When Kinjal Bhatt, OD, opened the doors to Kind Eyes in Chicago, Illinois, on June 29, 2024, it was a long-awaited celebration. The journey to get there was one of resilience over three years of planning, searching, many hurdles and, finally, success. “It was nothing like I expected it to be like,” Dr. Bhatt says. “I was just an optometrist before; now I’m the optician, optometrist and secretary doing everything. It forces me to think in a different way, and I enjoyed that.”
A SLOW START
The beginning of Dr. Bhatt’s path to ownership moved slower than she expected, she says. In 2021, she started seriously considering the option of opening her own practice. Her search for a space started in the spring of 2022, and by fall, she had viewed more than 20 properties. She was ready to negotiate a lease, but ultimately, the deal fell through.
Her search continued, but she kept running into a similar problem throughout the city: many of the older buildings in Chicago needed very costly plumbing updates to be used as an optometry office. Then, she found another space and was about to sign her lease papers in the fall of 2023 when the landlord backed out. Dr. Bhatt pushed pause on her search. “I was about to have the keys. That was a big hurdle,” she recalls.
A RACE TO THE FINISH
Earlier this year, Dr. Bhatt started considering her options again. This time, her future operations manager Stephanie found a perfect place in March. It checked all the boxes—within budget with proper plumbing and located on a corner in an area with good foot traffic. There were some other opticals nearby, but none right next door. And while it wasn’t in her original search radius, it was close to where she had previously practiced as an independent contractor. “That makes it easy for patients to find me if they need anything related to their eye health,” she says.
Dr. Bhatt wasn’t sure it would pan out at first, she says. When she first inquired, the landlord was out of town for a few weeks, so she didn’t get a response for a while. “We didn’t hear, and we assumed it wasn’t going to work out.” But then suddenly, after everything moved so slowly for so long, Dr. Bhatt found herself on the express train. The lease was signed by mid-April, and she had two weeks to find samples and make design and layout decisions.
The space was gutted with just the two exam rooms remaining. Dr. Bhatt describes the style as a relaxing spa vibe, inspired by Tulum with a fun, calm atmosphere. It’s warm and inviting. There are new ceilings, wood flooring and a unique frame display wall that creates a hallway back to the exam rooms. Dr. Bhatt worked with one of her childhood friends, Alexandria who is an interior architect and designer. “I had a vision of how I wanted it to be, and it was a side passion of mine to use my creativity. That was a fun part,” she says. “I told it to my designer, and she helped bring it to life.”
Since her opening in June, Dr. Bhatt has enjoyed the community outreach to let others know about the practice. She’s connecting with local businesses and partnering with programs for the schools, and she has been getting to know new patients and reunite with old ones. She’s also grateful that she can practice to her fullest extent of her license. “I was limited on the medical side before, and now I can offer more of my clinical knowledge to patients instead of scrambling to find someone to refer to in the area,” she says.
Dr. Bhatt says the locals stop in to ask her if she knows the history of the space. Up until the past year, it had been called The Furry Godmother, and it was a fur coat shop for more than 30 years. “They were stored in the two rooms that are now my exam rooms.”
She’s looking forward to turning that second exam lane into a mini med spa room soon to focus more on her specialties of myopia management, dry eye treatment and ocular aesthetics.
For now, Dr. Bhatt is appreciating where the journey has led her and for the lessons learned along the way. She feels extremely lucky for all the support she has had through past co-workers, her patients, family, friends and especially her husband who has been a consultant for the business. “The biggest thing I learned was to adapt daily. Don’t get upset when something doesn’t work out the way you wanted it, because everything is constantly going to change,” she says. “It was a very humbling experience.”
GRATEFUL APPRECIATION
Dr. Bhatt sends a special thank you to her three staff members:
Manager Stephanie, who also works for Dr. Bhatt’s husband, helped Dr. Bhatt get everything started behind the scenes with the practice, especially with credentialing. Stephanie continues to oversee operations.
Optical Stylist Priscilla has been a huge help in kicking off the practice and setting up the optical. She has a great eye for optical fashion and many years of optician experience.
Billing and Procedures administrator Brittney has lots of experience in the field and brings an expertise that truly has set a foundation of support for the staff.
Find Dr. Bhatt and Kind Eyes online:
Website: kindeyeschi.com
Instagram @kindeyeschicago
TikTok @kind.eyes.chicago
Facebook: Kind Eyes
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