Our Key to Growth: Cultivating an Attitude of Care

From about the fourth or fifth grade, I knew I wanted to be an optometrist. Being nearsighted, I was at the optometrist’s office often, and I always loved the warm and welcoming staff. Today, replicating that experience for our patients is how we differentiate our five practices, and why after 60 years, we continue to flourish and grow.

When COVID-19 hit, three of our practices stayed partially open for emergency care. After about five weeks, we were able to ramp up again and, following guidelines from the AOA (American Optometric Association), and the COA (California Optometric Association), have been seeing more patients than ever. Because the larger practice locations have several exam rooms, we can accommodate an increased patient flow, providing the same high standard of care while adhering to heightened safety and sanitation protocols.

The ability to help so many patients during this time reflects the guiding principle of our practice—we truly care about our patients as people. We take pride in being heartfelt with our patients, letting them know we truly care about them, and plan to be here for them for many years to come.

These are lifelong relationships, with generations of family members coming into our practice. We listen, have empathy, share in their triumphs and sorrows, and they become part of our extended family.

As we continue to care for patients in need, we are busier than ever and have needed to supplement our staff with additional doctors. Because of the business support we've received during our long-standing relationship with VSP Global businesses and the Premier Program, we engaged their OD recruitment and matching service, Premier Pathways, to support our hiring efforts. We work with every VSP line of business, from Marchon to VSPOne labs, and those relationships have been very helpful to us while growing our practices. Premier Pathways was able to increase our exposure to highly qualified candidates, give us credibility due to the affiliation with VSP, and secure candidates who met our specific requirements. Instead of having to navigate and pay for more generalized online employment services, we were able to choose from a list of highly qualified ODs, recommended by a company who knows us, our business, and how to recruit professionals.  With the help of Premier Pathways, we selected and hired two optometrists who are highly skilled and share our devotion to patients as people.

In all of our practices, we strive to build relationships with our patients and provide that warmth that I felt as a ten-year-old boy at the optometrist’s office. As I see it, genuinely caring about patients and cultivating an attitude of care throughout the practice is of utmost importance, and hiring staff that share those same values is key to that continuity. Because we feel and demonstrate that genuine care for our patients, they trust us, keep coming back, and together we flourish.