Moncton Eye Clinic Starts Mountain Road Expansion
MONCTON – The construction next door to a Moncton optometry clinic is actually its first step in a plan to triple its size so it can keep pace with ballooning demand.
Doctors Ryan Kazakow and Megan Burns, optometrist co co-owners of the Beyond 20/20 Optometry Clinic, said they are in the first stage of an expansion that will provide them a roomier, 5,200-square-foot berth at 1688 Mountain Rd.
“We provide a specialty service at our clinic that is not provided anywhere else in the Greater Moncton area,” said Burns, in a call with Huddle.
Kazakow told Huddle the expansion will allow the clinic to accept more patients from a lengthy waitlist for optometry services. The demand for Beyond 20/20’s binocular vision training and vision therapy is strong and they’re running out of room in their current space.
“It’s exciting for us because we work on a referral basis and people won’t have to wait as long as they currently have to,” said Kazakow. He noted the majority of Beyond 20/20’s patients are sent to the clinic from family doctors, other optometrists, physiotherapists, and occupational therapists.
Burns said increasing migration to New Brunswick from provinces like Ontario and the Prairies is boosting local demand for a vision care provider.
Beyond 20/20 sees about eight to ten patients per day, for regular eye exams and primary care.
“The key part of our clinic is vision therapy and binocular issues,” said Kazakow.
Construction work, contracted out to Moncton-based CPM Projects, is expected to wrap up in July 2022.
To accommodate the growth, Burns and Kazakow are also purchasing new equipment to bolster their current operation.
With an edger, Burns said Beyond 20/20 will be able to cut bifocal lenses on site, rather than sending lenses to labs in Ontario or Quebec to get the work done.
“We’ll be able to do that right here in the clinic,” she noted.
Burns and Kazakow also plan to purchase an optical coherence tomography (OCT) scanner, to be able to perform retinal scans at the clinic, which will be used to do scans of the back of patients’ eyes on site.
To help deal with more demand, Beyond 20/20 will also be bolstering its staff of five full-time employees.
“With the expansion, we’re looking at having probably eight staff and then in the foreseeable future we’re going to be staffing with ten-to-twelve,” said Kazakow.
He noted they have eventual plans, in the next couple of years, to bring a third optometrist on board.
Beyond 20/20 originally launched in November 20219 with a staff of two in addition to Burns and Kazakow.
Sam Macdonald is a Huddle reporter in Moncton. Send him your feedback and story ideas: [email protected].