Creating Convenience: Hamilton, Wilson and Hendrickson Orthodontics
Photos by: Emma Highfill | Rose Wheat Photography & Grace Place
Hamilton, Wilson and Hendrickson Orthodontics want their patients’ experience to be as seamless as possible. So much so that in order to reduce the travel time for its patients, the orthodontic team packs up its equipment and travels every month to Sabetha, Kansas, and every other month to Holton, Kansas, to care for its patients close to those communities. When Gena Hendrickson, D.D.S., M.S. joined their team in 2013, the doctors were able to further convenience their patients by opening up a practice in Lawrence, Kansas.
Don Wilson D.D.S. said their practice has numerous patients that would travel from Lawrence to Topeka for treatment, making this new location a logical move.
“Even patients that are in the Shawnee Heights area often frequent Lawrence. Several of our patients live in Lawrence and work in Topeka or vice versa. We just kept hearing that patients in Lawrence would appreciate a more convenient location,” Wilson said.
Reducing road time for patients is why a team from Hamilton, Wilson and Hendrickson Orthodontics travel to Sabetha and Holton regularly and is also why they opened a second office in Lawrence.
“We had thought that it was time to expand for two or three years, but the idea of going to Lawrence and opening another practice almost seemed like we would be competing with ourselves for time,” Wilson said. “We would have had to give up something in Topeka to do something elsewhere and we were not willing to do that.”
When Hendrickson joined the practice, it freed up that time to be available to take care of those patients in Lawrence.
When the doctors heard that an orthodontist practice in Lawrence was for sale, Hamilton, Wilson and Hendrickson jumped on the opportunity to expand.
“We were able to assume his practice and get our own started. We were already working with practices in Lawrence, so we felt there was some untapped potential we had not reached yet,” Wilson said. “It just seemed like everything came together all at once.”
Adding the Lawrence location turned out to be a smart decision, but Wilson says that is probably because they did their due diligence rst to make sure it would be successful.
“We only wanted to do it if it was going to be done right,” Wilson said. “We don’t ever want to feel like we are sacrificing anything at either practice, and I feel like we are achieving that goal.”
