dinners in our area. The speakers and information have been excellent at each of these dinners. My only concern, is that these dinners are attended heavily by doctor staff and by very few doctors. It would be more helpful to have conversation between doctors, although, I don’t mind having staff attend in addition to the doctors.
Optical Merchandising Workshop:
We have also attended two one-day seminars. The first was a Practice Management Conference in Houston and was attended by myself and my practice manager. I was able to receive 4 hours of continuing education at no additional charge and the two of us received information that we were able to take back and put into practice. Most recently my practice manager, marketing manager, and lead optician attended the Optical Merchandising Workshop in Oklahoma City. They all felt that the material was well presented and enjoyed the psychological and analytical approach to board management and merchandising.
We’ve only scratched the surface of the depth of PECAA.
Finally, I feel that the wealth of information and services we have received from our PECAA membership are without equal. We have only scratched the surface of the depth of PECAA. PECAA is very accommodating to new practices with the discounts and programs that are available. We are looking forward to attending our first Annual Meeting this May in New Orleans.
