Member Spotlight: Boise Vision Care
PECAA Optometry Practice of the Year
Eye care practices seem to be getting busier and busier these days, with a mountain of tasks to mark off their to-do lists including billing and coding, human resource management, financial goal-setting, measuring performance metrics, marketing… the list goes on and on. And that’s the challenge that Boise Vision Care works to overcome each day.
“Every day you go home and feel everything weighing on you. You didn’t get to that bank statement or you didn’t return the call to that patient,” explains Kathy Boespflug, Office Manager at Boise Vision Care. “There’s just never enough time.”
But Boise Vision Care has found help overcoming such challenges by engaging with PECAA’s MBA Program. In fact, Boise Vision Care recently won PECAA’s 2018 Optometry Practice of the Year award at the Annual Meeting last month (April 19-21). As the first practice to win the award, they were chosen by PECAA’s MBA Team for fully engaging (across all team members) in the program as well as implementing the advice presented to them to drive profitable and meaningful change in their practice.
Expert Advice a Phone Call – or Text – Away
Boespflug says the MBA Program has been a “huge benefit to our practice.”
“The doctors are just drowning and PECAA is the life preserver. They can get you up to speed and even race across the water by making practices successful on an ongoing basis,” she explains.
For example, Boise Vision Care recently sold part of the practice to its third doctor and tapped their MBA to run an appraisal for the new doctor. Although Boise Vision has a CPA who can offer some business advice, Boespflug says her MBA looks at everything from an optometry point-of-view.
“It was an intensive appraisal but it was a good process. We felt comfortable and we felt both sides were
represented well, both seller and buyer,” Boespflug says.
Another area where Boespflug says the practice benefited greatly from the MBA Program is in purchasing major pieces of equipment. At a recent conference, the doctors faced an offer that seemed too good to pass up.
“We realized this was an emotional decision, and yet they (the vendor) wanted us to make it in the moment,” she says. So Boespflug called her MBA, Bryan Hoban, and gave him the pertinent information about the new equipment as well as what they were currently using.
“We were able to have someone help us analyze the purchase from a true business standpoint, weighing the cost versus the benefit and potential revenue growth,” she says.
Strategy and Marketing Drive Continued Success
The MBA program has helped Boise Vison’s growth and profits, Boespflug says. “We know our key
performance indicators, such as revenue per patient and capture rate.”
Marketing has been a lot more manageable, too. Boise Vision Care has numerous marketing channels, including Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. “If you’re a doctor, how do you know how to do social media?” Boespflug says. “Now with Innexus, I can just send them the info about a sunglass sale and it’s done.”
Boespflug says she doesn’t understand why more PECAA members don’t utilize the MBA Program. “You have this resource at your fingertips, it’s part of your membership benefits. It’s not an additional cost,” she says.
“You can delegate so much of what you have on your to-do list with what PECAA offers you,” Boespflug explains. “Besides the MBA Program, you can go to the vendors, you can go to the PECAA website for resources, or tap into Glimpse or IncentivEYES.”
The practice’s recent award for fully utilizing the MBA Program is just the icing on the cake. The prize included airfare and lodging for two at next year’s Annual Meeting in Austin, Texas (May 16 – 18, 2019).
“I am lucky to be part of this practice, the doctors are great clinical doctors. But they cannot wear every hat,” Boespflug says.
“The MBA Program and other benefits like the Peer-to-Peer dinners, they help everyone raise the bar. Not necessarily for each practice, although they do that too, but for the whole industry,” she says.
