Eric Drey, OD, FAAO, was born into a design-focused family. With his mom an interior decorator and his dad a contractor, it’s no surprise that he had a strong hand in designing his second practice location, Lake Forest Family Eye care, a 3,000-square-foot full-scope practice in suburban Chicago.
His first boutique practice opens onto the street in one of Chicago’s biggest buildings. More recently, he opened the second, much larger location in Lake Forest, an affluent northern suburb.
Dr. Drey did the layout himself and worked with Helen Rogic, owner of optical/optometric design firm One Interior, on putting it all together.
Creative Design
The 20-foot ceilings allowed for a lot of creativity, and the layout includes “a break room, back office, two exam rooms, and a spa-like dry eye treatment and aesthetics suite,” says Dr. Drey.
Housing so many entities, along with a large dispensing and display area, has resulted in a mix of treatments, including multiple flooring materials. What’s unusual is how he combines purchased product like the beautiful front desk designed by Rogic with wood wall slats that were crafted from lumber he had in his garage and stained by Dr. Drey and his dad.
Three Favorites
Dr. Drey shares his favorite aspects of the design.
1. FLOW. “The patient experience moves in a circle. It starts in the pretest room (where autorefract, retinal imaging, and dry eye imaging are done). Then it moves through the dry eye area and ends up all the way around in the exam space.”
2. FLOORING. “Helen’s concept of alternating wood flooring with vinyl that has a marble-like wood appearance really pulls everything together.”
3. TABLES. “The two traditional dispensing tables create a good scenario for my handoff. I always walk patients over and do a formal handoff and recommendation.”
Besides an attractive look, everything—from the circular layout to the dispensing tables—is designed to keep the prescription in-house. That, concludes Dr. Drey, “combats one of optometry’s biggest problems…online purchasing.”
