Meet Richard Carlin of CarlinVision in Snellville

Today we’d like to introduce you to Richard Carlin.

So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
I started my practice, just out of the Navy, as a solo ophthalmologist in Gwinnett County, chosen because of need; there were only two other ophthalmologists in the county of 150,000 people and proximity to Athens, where my wife had been accepted into the PhD program in psychology. Starting with one employee I felt if I was available and affable, I would succeed. The backup plan was if all else failed, after my wife received her degree, we could always relocate to another part of the country. Success came early and while I would like to attribute it to my great skill and personality, there was a certain amount of luck involved. I didn’t realize when I started that Gwinnett County was, at that time, the third fastest growing county in the United States and that as I started there was also an influx of other young medical subspecialists making the area a sort of medical mecca. I knew nothing about the business side of medicine and learned through mistakes, but starting the new endeavor and loving the interaction and relationship with my patients who were kind, supportive and understanding, and watching it grow and thrive was indeed very thrilling and ego satisfying. After just three years, I outgrew my small office and built a new office in Snellville and became inundated with patients. Indeed, it was more than I could handle. I hired other doctors and soon they were busy too.

Then came the intrusion of the government, insurance companies and HMOs into medicine. I found that my once loyal patients would go elsewhere because I was not on their insurance or that their copays would be less. I struggled with the new regulations forcing me to go to certain facilities, prescribe certain medications and perform certain tests, not because I felt they were indicated, but because they were mandated by the third parties. That is when I decided that in order to continue to succeed and for my personal feeling of self-worth, I decided to rebrand my practice and renamed it “CarlinVision”. The name was chosen to reflect my personal vision of how medicine should be practiced. I decided to buck the trend. As a physician and not merely a “provider”, I felt my practice would only focus on that special unique relationship between doctor and patient. While other practices were cutting staff, office equipment and patient care, I decided to expand into a new building, purchase all the latest state of the art equipment and expand staff, all in the hopes of providing that personal care to each patient. I wanted to fight the forces of depersonalizing the doctor-patient relationship. While we participate in all the managed care plans, we do not practice as a managed care provider. Each patient is treated as an individual and as a friend and neighbor, as indeed they are. Our tagline is “advanced eye care with a home-town touch”, which reflects just what we are and what has brought success.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It has been rather smooth. We have been lucky in never having had severe downturns. The main struggle has been to manage the success, to keep true to the goal of providing home town care.

As the practice has grown, we have hired those who share the mission of kindness and friendliness to our patients. We struggle with patients who come from elsewhere and present with an adversarial mentality in trying to convince them that we sincerely want to make each patient special and tend to their individual needs. We do get behind in our schedule trying to accommodate our patients and their needs. Of course, the main struggle is complying with all the regulations put upon us by outside forces, mainly the government and insurance companies.

Please tell us about CarlinVision.
We practice “advanced eye care with a home-town touch.” We are the oldest, largest, and most experienced eye care practice in Gwinnett County and indeed, one of the largest in metro Atlanta. We provide the latest in treatments and are always on the forefront of ophthalmology. We do a great deal of primary and secondary eye care but also are very active surgically and often see patients from other practices who require a second opinion. What makes me personally the proudest of is my relationship with patients. I have known some for 40 years and have seen and operated on multiple generations of a number of families. The fact that people trust me with their precious eyes provides me with a great sense of responsibility and satisfaction. Being able to have helped many thousands of people see better and allowing them a better life is amazingly gratifying. One thing that really sets me personally apart is that I truly love what I do!

Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
While there are many, the one that perhaps is most pertinent to this article is when I was a young boy. I had a collection of tropical fish. As is often the case, one would succumb to disease in which it would develop a whitish coating. Treatable with iodine drops, it was generally fatal but when the rare fish survived and was cured, I was thrilled. I felt so proud that I was able to help this creature through my skill.

Contact Info:

• Address: 2377 Lenora Church Road
  Snellville, Georgia 30078
• Website: CarlinVision.com
• Phone: 770-979-2020
• Email: info@carlinvision.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carlinvision/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/carlinvision/

  

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