The year we've had

As the end of 2023 approaches, I am incredibly proud of the Pennsylvania Optometric Association (POA) this year. We embarked on our journey with a goal of “breaking down the silos” and fostering increased lateral communication within our organization. What I have come to realize is, through our efforts, while those silos grew stronger, we developed better interconnectivity with sideward communication, effectively bridging the pillars of our organizational structure. We should take pride in the foundational work we have laid, and we will continue to build upon this spirit of collaboration. 

Let's delve into more of our collective achievements over the past months. We have actively contributed to Salus University's strategic efforts to attract more students to the profession of optometry. Our Proactive Optometry Initiative has gained significant momentum with pledges from many of our members. If you have not already pledged, please do so here. Our keyperson program has undergone thorough evaluation and is evolving into a more comprehensive strategy. This restructuring will provide a solid foundation for our grassroots efforts as we progress toward our legislative goals.

Additionally, we have successfully trained dozens of optometrists across our Commonwealth to perform advanced laser procedures, in partnership with and presented by Salus University on both the eastern and western sides of Pennsylvania. We are well-positioned to explore the modernization of our scope of practice in the near future. Our collaborative efforts with the Pennsylvania Academy of Ophthalmology have expanded, with their request for referral sources for scleral contact lenses and low vision services. We promptly answered this request for action. Please sign up here and here if you would like to be considered as an office providing these services and materials. Our initiative allows ODs, DOs, and MDs to refer through the POA to participating offices. 

In late September, the POA partnered with VSP and the Salvation Army to provide comprehensive eye exams and glasses to individuals in need in Harrisburg. Over two days, our doctors and supporting staff cared for over 220 people, making a substantial difference in their lives. Recently, the POA has enlisted new legal counsel from Tucker Arensberg, PC. They are a full-service law firm with over 80 attorneys who will specialize in addressing the diverse needs of the POA and its members. The POA is deeply grateful for the decades of service and expertise provided by our former counsel, Attorney Greg Knight. We wish him well in his future endeavors and will always consider him a friend of the POA. 

Our legislative affairs committee remains dedicated to advancing our children's vision bill. Once this law is codified, it will be crucial that our Children's Vision Care Alliance (CVCA) be prepared for action, so sign up here. This alliance is not exclusive to vision therapy or pediatric optometrists; it is open to all who work with children giving them access to a first line comprehensive eye exam. If you see kids in any capacity, please sign up. 

In closing the year, the POA will be involved in assisting the Governor’s Office with his executive order directing the Pennsylvania Department of Aging to develop its Master Plan for Older Adults. Identifying early and treating visual conditions in an aging population will be a prominent focus within this Master Plan. 

As we reflect on all we have accomplished this past year, I am filled with optimism for our future. Let's continue to move onwards and upwards, as 2024 is just around the corner! I look forward to seeing you there!

Jesse
Jesse Jones, O.D.
POA President

POA's bringing eye care to the children

One in five children has a vision problem. These vision problems may affect a child’s ability to learn, play, socialize, and develop positive self-esteem. The National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine’s vision report underscores that comprehensive eye exams are “the gold standard in clinical vision care to most accurately identify and diagnose vision problems.” The American Optometric Association and Pennsylvania Optometric Association recommend children receive a comprehensive eye examination during the first year of life, between the ages of 3 and 5, before entering 1st grade, and annually thereafter. 

As Doctors of Optometry, we are uniquely qualified to assess and treat children’s vision and ocular health. This year, the POA is practicing what it preaches. The Association has held a long-time position that vision screenings, even by competent professionals, are not sufficient replacements for eye examinations by licensed optometrists.

In September, the POA, in cooperation with VSP Vision™ Eyes of Hope® and the Salvation Army Harrisburg Capital City Region, is providing approximately 200 free eye exams to children who would otherwise not receive care. The eye exams will take place on the 16th and 17th at the Salvation Army on 29th street. POA member optometrists, as well as supporting staff and students, will examine children and others of the underserved community in need of eye care as identified by the Salvation Army. VSP Vision™ Eyes of Hope® is providing the eye exam equipment, maintaining the medical records, and supplying glasses to those children in need, while the Salvation Army will provide follow-up care.

The POA’s initiatives for children’s vision do not end with the free eye exams—there are also ongoing discussions and education provided for free to school nurses, as well as free member materials to showcase the importance of eye examinations in the practice. Additionally, the POA supports current legislation to ensure all children receive the eye exams they deserve. 

