Dr. Wilson stands in her new office space. Dr. Wilson and her husband and practice co-founder, Shawn Wilson, created a space where more patients can receive dry eye treatments and vision therapy and neuro-rehab services, among other treatments.
A transformative new space for a growing practice.
By Janet Monaco Wilson, OD, FCOVD,
and Shawn Wilson
April 10, 2024
Early in 2019, only five years after opening a cold-start private practice in a 1,398 square foot shopping center parcel in Spartanburg, S.C., we were fortunate enough to have the good “problem” of outgrowing our physical office space.
The demand for the specialty care we provide at Bella Vision forced us to explore either leasing larger or additional space(s) or building a new practice.
We opted for the latter and began carefully mapping out our specific needs in a standalone new construction project. What we thought would initially be a 5,000 square foot building, quickly turned into a 7,208 square foot, two-story building.
Launching Building Project at Start of Pandemic
Planning began in 2019 with the intention of purchasing land and breaking ground in mid-to-late 2020. However, as we were securing financing for our project in March of 2020, the world started shutting down due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As confusing as that time was for all of us, we chose to look at the delay as an opportunity to dive further into our planning process, and make a new space as functional and efficient as possible for our team to provide the best care to our patients.
During the delay, we leaned on trusted friends and colleagues who are private practice owners around the country and either recently built new offices or were in the process of planning and building like we were. We affectionately call them our “sister practices.”
With such terrible things happening in the world during the height of the pandemic, it was such a blessing to connect with other trusted private practice owners to share ideas, get feedback and learn how others effectively used their spaces to provide patient care.
Priorities in Planning
So, what did we prioritize in our planning?
- Build for growth and flexibility, not for what we thought we needed at the time
- Create dedicated spaces for our team
- Full-service vision rehabilitation clinic
- Multiple exam rooms and specialty treatment areas
- Ease of movement for doctors and staff
- Storage!
- Expand upon our branding and colors from our original location
As the world began to come out of the pandemic, we were able to restart our process again. Thanks to our long-lasting relationship with our lender, they honored the original pre-COVID terms of our financing discussion. This was important as the total cost of our project increased by nearly 30 percent from pre-COVID.
We finally broke ground in January of 2022, the project was completed in late August and we opened our new doors for patient care on October 3, 2022.
The new space has been a welcome relief for our team and our patients. The expansion has helped us better deliver on our mission of providing exceptional eyecare backed by the latest research and technology for our patients.
The outside of Bella Vision. Dr. Wilson and Shawn Wilson note how much the new space has positively impacted the practice’s growth prospects.
Changing Our Patient Care & Practice Growth Prospects
How has the new building helped? Some examples include:
- We now have the physical space to add effective technology to better serve our patients.
- Our patient flow is much more efficient and tailored to all of our unique exams
- We have a full dry eye space to expand our services and treat more patients as the disease becomes more prevalent.
- Our optical is now a bright, spacious and welcoming space, better showcasing our frames
- With the rising need for optometric vision therapy, our 1,500 square foot vision rehabilitation clinic provides us the opportunity to treat more patients in a more effective and efficient way than ever before.
- Our team now has an entire kitchen space, meeting room and locker/restroom space.
Most assume that growing from one exam room to five, or building a space with nearly 6,000 additional square feet, would mean simply doubling our doctors’ patient schedules to fit as many comprehensive exams in as possible, following national trends in healthcare. However, that is definitely not the case. The pace has allowed us to be more efficient and strategic in our scheduling and allowed us to dive deeper into specialty care.
Other Articles to Explore
For example, we now have the ability to schedule up to 12 intense pulsed light (IPL) or radio frequency (RF) treatments in a given week, as opposed to the limited four per week in our old space–a nearly 200 percent increase in dry treatment availability.
We do not necessarily schedule that many each week, but it allows us to efficiently balance our comprehensive exams, traumatic brain injury (TBI) exams, or our visual performance exams (VPE), depending on where our patients are in their individual treatment plans.
In our vision rehabilitation clinic, the move allowed a second vision therapist to run a full schedule of vision therapy sessions, moving patient treatment times up by months on the calendar. Before, we were limited to only 32-36 sessions per week.
Now, we have the space for up to 70 sessions per week, a 94 percent increase in schedule availability. We look forward to adding a third and fourth therapist to our team as the program continues to grow. Again, the additional space allowed more efficiency by reducing our wait list for vision therapy.
We have grown our practice with intention and by following our mission. Taking the necessary time to truly listen to our patients’ needs, making sure they have an understanding of their diagnosis, and walking them through treatment options, has helped us build long-lasting relationships with our patients over the past decade.
Our growth has been a direct result of staying disciplined and making mission-appropriate decisions that allow our doctors the time they need to provide the highest level of patient care.
Janet Monaco Wilson, OD, FCOVD, and her husband, Shawn Wilson, founded Bella Vision in Spartanburg, S.C. To contact them: shawn@bella-vision.com
