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ST. LOUIS—In business today, short-term thinking and goals often drive operations, yet it’s the long-term planning and goal setting that produce the greatest payoffs, some executives have noted. EyeCare Partners, an organization formed in mid-2015 with the backing of private equity, is putting this type of long-term thinking into practice as it builds the largest integrated eyecare company in the nation.





Following its recent acquisition of CEI Vision Partners (CVP), a network of ophthalmology practices and 55 eyecare locations in the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic, EyeCare Partners has expanded to become a national medical group of nearly 1,000 doctors who will serve more than 3 million patients annually. (CEI Vision Partners was formed in 2018 with Cincinnati Eye Institute as its core practice organization.) The ECP group now includes more than 300 ophthalmologists, 700 optometrists and almost 5,000 clinical staff and 1,200 support services team members working across 80 different markets in 18 states.

This partnership with CVP “will be transformative in the industry,” EyeCare Partners executives noted at the time of the deal’s announcement in October. The group’s goal is to develop a clinically integrated partnership of optometry and ophthalmology clinics along-side and connected with its ambulatory surgery centers to provide patients a full spectrum of vision care.

“It really is about that long-term vision and about where we’re going as an organization,” EyeCare Partners chief executive officer David Clark told Vision Monday in a recent interview. “We really feel like we’re going to make a difference in vision care in terms of the patient’s experience and the outcomes for patients. And one [area] that is a big opportunity is around the efficiency of care and the efficiency on the business side.”

He added, “We’re truly excited about joining with an organization like CVP, which just takes us that much further along the path toward doing all of this.”

Brian Lojka, OD, chair of ECP’s Optometry Medical Executive Board, told Vision Monday that he believes the integrated care model also is helping EyeCare Partners redefine the experience and expectations of patients. “We are creating a brighter future for eyecare—offering greater service and education, ultimately resulting in a more efficient practice with enhanced patient outcomes and satisfaction,” he noted.

“We achieve this by supporting our practices to better collaborate across the full continuum of eyecare. By making databases and systems more accessible to doctors and clinical staff, we enable a more informed and personalized level of care with seamless access and experience —from primary eyecare and optometry, to specialty ophthalmology and complex surgical interventions,” Lojka added.

Antonio Capone Jr., MD, chair of ECP’s Ophthalmology Medical Executive Board, noted that ECP is working to build “a network of opportunities” for doctors and staff, as well. He said, “Our integrated network facilitates shared knowledge and expands resources, leading the way for our clinical teams to continue providing the highest quality eyecare across the full continuum. We are able to leverage our comprehensive array of best-in-class technologies, processes and infrastructure. Ultimately, this positions us to address unmet needs and offer state of the art solutions while maximizing practice efficiencies and workflow.”


The Clinically Integrated Model
EyeCare Partners seeks to integrate proven patient care guidance alongside business operations partnerships that optimize each office within its network. Although the organization said it understands that “one size does not fit all” offices, and that instead it focuses on investing in the technical and medical aspects of patient management at every step in the eyecare continuum. It seeks to invest in its ECPs by embracing a full-scope medical model that allows the doctors to practice to the full extent of their license.

“We see the clinically integrated model as the future of eyecare,” Lojka said. “By breaking down siloes and better integrating our partners’ expertise in optometry and ophthalmology, we are delivering better results for our patients and practice, and delivering on EyeCare Partners’ bold mission of enhancing vision, advancing eyecare and improving lives.”

Added Capone, “Our goal is ambitious, but it is one that we know that we will achieve through the combined contribution of our partners—to build the nation’s leading provider of clinically integrated eyecare. We do so simply, by helping practitioners deliver the most exceptional care to their patients.”





EyeCare Partners has established the integrated care model in several markets in which it operates, an effort that got a boost from the recent CVP deal in which more than 150 providers across all major subspecialties in ophthalmology and optometry joined the organization. The transaction also added 47 clinical centers and eight ambulatory surgical centers across Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana and Virginia. ECP also added 25 providers across five comprehensive eyecare locations, an aesthetic institute and a first-in-class ambulatory surgical center in Florida via a recent transaction with the Eye Institute of West Florida.

“It’s important to note, that the numbers only tell half the story,” Lojka said. “Geography builds accessibility for our patients, but it is the breadth and depth of expertise, resources and knowledge —all working together—that create our clinically integrated network.”

Asked about how the group looks at prospective acquisitions or partnerships as they relate to the integrated care model, Capone noted that this element plays a role in the process.

“Each practice that joins the EyeCare Partners network brings knowledge gained through years of experience in building a leading eyecare organization,” he said. “This combined knowledge grows our shared expertise, benefiting all our patients throughout our integrated network. Incorporating the full continuum of eyecare is important because in order to provide comprehensive care and the best patient experience, we believe that the different providers must work together seamlessly.”

In addition to enhancing patient care and the overall care continuum, the integrated eyecare model addresses some of the inefficiencies of health care today, Clark said. “It’s not a great revelation, but health care is pretty inefficient in terms of how it operates in terms of the patient experience and the handoffs between primary care providers and specialty providers,” he said, noting that this siloed approach to care often results in shifting the responsibility for coordinating care to the patient.

“We really feel like focusing on the continuum of care is something that’s very important in terms of addressing those areas,” Clark added.

There’s also a clinical component that’s addressed by becoming more efficient operationally, Clark said. This is an area in which EyeCare Partners gives its medical team the role of determining optimum clinical care and procedures that are seamless and more effective. “We have some of our practices that are already fully clinically integrated in terms of having primary care optometry working as part of the clinical team,” Clark said. The long-term play is to develop this idea on a national basis with a national medical group of optometrists and ophthalmologists.

One element ECP notes that is key to the success of an integrated model is the patient-centric approach, the importance of the doctor-patient relationship and the personal touch of private practice. “EyeCare Partners is led by doctors for doctors,” Capone said. “Our patient-centric model delivers outstanding care and quality outcomes through our providers and staff.”

“Patients will still experience the personal touch of a private practice and an even more customized approach to care from myopia management in children, to medical interventions, to advanced and custom LASIK, cataract and retina surgeries,” Lojka added.

Clark also noted that during the COVID pandemic EyeCare Partners has taken a closer look at how to create and maintain a “great organization” that is set up to make sure its takes care of its employee team. To this end, the organization created the EyeCare Partners Foundation, which is supported by its private equity partner Partners Group. (Partners Group, a global investment firm, acquired a majority stake in EyeCare Partners in December 2019.)

“One of the most fantastic things that happened during 2020 for us was that we were able to go out and take care of all the team members that had this great impact on their lives,” Clark said, noting the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. “I look at that as part of a longer-term view. … That’s part of the changes we’ll be seeing over the next several years. … Our focus will be to continue to expand the strategy that we have [developed] and to really get to the point where we’re delivering that value to the patient.”

He added, “At the end of the day, it’s up to the doctors to really deliver on that because they’re the ones who are working together. We’re doing things as partners behind the scenes to try to eliminate some of the inefficiencies.”

“The clinical care teams, the doctors and their teams are the ones who really have to embrace that and live it on a daily basis,” Clark said. “And I can tell you from talking to our doctors about it, they’re super excited about the potential of this and they’ve seen it work on a smaller scale. They think it can absolutely work on a national scale.”