Blog vol 3. 7. 20 years at Burlington Eyecare!!
I purchased the practice from Dr. Ronald Watson in June, 2002. That was a quick 20 years.
Back in the 1990’s I had a practice that focussed on nursing home care and CNIB low vision clinics, alongside the usual general optometric care. I took a three and a half year leave at the turn of the century, worked on a Master’s degree, and taught clinical optometry at the University of Missouri school of optometry in St. Louis.
In the 1990’s I had the pleasure of filling in for Dr. Watson at his practice in Burlington while he had some surgery, and upon my return to Canada in 2002, he was ready to retire.
So in June of 2002, Dr. Watson handed over the reins of the practice and graciously stayed on for two more years to help smooth the transition for patients. Dr. R.B. (as I call him) was wonderful, introducing me to all his patients and really helping to make it work. It wasn’t until after he retired that I realized just how good he was at running the practice.
Dr. Watson raced MG’s at Mosport and Shannonville as a hobby. He knew how to drive finely tuned race cars just as he knew how to run a finely tuned practice. He just had to hand me the keys with little to no tinkering.
I also had wonderful support from Dr. Nancy Wilson who had worked with Dr. Watson for 28 years and stayed on with me for another 6 years, retiring in 2010, a great optometrist and truly helpful person.
The following year we went through the onerous task of digitizing all our paper records, going back to 1964, and went completely paperless. Then, with the practice growing, we needed more space so we moved down Fairview Street, from the corner of Woodview to Cumberland, into a larger office with more parking.
We now have four optometrists on board and three opticians, and all this was done very organically over time. The practice is a testimony to the great start that Dr. Watson gave us, and to the ongoing dedication of excellent doctors and staff and suppliers. I would be amiss if I did not give a huge shout out to all the patients we have seen over the years that have made our job such a pleasure.
Til next week,
the good doctor