Please remember to educate your patients, staff, schools, and community about children’s vision—reading teachers, pediatricians, and family physicians play vital roles in a child’s eye health also. You can teach this important community with the Kids Welcome Here posters and brochures, which are available to POA members free of charge, and Vision is Elementary posters, which are available for school nurses. Through the Children’s Vision Care Alliance, the POA has developed near point cards and a presentation to further educate school nurses of optometric care. The POA has developed all these materials for its members, but it needs you to get the word out. By joining the CVCA, you become part of a network of POA member optometrists dedicated to providing quality eye care to children. 

Thank you to the optometrists, staff, students, and other volunteers assisting in the September eye exams. Thank you to VSP Vision™ Eyes of Hope® and the Salvation Army Harrisburg Capital City Region for their cooperation.

Finally, a special thank you to the POA’s Ilene Sauertieg, who persisted to make the event, first conceived by our late executive director, Joe Ricci, into a reality.

Tracy Carpenter Sepich, O.D., MS
POA President

A strong POA is a diverse and inclusive POA

The Pennsylvania Optometric Association has a long history of providing member benefits ranging from advocacy to education. The Association provides a voice for optometry in Harrisburg and Washington, D.C., offers problem-solving and maintains ongoing relationships with third-party payers on behalf of our members. POA membership opens the door to premium opportunities with buying groups, investment strategies with Fischer Financial, insurance, discounts with Element Risk Management, HIPAA compliance solutions with Abyde, and consultative services with POA legal counsel. Additionally, the POA Electronic Claims Service helps you submit claims to third-party payers while also generating income to reduce membership dues.

When the COVID shutdown hit, we devised quality online education, which has continued as an option in addition to our revived in-person educational offerings, and we will continue to provide cutting-edge education as we explore scope expansion.

Through the Children’s Vision Care Alliance, we form relationships with school nurses statewide, and provide members with no-cost posters, brochures, and presentations to educate local schools and families on the importance of eye examinations. We have similar materials available to promote the need and accessibility of diabetic eye examinations by optometrists through the Pennsylvania Diabetic Eye Health Alliance. These programs keep our member optometrists involved and relevant in these essential areas of vision and eye care. 

We partner with the Pennsylvania Paraoptometric Association which provides education as well as networking and professional development opportunities for your staff. The AOA Paraoptometric Resource Center also provides staff training and certification.

We support our fourteen local optometric societies so members can attend meetings, obtain CE, network, and advocate locally. We work closely with the Pennsylvania Student Optometric Association to recruit new members and keep our initiatives current and relevant.

We update our members through email and this bi-monthly newsletter, which includes a classified section to assist members with practice and equipment sales and job searches.

A new addition to our association structure is a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) task force. As a result of responses to our 2021 membership survey, our new strategic plan calls for the creation of this DEI task force. This initiative is important in making sure all optometrists in Pennsylvania have a home in the POA. We need to make sure all optometrists know they are valued and welcomed. We want optometrists with a variety of backgrounds to contribute to the volunteer structure of the POA. We will be stronger as an association if we have a diverse community of members involved.

In an effort to recognize the AOA’s dedication to all people, at the 2021 AOA House of Delegates, the following statements were added to the Optometric Oath: “I WILL provide professional care for the diverse populations who seek my services, with concern, with compassion and with due regard for their human rights and dignity.  I WILL work to expand access to quality care and improve health equity for all communities.”

Please recognize we all have biases. Please educate yourself. Please attend local conversations about diversity in your community. Simply saying we are welcoming is not enough. When you are at a conference, sit next to someone who does not look like you. Stop into local optometry practices in various settings and invite them to your local society meetings.

I hope to foster a POA in which optometrists of all backgrounds, lifestyles, and practice styles know they belong, are safe and valued, and work together for our common goals. My hope is by nurturing a diverse and inclusive association, we will become better providers and serve a greater community with more acceptance and positive results.

Little things matter. Respect, even in small ways, matters.

If you have an interest in strengthening the POA by participating in the new POA DEI task force, contact me at tsepich@restoreeyecare.com or the POA office at mail@poaeyes.org. Thank you.

Tracy Carpenter Sepich, O.D., MS

POA President

Senator Vogel's 2015 Kids Extravaganza

Senator Vogel's 2015 Kids Extravaganza was held at Community College of Beaver County in Monaca on Saturday, June 27 from 11:00 a.m. until 2:00 p.m.

Local POA member optometrists supported the event with tables including two very busy face painters that were a huge hit at the event.

Kids Welcome Here®, InfantSEE® and There is More to 3D were the table themes.

The POA members' mission was to explain with demonstration the need to have children's eyes examined at a very young age.

This was the sixth consecutive year for the event and the sixth consecutive year for local POA member optometrists to take part in it. An estimated 1500+ were in attendance.

