The only constant is change

North Valley Eye Care has spent years cultivating an inclusive company culture focused on welcoming raw talent and rewarding work ethic. As a result, they have developed one the hardest-working and most effective teams in the Northstate, and their meteoric growth is proof of exactly that. Chief Surgical Officer Emmy Norton is a shining example of how far a strong work ethic can get you, and from the sound of it, there’s nothing but blue sky ahead of her.

Originally from Oahu, Hawaii, Emmy moved to Chico for school and to spend time with her mother. She found a job opening posted for North Valley Eye Care in 2016, applied, and was hired as an ophthalmic technician. Over the seven years that followed, she moved into the surgery department, quickly became one of the organization’s surgery coordinators, rose to lead surgery coordinator 15 months after joining the surgery department, and by 2018 had become the department’s surgery director. In 2020, Emmy was once again promoted from within the company to Chief Surgical Officer, the position she maintains today.

“North Valley Eye Care’s parent company, Ridge Eye Care, Inc. operates as a family company.” Emmy says, “Everyone I’ve worked with has become my work family. We’re constantly looking forward and finding ways to be the best for our patients. Working in that kind of atmosphere over the past seven years, and cultivating that kind of culture, has been really incredible. You just love going to work each day, because it feels like you’re making a difference. When I started, we had three private practices and a handful of federally funded practices. Now we have 9 private practices and even more federally funded practices. It’s said that the only constant here is change, and it remains true to this day.”

Change is always in the cards, thanks to Drs. Isaac Barthelow and Anthony Rudick, the owners of North Valley Eye Care and the Ridge Eye Care Inc. Citing a number of issues with the way surgeries were being handled at surgical centers around the country, they decided to create a better system and one that would allow for a more thoughtful continuum of care for their patients. They dove headfirst into the project of opening their own surgery center separate from North Valley Eye Care and Ridge Eye Care Inc. in 2020. Though separate, the new surgery center would partner with Ridge Eye Care Inc. and give them the ability to control the inefficiencies and inadequacies they had been experiencing elsewhere, while providing them with a surgical center built specifically for the type of procedures they do. They hashed out the final details on concept, design, and real estate throughout 2021, and their teams spent the last year hammering out the majority of the paperwork, fine details, and plans for its opening. When it came time to find the perfect person to run the new surgical center, Emmy was the obvious choice. With the surgical center slated to open soon on the North Valley Eye Care campus at Meriam Park on Bruce Road, Emmy couldn’t be more thrilled to revel in the fruits of their team’s labors.

“We have an incredible team, and I couldn’t ask for a better one.” Emmy raved, “Their knowledge is absolutely incredible! We have 60 years of combined cataract surgery experience between just two of our techs, we have amazing nurses, and a team that continues to amaze me each and every day. We can’t wait to have them working in our very own surgery center! Getting there has been a challenge—between all the hoops you have to jump through to not only be considered a safe accredited surgery center but also the best in the Northstate, there was no shortage of work to be done. Everyone agreed early on that if we were going to do this, we were going to make sure it was the best surgical center possible, and we couldn’t be more proud to say that we’ve built exactly that. Our goal is to be able to offer patients the care they really need. We want to be able to provide services to those who are less fortunate and have been pushed aside by everyone else. The surgery center will give us the ability to finally do that. It’s been the goal of Drs. Barthelow and Rudick for a long time. Our mission is to help patients regardless of what insurance they have— even if they have no insurance at all. Cataract surgery will be our biggest surgery at the center, but we’ll also be able to provide so many other treatments including glaucoma treatment, advanced refractive, and LenSx laser, just to name a few. We’ll even be able to offer LASIK eventually. By the time the surgery center is running at full capacity, we expect to be providing 4,800-5,000 surgeries each year.”

Eventually, Emmy plans to take on a new role overseeing a new administrator and all of the organization’s surgical directors. As if she wasn’t impressive enough, she’s doing everything she’s done over the past five months while pregnant with her baby boy who’s due in September. Never satisfied with the status quo, and always looking forward, Emmy finished our interview by saying, “I would love to see us have more than just one surgery center in Northern California, and that’s certainly our goal.”

If you’ve experienced changes in your vision, call North Valley Eye Care today and have it checked out. They can be reached by phone at (530) 891-1900 or online at www.NorthValleyEyeCare.com. If you’d like to see what positions are currently available on their team, you can find them on their website as well.