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Total Vision Celebrates 30 Years:
News Journal Article
December 27, 2006
Optometrists see steady growth
Single-office practice 30 years ago has grown into unique operation
By JOE CREWS
Business Writer Daytona Beach News Journal
DELAND -- What started out as a one-man, single-office optometry practice here more than 30 years ago has grown into a network of six offices blanketing the Volusia-Flagler market.
Each office in the Total Vision Eye Health Associates network is a separate corporation owned by a combination of seven optometrists, said Dr. Jeff Timko, who oversaw the network's growth in the three decades after he set up shop here.
In 1976, Timko and his wife, Katie, were fresh out of Ohio State University and had been thinking about moving to Florida, where they frequently vacationed. He learned Dr. Willis LaBaw, who bought his practice 27 years earlier from another optometrist, wanted to retire.
"We decided to buy the practice," Timko, 57, recalled recently. "We moved here in June of '76 and took over in July. We've been here for 30 years."
About 18 months later, Timko's college roommate, Dr. Michael Cady, bought a separate optometry practice in Daytona Beach.
"We were in the same county and both from Ohio, so we trusted each other to form a partnership," Timko said.
Cady moved his practice, an affiliate of Total Vision but also part of the Florida Eye Clinic network, to Ormond Beach about 10 years ago, Timko said
Timko and Cady bought a New Smyrna Beach practice in February 1981, while continuing to operate their solo practices. The network, which includes optical shops at each location, has grown since then:
· Dr. Charles Heacock came onboard in 1988 to work in DeLand and New Smyrna Beach, although he now limits his practice to the DeLand office.
· Dr. Philip Stephens became a partner in, and began running, Total Vision's New Smyrna Beach office in 1993.
· Dr. Dustin Ramey joined in 2000, and now runs the DeBary office Timko and Heacock opened a year earlier.
· Dr. Kirsten Wilgers began working in the DeBary office in 2002, and the following year opened Total Vision's Port Orange office.
· Cady and Stephens established a Palm Coast branch of the Total Vision network in 2004 and brought in Dr. Donald Purcell to run it.
"All six offices are Total Vision locations, owned by a combination of the doctors," Timko said. "All of them network together and work together."
The large number of offices also has the benefit of allowing Total Vision to keep prices lower by having the economies of scale, he said.
The practice of optometry has seen dramatic changes in technology, procedures, insurance, contact lenses and equipment since they opened their doors three decades ago, Timko and Cady said.
"I think it's mainly new technologies with computerization and instrumentation," Timko said. "We're better able to examine eyes for prescriptions and to determine medical conditions of the eyes."
"There's also more awareness about eye care," Cady, 59, said in a separate interview. "There are very few people anymore, regardless of income, who don't have access to eye exams."
One key to Total Vision's success has been that younger doctors fresh out of medical school are instilled with Timko and Cady's philosophy of offering personalized service to patients, both men said. And Total Vision takes pride in emphasizing what Timko called "generational" care -- seeing patients from several generations of a family.
"People know we're going to be here next year, and we're not just a 'doc in a box,' " he said. "We're trying to provide our patients with that stability so they feel comfortable coming back year after year."
In fact, Timko believes Total Vision is the longest-operating optometry practice in existence in Volusia County.
"The (optometrists) who were here when I came here are all either retired, have moved or are deceased," he said.
joe.crews@news-jrnl.com
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