The Workforce Equation | MaximEyes

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The Workforce Equation

In this episode of The Focal Point, host Nitin Rai, President and CEO of First Insight Corporation and evaa.ai, sits down with Dr. Genare Woofter,Optometrist at Eye Care Associates of Manhattan, to talk about a problem independent practices know well – What happens when there are fewer people to do more work.
Dr. Woofter describes the strain of hiring and training while keeping a busy practice moving, including a recent stretch when three of roughly 10 or 11 staff members were new at the same time. He also shares how he is using AI scribing when technicians are stretched thin, and why the best technology should take work away rather than give staff another system to manage. The conversation ultimately comes back to a simple idea: technology earns its place when doctors can spend less time serving the computer and more time with the patient.

TIMESTAMPS

00:00 to 06:31 – Staffing challenges in an Independent practice
06:32 to 10:11 – The role of technology in training
10:12 to 15:34 – Implementing AI in clinical workflows
15:35 to 21:07 – Practical AI applications
21:08 to 27:22 – Future vision for healthcare practices

KEY TAKEAWAYS

One Vacancy Can Put Pressure on the Entire Practice
When someone leaves, the work does not leave with them. The remaining team absorbs it while also helping new hires get up to speed. Dr. Woofter sees that pressure build quickly when a practice is short, even one or two people, creating the kind of sustained stress that can eventually push more employees toward the door.
Every New Hire Also Creates a Training Load
In a modern practice, onboarding means learning far more than a job description. New employees have to understand software, instruments, workflows, and the mechanics of eye care itself. For a practice, where applicants may arrive with no previous eye care experience, training tools matter because they allow people to learn without constantly pulling an experienced employee away from their own responsibilities.
AI Has to Remove a Step, Not Add One
Dr. Woofter offers a practical test for deciding where AI belongs: does it make the job easier, or does the team now have another system to satisfy? If people have to work around the technology, the technology has missed the point. In his words, “We need the AI to cater to us rather than us catering to the AI.”
Being Short-Staffed Put AI to a Real Test
With his practice down a technician, Dr. Woofter has been without a human scribe for at least half of his exams. Evaa AI Scribe has taken on the documentation that a technician would normally handle, while his staff remains available for work AI cannot do, from contact lens troubleshooting to getting equipment, drops, and trial lenses.
Doctors Should Not Have to Choose Between the Patient and the Record
Documentation has created an uncomfortable tradeoff: focus on the person in front of you or focus on building a complete record. Dr. Woofter says AI scribing is beginning to remove that choice. He can spend more of the exam facing the patient while still capturing the details needed in the chart.
The Future Practice Could Have Fewer Screens
Asked to imagine a practice in 2030, Dr. Woofter did not picture more computers. He pictured fewer of them. His ideal is a practice where technology works quietly in the background, approvals can happen through a phone or voice, and the exam room is designed around the doctor and patient rather than the screen between them.

KEY QUOTES

“We need the AI to cater to us rather than us catering to the AI.”

-Dr. Genare Woofter

ABOUT THE GUEST

Dr. Genare Woofter is an optometrist at Eye Care Associates of Manhattan in Kansas, with clinical interests in ocular disease, contact lenses, and low vision rehabilitation. Before becoming a doctor, he worked inside an optometric practice, giving him firsthand experience with practice operations from both sides. Today, that perspective shapes how he approaches staffing, training, technology, and the use of AI in his own clinical workflow.

ABOUT THE HOST

Nitin Rai is President and CEO of First Insight Corporation and Evaa AI. With more than three decades building technology for eye care practices, and roots in AI dating back to the 1980s, he hosts The Focal Point, a series of conversations with the founders, physicians, researchers, and innovators shaping what’s next in healthcare.