The Rewards of a Cutting-Edge Mentality
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PRACTICE PROFILES s THE REWARDS OF A CUTTING-EDGE MENTALITY Cleveland Eye Clinic and ClearChoice Custom LASIK Center focus on collaborative care and creative marketing to fuel their growth. BY ROCHELLE NATALONI, SENIOR STAFF WRITER he Cleveland Eye Clinic, when it opened in 1945, was a har- binger of things to come. Ophthalmologists worked collaboratively with optom- etristsT from the start, and the clinic’s original owners established this mutually rewarding model. This forward-thinking paradigm continued to flourish under the leadership of cataract and refractive surgery pioneer Robert G. Wiley, MD, who became the owner of the practice in 1990. His son, William F. Wiley, MD, who acquired the practice and became medical Figure 1. Cleveland Eye Clinic and ClearChoice Custom LASIK Center headquarters. director in 2002, remains committed to the clinic’s collaborative care model, but he’s also branched out into ancil- managing to retain the casual nature started back when RK was the refractive lary ophthalmic businesses and brands. upon which it was founded. procedure of choice, and Jeff was out in Given his lineage, the younger Dr. Wiley brought in medical part- the field selling RK instrumentation. He Dr. Wiley has been involved in ophthal- ners Shamik Bafna, MD, and Thomas viewed ophthalmologists more as part- mology and refractive surgery his entire M. Chester, OD, to help manage the ners than clients.” life. He underwent radial keratotomy Cleveland Eye Clinic and Clear Choice The Cleveland Eye Clinic has seven (RK) in the pre-LASIK era; worked with Custom LASIK Center. Beyond provider locations, and ClearChoice has three. one of the pioneers of refractive surgery, partners, they engaged two nonphysi- The separate entities share a main head- Svyatoslav Fyodorov, MD, during a rota- cian partners: Jeff Kissinger as a manag- quarters (Figure 1) and an ambulatory tion in medical school in Russia; and ing partner in the LASIK business and surgery center (ASC). The Cleveland Eye grew up attending what has developed Michelle Nelson as partner and head of Clinic focuses on third-party reimbursed into the annual Caribbean Eye Meeting. marketing. Mr. Kissinger is in charge of and refractive cataract surgery, and That meeting began as an informal business development and works hand ClearChoice Custom LASIK handles cash- gathering started by his father and like- in hand with Ms. Nelson in marketing. pay procedures, including laser refractive minded eye care providers; they decid- “My father built a large referral surgery, corneal inlays, and CXL. The ed that their children’s yearly spring network of optometrists through the practices and ASC combined have more breaks were the perfect time to meet Cleveland Eye Clinic, and simultaneously, than 200 full-time employees. in tropical locales to share research and on a parallel path, he and Jeff started “Having two separate practices is a anecdotes about their cases. Today he ClearChoice Custom LASIK Center,” unique and effective business model,” leads the annual meeting, which has Dr. Wiley told CRST. “ClearChoice Dr. Wiley said. “If you are providing grown into a formal symposium while sparked out of their relationship that generalized care for cataract patients, AUGUST 2018 | CATARACT & REFRACTIVE SURGERY TODAY 93 s PRACTICE PROFILES as well as LASIK, it can be confusing to collaborative care, guerilla marketing, JEFFREY KISSINGER: patients. That was particularly true in the quest for success, and ice cream. In 1999 when LASIK the early days of laser refractive surgery. took off, we created The centers that specialized in refrac- CRST: Cataract surgery has more of a separate brand for tive surgery or LASIK alone did better a refractive surgical component in that. We didn’t want than the ones that tried to do both recent years. Does this mean there is LASIK patients sitting in the same lobby cataract and refractive, so it makes more interaction between Cleveland as cataract patients. We wanted a perfect sense that having two distinct Eye Clinic and ClearChoice Custom separate location, brand, and feel. Now business entities worked well for us.” LASIK Center? that these LASIK patients have had that upscale boutique experience at GROWING BUSINESS WILLIAM F. WILEY, ClearChoice Custom LASIK Center, they The past 15 years have been kind to MD: They are still expect a similar environment when Cleveland Eye Clinic and ClearChoice, separate business they return for cataract surgery years Mr. Kissinger said. “When Bill started entities, but they are later. So we’ve been making over our about 15 years ago, we had one loca- more closely aligned cataract offices to look and feel a little tion, and our combined staff for than they were originally. Shortly hipper and