Organizational Structure of an Optometry Practice

When new opportunities or responsibilities pop up in your optometry practice, do you know which staff member should be in charge of taking over? The best way to organize day-to-day and long-term tasks is through establishing an organizational chart, document, or structure.

As the eyecare industry and technology changes, so will the duties of your staff. It's helpful for everyone involved if there is a clear separation of departments. Although collaboration and crowdsourcing is necessary for brainstorming new ideas, execution should be more structured. This way, each staff member can pursue new growth campaigns within their areas of expertise without overlapping or stepping on toes. Keep reading to see how you can delineate these differences and keep your workflow efficient.

Creating an Organizational Chart for ECPs

This basic organizational chart can be a good starting point for determining your structure. There are a few options for organizing your practice, so we'll be examining 3 different ways below.

By Department

If you're mirroring the chart above, begin with your different departments and list out their overarching purpose, areas of expertise, and duties. You can take the chart a step further by listing quarterly or annual goals for each department.

Then, you should be able to match up each department's corresponding employee or manager. This may be the most straightforward and simple chart, but it works best for small offices where there is a single OD managing the entire team.

By Role

If you want to showcase your organization through your office roles, that is another excellent way to divide up responsibilities. You can list the skills and background required for each role alongside their day-to-day duties. Then, you can add in long-term goals or growth avenues.

This chart works well for practices that are expanding, moving, or adopting new technology. If you're unsure who should handle the different tasks involved with making a big change, creating an organizational chart by role could clarify everything.

By Manager

For larger practices, there might be micro-teams that have leads who report to the head office manager or ODs. Although this can feel complex, it's a useful way to structure your team if you do all your billing management, procurement, and marketing in-house.

Start by identifying your "people" managers, or team leads. For example, your head office manager might directly manage your front desk staff and opticians, but optometrists might manage optometrist assistants and technicians. Figure out which structure works best for your large team by asking yourself which managers should be responsible for each individual's career growth, productivity, and day-to-day concerns. Then, you can determine the groups' responsibilities based on each individual's expertise.

Our ebook below will help you develop your business plan and track your practice growth.

Editor's Note: This blog was originally published in November 2018 and updated in January 2023.