Two professions.
One standard of care.
The best eye care happens when optometrists and ophthalmologists work as one team, each practicing to the full extent of their training.
Legacy Eye Clinic was founded on a simple belief: the best eye care is a partnership. Your optometrist knows your eyes, your history, and your goals. Our surgeons bring advanced surgical care. When the two work as one team, with respect running in both directions, patients get the best of both.
“I could never do this without the residency-trained optometrists I work beside. None of them are replaceable.”
Dr. Lawrence Tenkman
An ophthalmologist who champions optometry
2025 Optometric Educator of the Year, Kentucky Optometric Association
Dr. Lawrence Tenkman is one of the few surgeons who works to advance both professions. He sees each as essential, and he gives his time to the education and policy work that moves eye care forward.
Teaching optometrists
Dr. Tenkman spends a great deal of his time teaching. His lectures, surgical films, and continuing education courses are built for optometrists and the eye care team.
Advancing optometric scope
He advises the Kentucky Board of Optometric Examiners and advocates for the continued, responsible progression of optometric scope of practice, including laser procedures and advanced therapeutics.
Kentucky Board of Ophthalmic Dispensers
Dr. Tenkman serves as the physician member of the Kentucky Board of Ophthalmic Dispensers.
The principles behind our partnership
- 01
Better together
Optometrists and ophthalmologists bring complementary training. Patients benefit most when both work as one team.
- 02
Full scope, full trust
Every doctor should practice to the full extent of their education and license, and be trusted to do so.
- 03
Your eye doctor stays your eye doctor
We work hand in hand with patients' own optometrists, who continue their routine care before and after surgery.
- 04
Communication runs both ways
Clear, timely updates, and shared decisions keep every member of the care team informed.
A circle, not a pyramid
Legacy is built as a circle. Every doctor, nurse, and technician stands on the same line, facing the same patient. We win as a team, we lose as a team, and we are always a team.
Great care depends on great people, so we intend to pay the best. We hope to make profit-sharing part of the practice, so that when Legacy succeeds, the whole team shares in that success. And we want the doctors who practice here to have the opportunity to become owners of the practice, because that is what makes us one team.
Built for the long term
Legacy is independent by choice and built for the long term, with optometrists and ophthalmologists working as one team for every patient.
Doctors at Legacy retain the autonomy to innovate, the ownership to shape their future, and the freedom to put patients first.
Independent and doctor-led, without private equity, Legacy keeps every decision with the people who know eye care best: the doctors who care for each patient, and the patients themselves. That is our version of extreme ownership: authority shared, responsibility owned.