Eye Health and Vision Care

Programs

With the assistance of the Vision Services Committee, ACU has compiled a number of tools and resources to assist federally qualified health centers (FQHCs) and look-alikes (FQHC-LAs) to start up and expand their eye health and vision care programs.

Getting Started

How to Open an Eye Clinic in a Community Health Center Written by ACU Vision Services Committee member, Dr. Kristin White, this blog provides tips and tactics to opening an optometry clinic from scratch within an existing community health center.

Vision Services Readiness Assessment, 2020 Created by ACU, this tool can be used to identify program strengths and gaps that should be considered before integrating vision services into the primary care setting. At the end of the assessment, you’ll receive a snapshot of your situation along with recommendations and resources for moving forward.

Making the Business Case

Creating a succinct business case can create an understanding and buy-in among staff and the Board. A simple, 3-4 sentence statement about the importance of opening an optometry clinic and the impact on the population served. The statement provides a unified vision and guides next steps forward. The National Association of Community Health Center’s (NACHC) Leadership Action Guide provides a template for creating a business case.

An assessment of the community’s needs around vision and eye health can help inform the creation of the business plan. The CDC’s Vision and Eye Health Toolkit recommends conducting a community assessment to help build an understanding of the extent of vision impairment and eye disorders, the prevalence of risk factors, which populations are at highest risk, and the extent of access to vision services and eye care providers. The CDC State Profiles on Vision and Eye Health can be a starting point for conducting the assessment as it presents an overview of the impact of vision impairment and comorbid conditions in the United States in all 50 states.

Staffing the Clinic

Job Descriptions: Below find a list of key requirements, duties, responsibilities, and skills to include in job descriptions for positions in an optometry clinic along with examples from FQHCs and look-alikes:
- Optometrist: template, Examples: Community Health Center, Inc.,
- Optometric Assistant: template
- Optometric Technician: template
- Optician: template
Determining a Salary: The Eyes On Eyecare Optometrist Salary Calculator uses data from surveys conducted in 2020 and 2021 along with supplemental data to provide average optometrist salary by state.

Planning the Clinic Space

Mobile Vision Clinics

Since 2017, ACU has partnered with schools and health centers to provide over 3500 vision exams through mobile vision clinics. Over 56% of the people who had an examination at a mobile vision clinic needed prescription glasses which were provided in the days following the events.

Startup and Expansion Grants for Permanent Eye Health and Vision Clinics

The provision of on-site, comprehensive eye and vision care speaks directly to the mission of health centers to provide primary, preventive health care services. As such ACU provides small grants to health centers to support the costs of vision equipment and supplies. Since 2018, ACU has assisted nineteen health centers in establishing and expanding permanent eye health and vision care programs.

A recent grantee of the program, PrimaryOne Health in Columbus, Ohio, used funds to support the purchase of an optical coherence tomography (OCT) machine for their East Main Street location. This machine is currently being used to diagnose and help treat individuals with glaucoma and retinal diseases like age-related macular degeneration and diabetic eye disease. It has expanded and enhanced their ability to provide comprehensive care for their vulnerable patient population of individuals from communities disproportionately impacted by these issues.

“Having to refer our patients to another site meant that we were sometimes exacerbating the transportation, scheduling, and/or financial barriers faced by the patients. In the area served by the site, nearly 33% of the population is considered low income, and 59.2% of the population is at or below 138% of the federal poverty line and/or uninsured. Referring our patients elsewhere would significantly decrease the likelihood that our patients would go on to receive the follow-up care they need at a price they could afford. By providing low-cost vision care services to our patients, we can ensure that they have access to quality eye care, regardless of their ability to pay.”

– Gregary Graves, OD

PrimaryOne Health, Columbus, OH

Click the links below to learn more how each of the nineteen grantees used their funds as well as the impact on patients.

Summary of Vision Service Program Grantees – overview of the start up or expansion programs for the nineteen health centers funded by ACU.
Patient Impact Stories – patients who received from grants from ACU shared their impact access to vision services has had on their life.

Technical Assistance to Health Centers

ACU’s Vision Services Committee is made up of optometrists and health care administrators from across the country who are committed to increasing access to eye health and vision care for underserved populations. ACU works closely with the Committee to address the technical assistance needs of health centers to support successful and sustainable programs. View the Vision Services Committee roster here.

Resources

Integrating Eye Health and Vision Care for Underserved Populations into Primary Care Settings, 2020 – publication by the American Optometric Association and the Association of Clinicians for the Underserved to provide information about the current need and best practices for delivering health care services as part of integrated care models

From Start Up to Success: Eye Health and Vision Care Programs at Health Centers – a workshop recording from ACU’s 2021 Annual Conference that covers development of a sustainable business model, conducting comprehensive eye exams, building in care coordination, and engaging in patient education and outreach.

Eyes on Access: ACU, the National Association of Community Health Centers, and Prevent Blindness hosted a two-part webinar series for health centers to learn strategies and models of investment from vision care experts and peers from health centers across the country. See links to webinars as well as description below

Part 1 reviewed the interconnection of vision, chronic disease and quality of life. Learners will review the data substantiating community needs, disparities and barriers.
Part 2 reviewed the operational activities necessary to implement or enhance vision services in a health center. Learners will review planning factors such as provider configuration, cost, volume and supervision

Vision Services Readiness Assessment, 2020 – a short questionnaire for health centers to assess their readiness to start an eye health and vision care program. Assessment results include resources such as a vision equipment cost calculator

The National Eye Institute’s National Eye Health Education Program – an extensive library of patient education resources and tools in different languages

Integrating Eye Services into Primary Care, 2021 – developed by Prevent Blindness, this resource includes recommendations and a sample business plan for health centers.

More Information

To learn more about ACU’s programs or sponsorship opportunities, please contact Luke Ertle.