more like our LASIK centers. cataract and LASIK was in the range after I joined the practice in 2002, we of 10 to 15 employees,” he said. “This started seeing the emergence of the CRST: Comanagement and year, our LASIK volume is up about premium IOL market. That’s when collaborative care are part of the 10% and cataracts are up about 20%. we started to see the parallel paths lifeblood of Cleveland Eye Clinic and We have been really blessed to enjoy of refractive surgery in one business ClearChoice Custom LASIK Center. some rapid and steady growth.” and cataract surgery in another How is your system structured? Dr. Bafna; M. Amir Moarefi, MD; and converging. That’s also when we Jeffrey M. Augustine, OD (Figure 2), and decided it would be a good idea to DR. WILEY: We have two different the other providers at the two centers build a headquarters that housed ways that we comanage with are integral to this growth, Mr. Kissinger, both of those businesses plus an ASC optometrists. There’s the traditional said, and he sees no sign of its abate- so we would have all the technology way, where doctors refer patients ment. “We are just at the tip of the under one roof. We now share directly to us. Then there’s another iceberg,” he said. “As long as the baby patients, staff, and cultures between way, which is that our surgeons see boomers keep coming of age, I think we the two entities. We’re seeing that patients in optometrists’ offices. On will continue to grow and need more the cataract culture is now much any given Thursday, I will visit up to doctors, more providers, and more plac- more reflective of a refractive surgical nine optometry practices and do es to provide world-class surgery.” mindset, and the lessons we learned preoperative exams and some minor In an interview with CRST, Dr. in the early days of LASIK have helped procedures in their facilities. A team Wiley and Mr. Kissinger touched on tremendously in our cataract practice. of three technicians gets there about a half hour ahead of me to set up an IOLMaster (Carl Zeiss Meditec), a unit Figure 2. The for selective laser trabeculoplasty, and an Cleveland Eye Nd:YAG laser. This saves the patients a Clinic team trip to the Cleveland Eye Clinic because includes, from they can see a Cleveland Eye Clinic left to right, surgeon in their optometrist’s office. Shamik Bafna, MD; William F. Wiley, MD; Jeffrey CRST: How did ClearChoice Custom Augustine, OD; LASIK deal with the economic and M. Amir fluctuations that hurt so many LASIK Moarefi, MD. practices? MR. KISSINGER: We’ve weathered some difficult times. When we started with LASIK in Cleveland, there were 30 LASIK providers within 50 miles. Today, there are about five. When radio 94 CATARACT & REFRACTIVE SURGERY TODAY | AUGUST 2018 PRACTICE PROFILES s and newspaper advertising stopped working, and the phone stopped ringing, we turned to grassroots guerilla marketing. We bought an RV and wrapped it in the ClearChoice Custom LASIK logo. We would take it to places like the local convention center where an auto, boat, or golf show would attract anywhere from 50,000 to 250,000 people. These were perfect opportunities to engage with people. It would be the first time we would touch them, so to speak, and we would get their basic demographic information so we could add them to our automated digital marketing system. It might take Figure 3. The ClearChoice LASIK RV marketing vehicle outside FirstEnergy Stadium, home of the Cleveland Browns. 10 years to go from that first point of contact until they actually walk into the LASIK center, but we know where we first met them and how long it took for them to follow up because we track it. There’s no such thing as an old lead. We may first meet someone in 2006, and then a decade later they finally hit that tipping point and show up in the office. For whatever reason, they never unsubscribed; they just hung in there with us. DR. WILEY: We also take the RV to the Cleveland Browns’ football games (Figure 3), where we have college interns handing out materials and Figure 4. The Mr. iSee ice cream truck provides answering questions. We’ll have a creative marketing plus charitable fundraising. Pentacam (Oculus Optikgeräte) and automated refractometer there, and we’ll screen people to see if they are piece, and we put about $50,000 into DR. WILEY: When Jeff suggested we candidates for LASIK. We launched the each one to restore them to almost buy these trucks, my kids were ages RV marketing campaign right around mint condition. The trucks are labeled 6 and 4 at the time, and I thought, the time of the LASIK downturn. It with the Cleveland Eye Clinic and “I’m going to be the biggest hero to was out-of-the-box marketing, and ClearChoice Custom LASIK Center my kids if I come home with an ice that was crucial because traditional logos and with their very own Mr.