Setting their sights high

Laconia Eye and Laser Center doubles number of ophthalmologists

By ADAM DRAPCHO, LACONIA DAILY SUN

LACONIA — Laconia Eye and Laser Center has been a part of the Lakes Region community since the 1980s, when the practice started in the Laconia Clinic building. The practice has made many moves over the years, and 2018 looks as if it will be the busiest year yet, with twice as many ophthalmologists as ever before and three locations throughout central New Hampshire.

The growth of the practice is due to changing circumstances in the optometry and ophthalmology industry, which have made it difficult for small practitioners to survive. As they have closed, Laconia Eye has stepped in.

The practice now known as Laconia Eye and Laser Center was started by doctors Walston and Rothemund, who moved Laconia Eye to the Medical Office Building, adjacent to Lakes Region General Hospital, in 1988. In 1990, Dr. Douglas Scott joined the practice, taking over as Rothemund retired. Dr. Andrew Garfinkle joined in 2000, bringing with him the ability to perform Lasik surgery. In 2008, the practice moved to the business park on Hounsell Avenue in Gilford, into a space that dwarfed its prior location.

“Our entire office in the medical building was smaller than our waiting room here,” said Garfinkle. When they moved in, they didn’t know what they would do with all the space they had there. “Now, it’s tight.”

Laconia Eye has expanded its geographical footprint with two additional locations. The practice opened an office in Plymouth in 2010, and a little more than a year ago, it took over a practice in Wolfeboro.

With the three locations, partners Garfinkle and Scott decided they could expand and, for the first time, have more than two ophthalmologists at once. As of Jan. 1, Laconia Eye doubled the number of ophthalmologists, welcoming Dr. P.K. Shetty, who has worked in the Lakes Region for decades, and Dr. Lauren Branchini. They also welcomed two optometrists, doctors Richard Talkington and Cynthia Lawrence.

“So now the space is tight, but happily tight,” said Garfinkle.

All of the doctors are busy, too. The active patient roster has grown from 30,000 to 75,000. Garfinkle said the practice’s catchment area comprises all of central New Hampshire, where small, single-doctor practices have started to disappear.

While it was once common for an individual optometrist or ophthalmologist — the former provides exams and writes prescriptions, the latter also performs surgeries — to run a profitable practice, Garfinkle said pressures in the industry have turned those practitioners into a rare breed. Insurance companies are requiring more documentation and are more difficult to extract payment from, and the cost of keeping up to date with the most modern equipment keeps rising.

“A solo practitioner, the overhead, you can’t afford it,” said Garfinkle.

A larger practice, such as Laconia Eye, has a greater ability to absorb costs, and the staff to chase the insurance companies.

“We can offer state-of-the-art equipment, because we’re a bigger practice,” Garfinkle said.

Laconia Eye and Laser Center, which has offices in Gilford, Plymouth and Wolfeboro, expanded its practice by adding two new ophthalmologists this year. Shown here are doctors Lauren Branchini, Andrew Garfinkle, P.K. Shetty and Douglas Scott. (Courtesy photo)