Dr. Karri Buresh's Strategic Delegation Leads to 30% Increase in Specialized Patient Visits
Facing the dual challenge of managing a growing practice and seeking more freedom, Dr. Karri Buresh found a transformative solution in NeuroVisual Medicine (NVM). By delegating her neuro specialty to her dedicated associate, Dr. Stephens, and partnering with NVMI for comprehensive training, Dr. Buresh revolutionized her practice dynamics. This bold move not only liberated her schedule but also ushered in a new era of advanced microprism care and hundreds of new specialty patients.
Discover how Dr. Buresh's strategic shift to NVM empowered her team, enhanced patient satisfaction, and led to unprecedented practice growth.
Fast Facts
- 1 Location
- 4 Doctors
- 2 Years with NVM
698
NVM Patients in 2 Years
90%
Optical Capture from NVM Patients
7
New NVM Patients a Week
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A Challenge to Turn Personal Passion into Practice Opportunity
Dr. Karri Buresh is the proud owner of Broadway Eye Clinic, a fixture in downtown Salt Lake City since the 1980s. When she started over 15 years ago, Dr. Buresh found Neuro-Optometry organically: There were a lot of pediatric patients who needed vision therapy for concussions and other neurological issues in the area. There weren’t many options available — so she filled the gap.
As an entrepreneur with a growing optometry practice, she faced a conflict:
“I loved seeing my neuro patients, but it's a lot of work to run a multi doctor practice. I started to want more freedom and time to be working ON the practice, instead of IN the practice.”
The big question — what to do with her now thriving Neuro-Optometry practice and all of her patients? If she wanted to spend more time growing her practice, she needed to successfully pass on the torch to one of her associate ODs, with a few criteria. She needed her replacement to:
- Get up to speed with Neuro-Optometry fast (months instead of years)
- Offer high standard of Neuro care to her growing patient base
- Essentially replace her as the Neuro expert within her clinic, freeing up her time to take a broader role without limiting the growth of the specialty
Step 1: Choose the Right Associate
As it turns out, a recent hire, Dr. Lauren Stephens, fit the build perfectly and had the key characteristics required to be a great neuro optometrist:
- Genuine curiosity to solve complex cases
- Passion for building relationships with her patients
- High emotional quotient (EQ)
- Open-mindedness to learn new clinical techniques
Dr. Stephens came in with an interest in binocular vision dysfunction (BVD) and the personality to be a champion for this area of her practice. Only one challenge: Dr. Stephens didn’t have prior Neuro-Optometric experience, and traditionally, training a new optometrist to offer Neuro care takes years of study, practice, and attending special conferences. Dr. Buresh needed help ASAP — she needed a way to get Dr. Stephens trained and proficient in a fraction of the time.
Step 2: Implement a Ready-Made System
Around the same time as Dr. Buresh was planning her transition, she stumbled upon a turnkey system for educating and training doctors to identify and provide care to Neuro patients in just five days. That’s where NeuroVisual Medicine Institute (NVMI) entered the picture.
When Dr. Buresh met with Matt and Dr. Debby, she knew almost immediately that it was the right program for her practice:
“We could tell [NVMI] had some great operational systems that we could easily bring into our existing practice to strengthen it and make it more streamlined.”
Once she made the decision to send Dr. Stephens to Michigan for training, her practice’s next chapter had officially begun. NVMI provided Dr. Buresh the support and resources she needed to fully commit to an NVM specialty with Dr. Stephens.
“There's so much to learn in this field. Training my associate OD to free up my time was huge. And the operations and procedures to make our neuro practice more efficient and streamlined added even more value.” Within a week of training, Dr. Stephens was already seeing her own NeuroVisual patients and beginning to relieve Dr. Buresh of her previously demanding Neuro patient schedule.
Step 3: Utilizing Existing Patient Demand
In the past, Broadway Eye Clinic faced the same challenge each time they hired a new associate OD — waiting for them to build their patient schedule and become profitable for the practice. But this time was distinctly different, Dr. Buresh recalls:
“It was a really great way to fill almost two of her days right off the bat. We didn't have to bring in new patients… roughly 25% of our patient population would benefit from some type of prism in their lenses.”
With NVM, Dr. Stephens was able to spend more time with her patients than the average OD and offer treatments that changed the course of her patients’ lives, something most young ODs don’t get the chance to do until much later in their careers.
Dr. Stephens was able to use internal referrals to pick up momentum quickly, and the best part is that Dr. Buresh didn’t need to be involved much in the training and implementation, because NVMI provided her team with all the training and systems needed to launch a new revenue stream.
How Dr. Buresh’s Practice Has Grown
Despite her faith in the decision to partner with NVMI to get her associate trained up and ready, Dr. Buresh was understandably concerned about the investment of time and money associated with sending Dr. Stephens out for intensive training so early in her career. As Dr. Buresh put it:
“When I look at this from a risk perspective and wonder, ‘Are we going to get a return on that investment?’, I’m happy to say, Yes! — we’ve not only returned the investment but exceeded our expectations for it."
Here’s how things have turned out since beginning with NVM:
Return on Investment (ROI): Dr. Buresh notes that training paid for itself in under three months, delivering a “significant profit” within the first six. NVM patients offer increased per-exam revenue, allowing the practice to earn more from fewer daily exams.
Optical Impact: NeuroVisual patients purchase more from optical — Broadway Eye Clinic reports a 90% optical capture rate for these patients within the first two years.
New Patient Increase: Dr. Stephens has seen nearly 700 NVM patients in her first two years of offering this new treatment. Offering comprehensive BVD and microprism treatment has fueled a growing stream of patient referrals from other local medical providers.
Dr. Buresh reflects that one of the most impactful benefits of offering NeuroVisual Medicine can’t be quantified in spreadsheets — the satisfaction of providing life changing care to these patients that’s felt across the entire office:
"If you don't want to rush through patient care—boom, boom, boom—and miss out on quality time with patients, you'll absolutely get that quality time with these [NeuroVisual] patients, and you'll find a lot of joy in it too."
Lessons Learned in Strategic Delegation
Delegating can be one of the most powerful skills to learn as an optometry practice owner. When you can empower others to take responsibility for things that currently occupy your time, new possibilities and time in your schedule start to appear.
Dr. Buresh was eager to make a transition towards business growth and entrepreneurship, working ON the practice more and working clinically IN the practice less.
Now, she sees patients less than one day per week and now has time to pursue other projects and growth initiatives in her practice. And, each Neuro patient is receiving top notch NeuroVisual care from her associate. Strategic delegation of neuro patient care is now complete.
As a practice owner, are you seeking time and freedom in your schedule? Or want to empower one of your associate ODs to spearhead a new line of specialty care in your clinic (with the support and systems to ensure success)? Learn more about how NVMI can help.
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Hear from industry experts and a successful practice owner on the pitfalls of vision plans, and more importantly, how to break free for sustainable practice growth.
⦿ Live Webinar
The Vision Plan Off ramp: How to succeed in eye care without relying on vision plans
Hear from industry experts and a successful practice owner on the pitfalls of vision plans, and more importantly, how to break free for sustainable practice growth.
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