Dr. Mah and her husband Brandon Baker, OD, whom she met in optometry school, started moving forward with their plans to establish their own roots. “We were both thinking, ‘Will we regret it if we don’t do it?’” They began their search for a location in August 2020 in Squamish, British Columbia, about 45 minutes north of downtown Vancouver. Squamish is a more rural area where many young families and Millennials have moved during the pandemic. They were planning on renting, but then came across an opportunity to purchase a commercial spot in September 2020, and they closed on the space in December.
Construction and renovations began on the future home of Garibaldi Eye Care in January 2021. It was formerly a children’s play place that unfortunately closed due to pandemic precautions. Their space is the largest unit in a commercial condo complex. It is street level, with two other businesses beside, and residential condos above.
When it came to technology, Dr. Mah says that they went big from the start so they could provide full comprehensive care, as well as specialty dry eye diagnostics and treatment. The idea was to economize space as efficiently as possible. For pre-test, Garibaldi Eye Care uses the Tomey MR600. This allows them to perform multiple tests—including refraction, keratometry, tonometry, pachymetry and topography—in one machine with a small footprint. They added the Optos Monaco, in order to have retinal imaging as well as OCT technology all in one instrument. They also have the Optopol Visual Field. For dry eye cases, they added the Firefly slit lamp with anterior segment camera and infrared meibographer. Dr. Mah says her favorite piece of equipment is the InMode Lumecca IPL, and Forma-i Radio Frequency device that they added to the practice early in 2022.
There are two exam lanes with one equipped for now, and Dr. Mah is considering the best use for the second room, which may become a dry eye treatment room to expand upon the services she already offers such as radio frequency and intense pulse light therapy. “We have seen an excellent response to our dry eye services so far! We were a little apprehensive about bringing in the technology as a cold start without a client base,” she says. But through social media, local newspaper advertising, referrals from colleagues, and word-of-mouth, they have been able to build up that specialty care portion of the business. She hopes to add myopia management in the future, but for now, she jokes that the children of Squamish are too active and that she hasn’t seen many myopic children.
Dr. Mah and Dr. Baker considered several locations in Squamish, but they agree that they chose the best one of the options based on its location, accessibility and parking availability. They even bought a townhouse nearby the practice and have a two-minute walk to work. “It’s a dream,” she says. Being a part of the community has allowed them to join the Chamber of Commerce, sponsor local sporting tournaments and be available in the evenings to speak at meetings for local mom and baby, or seniors groups. They’ve been asking all patients to send in their family and friends, and Dr. Mah says that the word-of-mouth referrals have been a tremendous help as they grow.