Dr. Jason Hair fulfilled his long-held ambition to own his own practice when he opened Tri-City Eyes in early March in Richland.

The coronavirus pandemic as well as the stay-at-home orders it inspired weren’t in obvious full swing at the time. But the crisis hit soon enough, forcing Hair to suspend all but emergency and urgent visits and to temporarily lay off the optician and patient care coordinator who had joined him only two weeks earlier.

It’s not the opening he anticipated, but Hair is confident that years of meticulous planning will pay off when the crisis passes.

“I’ve been surprisingly calm and confident that we’ll be OK through it all,” he said.

Tri-City Eyes opened in a former medical clinic at 2170 Keene Road in south Richland after a year of planning and many more years of dreaming.

Hair wasn’t always set upon optometry or owning a business. He credits a chance episode from his college days for steering him on his way.

Originally from Jerome, Idaho, Hair attended Utah Valley University. He changed majors three or four times, uncertain about what he wanted to pursue.

That changed when he followed a friend to San Jose, California, to spend a summer selling Dish Network service door-to-door.

As a salesman, “I was awful,” he recalled.

Even worse, he depended a heavy lens prescription to navigate daily life. He lost a contact lens and had no backup.

Jana, then his girlfriend, now his wife, took him to a privately-owned clinic. Hair had been treated by lots of optometrists over the years – he’s been wearing glasses since he was a boy – but the one in San Jose clinic was different.

The doctor owned the practice and took time to get Hair’s prescription right, explaining the process as he went along.

Hair said his new lenses worked better than he knew was possible. He left both amazed and inspired.

“I walked out the door with Jana and said, ‘This is what I want to do.’ ”

He returned to Utah and completed a degree in biology. He earned a doctor of optometry degree at Southern College of Optometry in Tennessee in 2011. He and Jana, who had married and started a family, moved to Virginia. He joined an existing practice with plans to buy into it.

They family spent three years in Virginia, with Hair gaining experience working with children and treating various diseases, but the buy-in agreement didn’t pan out.

The Hairs enjoyed Virginia, but where ready to leave. The family moved to the Tri-Cities, driving across the country, stopping at Mt. Rushmore and other family-friendly spots.

They chose the Mid-Columbia in part because it is between family in southern Idaho and family in Oregon.

He joined a Kennewick practice, again planning to buy an ownership stake. Again, his vision didn’t align with his partner and he left to join Columbia Basin Health Care Association in Grant County.

After two buy-in plans fell through, Hair shifted gears and decided to stand up his own practice.

He and his wife began working on the difficult process of starting a medical business and getting credentialed by insurance companies about a year ago. They hired a consultant to guide them through the process and designer to modernize the new space.

They chose the Keene Road area after concluding it was underserved. While he’s interested in patients of all ages and backgrounds, he said the location aims to draw patients from the neighborhood.

Hair said he likes variety in patients, working with children and older people and finding ways to solve challenging conditions. He has a passion for treating dry eye, which he said is common in the Tri-Cities.

Hair said coming up with Tri-City Eyes was one of the more challenging tasks of his career. 

While he could never have anticipated a global pandemic would curtail his business so soon after it opened, Hair said he’s staying positive.

Laying off employees who had been on the job only two weeks was rough. He assisted in signing them up for temporary unemployment benefits and is hopeful they will weather the crisis.

The clinic is semi-open, able to serve patients picking up contact lenses and glasses under the terms of Gov. Jay Inslee’s Stay Home, Stay Safe order, which extends to May 4. He can see patients for emergencies or urgent matters, though he notes he wasn’t open long enough to have a patient base

It wasn’t the opening Hair wanted but it’s had unexpected benefits. He opened the practice with minimal debt by stocking it with essential equipment and putting off gear that would be nice but not critical. The crisis validated his decision to start lean.

The slow start has given him family time and space to finish tasks that weren’t complete before the practice opened. He’s even taken online training sessions to stay up on the profession.

“There’s definitely some blessings to this,” he said.

Tri-City Eyes: 2170 Keene Road, Richland; 509-402-2399; thetricityeyes.com; Facebook.