ity of natural light. The ….

ity of natural light. The former location had no natural light in the patient areas. Where there were windows, they were small and covered.

In the new building, there is an abundance of natural light. Thums explained that natural light is good for eye care in general but is also good in the retail space of the building as customers select frames and pick out glasses. Natural light allows them to better pick out something that will suite their needs.

The emphasis on natural lighting carries through into the staff areas of the building also. She noted that in the oppressive and long Wisconsin winters, it would be common to come in to work in the dark and leave in the dark and never see sunlight throughout the entire day.

There has also been an increased emphasis on providing more useable and functional space. Thums explained there was a lot of fine tuning that took place to improve the flow of patients and make the entire process of an office visit or appointment more efficient and pleasant for patients. “The goal is to provide them better care,” Thums said.

Thums and her crew worked with designers to rework the layout and floorpan to make it as efficient as possible in every aspect of the business. The result is that while the overall square footage increase is not excessively large, the new building has more useable, functional space.

“We have gone from four exam lanes to six, one screening room to two, more frame board space, adequate office space for those working behind the scenes and LET THERE BE LIGHT! Our new office is bright and airy which has been a great change from our previous darker, tighter accommodations,” Thums said.

“We're proud of what we have built

See HEALTHVIEW on page 12 both in reputation and trust with our patients and our new building. We look forward to sharing this new space with all of our patients and we welcome any community members who would like to come in and take a look. This investment in our community shows that we're here to stay and can't wait to see what the future holds,” Thums said.

That investment in the future is to see an expansion of Vision Therapy services, the potential for additional treatments, and specialty care such as addressing the growing concern of dry eye syndrome. This is a growing concern as more people spend their days looking at computer screens. Females are at higher risk for dry eye syndrome then men and determining what works as far as treatment can vary from patient to patient.

Thums has spent her career in Medford and has seen the vision and eye care needs of the community and region change. “This was my first job right of out college,” she said.

She said they have gone from predominately comprehensive vision checks to at least half of the patients having medical eye care needs such as treatment for glaucoma or eye injuries.

She said they have seen an increase in referrals for eye care needs from Aspirus providers. This has led to a growth in comanagement of care for the patients. She said they are able to do follow up and post operative and ocular disease management from their offices here, saving their patients the time and travel to go to places like Wausau or Eau Claire.

Thums said travel is a major reason for people to not seek eye care because they don’t have a way to get there. This is even more of an issue when you look at the regional area that is served by Medford as a hub. Expanding services available here helps not only immediate local residents but also provides greater access to those services for those living in more rural and remote areas throughout the county and region.

“We serve a large demographic area,” Thums said. She said she does not take lightly the trust that HealthView Eye Care Center and its doctors and staff have built with patents. “We want to continue that relationship,” she said.

Thums praised the contractors, designers and her staff for making the transition from the former location to the new one as seamless and easy as possible.

From the beginning they knew it was going to be an aggressive schedule to start construction on April 30 and have it done by October 15. The wet weather last spring didn’t help things any and there were times it seemed like it would not be possible.

She specifically praised Solberg and Timoly Brodhagen for their work, noting that Brodhagen worked closely with coordinating all the contractors.

“I am very pleased with all the contractors we worked with,” Thums said. She noted that the general contractors at Meyer Buildings in Dorchester were impressive to work with and how they accommodated HealthView Eye Care Center’s schedule.

Thums also praised her staff in the process of preparing for and making the move. “The staff here was incredible,” she said.

HealthView Eye Care Center didn’t see patients in Medford for two days while making the move and in the process of moving everything contractors were busy blacktopping and finishing the parking lot.

“It is a relief to be on this side of it,” Thums said noting that everything has gone surprisingly smoothly. “That speaks to me of the loyalty of our staff,” Thums said, noting it took and army of workers to make it a success.

Thums also praised their neighbors along Hwy 13 especially at Freedom Choice Realty and Mayer & Associates Accountants while construction was going on.

“It is pretty surreal to be here,” Thums said, of the new building, describing it as being “kind of like Christmas.”

HealthView Eye Care Center will be celebrating the opening of their new building on November 12-14 and the community is invited to come for an open house and tours on Nov. 14 from 5 to 7 p.m.

HealthView Eye Care Center new building was designed with an eye toward efficiency and workflow for staff as well as style with a large open front desk area with ample light and space. BRIAN WILSON/THE STAR NEWS