With an eye on providing the best optometric care possible, Heritage Optometric Clinic has been serving the Carleton Place area and beyond for more than 65 years.
Always looking to improve upon the services that it offers, the clinic has undergone numerous changes over the years, in particular over the past two decades.
Practising with Dr. Bruce McDonald until his retirement in 1985, Dr. Ian Edmison continued to operate Heritage Optometric with Dr. Connie Madigan-Swant joining the practice in 1991. Three years later, the two became business partners. With the clinic having outgrown its location on Bridge Street by that time, a decision was made to expand the facilities and move to its current site at 130 Lansdowne Ave., Suite 6, in 1995.
“We wanted more space to modernize our practice and have the increased staff and doctors necessary to care for the growing number of patients in a timely fashion,” says Dr. Madigan-Swant. They added one associate with that first expansion and a second associate joined a number of years later.
And Heritage Optometric has continued to grow to the point that, three years ago, in the fall of 2012, it was time for another major expansion.
“We needed to expand because, once again, we had outgrown our space,” Dr. Madigan-Swant explains.
To deal with the increased patient load, more cabinets were built for files and the clinic was equipped with a fifth examination room to allow for more doctors. In addition, the dispensary was enlarged to provide a greater selection of eye glasses, including prescription and non-prescription sunglasses.
As a result of the expansion, Heritage Optometric now has six optometrists. Along with Dr. Edmison and Dr. Madigan-Swant, also on staff are Dr. Connie Chen, Dr. Neil Haney, Dr. Ross Hamill and Dr. Sameer Dedhar. As well as the doctors, the clinic employs seven full-time and two part-time staff.
Just as its patient base stretches from Carleton Place to Pakenham, Smiths Falls, Perth and even Ottawa, the ages of the patients at Heritage Optometric are just as varied ranging from toddlers to seniors.
“We care for all ages,” says Dr. Madigan-Swant. “We are a family oriented clinic.”
Regardless of the age, the number one priority of Heritage Optometric is to provide patients with the best eye care possible.
“We spend a lot of time with our patients,” Dr. Madigan-Swant notes. “Our examinations are extremely thorough and we find our staff to be very friendly and take the extra time to give everyone the best of care.”
In customer satisfaction surveys, Heritage Optometric consistently scores high for the quality of care received from the eye doctors, and the friendliness and professionalism of the staff overall.
Heritage Optometric is also noted for being very forward thinking in its approach to eye care.
Aside from the “state-of-the-art” equipment used by the practice in diagnostic care, Heritage Optometric was one of the first clinics to have all three eye care professionals – optometrist, optician and ophthalmologist – working together. An ophthalmologist comes to the clinic once a month.
For the convenience of patients, Heritage Optometric is open on Mondays from 11:45 a.m. to 8 p.m.; Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Thursdays from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. In its efforts to make the appointment process as easy as possible, the clinic has recently started to send examination reminders via email or text.
Further information on Heritage Optometric can be obtained by calling 613-257-1711 or by visiting the website at heritageoptometric.ca.