Written by Chris Workman and Alicia Macmillan
We had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Lennox through the CAOS Mentorship Program, who gave us a lovely tour of her practice. Her clinic had recently moved to a new location, and is a bright, open space designed by Dr. Lennox and her entire team. We had a great discussion about what went into the planning process, as well as resources she used, which was so helpful as a student hoping to become a practice owner one day. Dr. Lennox has been practicing for 25 years, and as such was a wealth of knowledge in so many areas. We could have chatted all night. She was able to provide excellent advice about taking opportunities and shared how she hadn’t planned to become a partner so early in her career but does not regret doing so one bit. This was very interesting as most times we hear about ODs waiting for a while before partnering, so it was refreshing to hear that there is no right or wrong time to buy in. We also had a great conversation about exam room handover of patients to the dispensing team and how that has positively impacted patient trust and capture rates. This is something I was very curious about as we’ve been hearing more and more about it at talks and it was very cool to see it being successfully used in practice. We also talked about staff and how Dr. Lennox’s office chooses to use team leaders rather than have an office manager which seems to keep a better flow of communication, and have all team members feel comfortable talking directly to the doctors. All of these practice management and patient care tips were so appreciated, and we closed with an open invitation from Dr. Lennox to reach out if we had any more questions.