Information and photos provided by Dr. Bud Lilly.

Summer 2015

Strong ties: Senator Eichelberger (middle) visited his keyperson, Dr. Michelle Barnes (second from the left), and her children (from left to right: Shane, Shannon and David), at the June 19, 2015 grand opening of Dr. Barnes’s new location.

Helping out: POA members volunteered to give veterans free eye examinations for the AOA’s VFW National Convention in Pittsburgh.

Seeing double: While in Seattle for Optometry’s Meeting, Dr. Charles Stuckey (POA executive director) enjoyed time with Dr. Lori Gray’s (POA Secretary/Treasurer) and Dr. Steve Eiss’ (POA Trustee) twin children! The leftmost and rightmost are Dr. Eiss’ and the middle two are Dr. Gray’s.

Let's go, PCO: During Optometry's Meeting, Nicole Rist won the annual Studentbowl, effectively defeating the other competitors on behalf of the Pennsylvania College of Optometry. 

Anthracite's Save Your Vision Month 2015

By Shannon Scheuren, O.D.

For Save Your Vision Month, approximately 2,000 second grade students from sixteen schools located in Carbon, Northumberland and Schuylkill counties participated in a coloring contest hosted by the Anthracite Optometric Society. All participants received a custom pencil and each classroom winner received a trophy. Out of the classroom winners, an overall school winner was chosen. The school winners had a party at McDonald’s in Saint Clair on March 28, 2015. Seymour Safely handed out balloons to winners and others at the party and posed for photos. Anthracite Optometric Society provided happy meals for the winners and McDonald’s gave out cookies. Praxair donated the helium for the balloons.

Dr. Gary Scheib, who has dressed as Seymour Safely since approximately 1979, spoke on the importance of our eyes and vision. Dr. Shannon Scheuren, Dr. Ann Marie Robert-Blehm and Dr. Bernice Machamer presented the winners with their certificates and trophies.

Photos provided by Dr. Shannon Scheuren.

Latest VOSH PA Mission

Paul Halpern, O.D.

A new Volunteer Optometric Services to Humanity of Pennsylvania (VOSH PA) mission site was opened in Pont Sondé, Haiti about sixty miles northwest of Port-au-Prince and just inland from the sea. The mission was sponsored by Sové Lavi, which is liberally interpreted to mean "save lives." Founded by one-time Haitian presidential candidate and American food industry capitalist Dumas Simeus, Sové Lavi is a community-based group that concentrates on uplifting health care in Haiti.

This mission was unique; we stayed in a small hotel located adjacent to the Sové Lavi sponsored community health clinic. This very clean, but small two-story building was a hodge-podge of little examination rooms connected by narrow hallways and located on the main street of the town. Because the building lacked a large standing area, the patients were forced to line up along the heavily traveled street prior to registration causing some episodic breakdown of behavior. As is usually the case, once registered and in line for care, the most outspoken of the patients became sweet and tame.

Our volunteers saw about 1,125 patients and referred 35 for cataract surgery to the ophthalmology residency program at the University of Haiti Medical School in Port-au-Prince. Unfortunately they are not equipped to provide tertiary care for glaucoma patients so we could only provide them with a year's supply of glaucoma medication and our good wishes. We successfully treated several trachoma cases, most notably a seven-year-old who returned for a follow-up the next day and was essentially clear. As is VOSH policy, we instructed the family on the necessity of good personal hygiene as the best way to combat this condition.

We did one remote village clinic on our last day in Noé, a very poor community with few resources. The living conditions were the worst that I personally encountered in all my ten trips to Haiti. Our team made the best of it and did great work despite the circumstances.

On this mission, we were fortunate to have a Surgical Eye Expedition (SEE) physician from Harvard University, Paul Cotran. Dr. Cotran is a fellowship trained glaucoma specialist and educator. He stayed with the group for two clinic days and then moved on to the hospital at the university to tend to the cataract patients we had referred. It is important to note that I saw some of the worst glaucoma sufferers that I have ever come across. At least six patients were totally cupped out and stone cold blind. As Dr. Cotran and I began to see these people and others with emerging glaucoma, we became increasingly frustrated with our inability to provide proper care for them.

We came to the conclusion that Haitian eye surgeons and ophthalmology residents needed to be trained to do more complex and lasting procedures to treat glaucoma. We need to make this care geographically available to the people, perhaps at yet-to-be created Centers of Excellence located in north, central, and southern Haiti. Spaced about 100 miles apart these centers could bring glaucoma care closer to the people. The discussion broadened by taking it online and to various national and international glaucoma experts for extra input and suggestions. A plan began to evolve that centered on ways to best treat for long-term wellness and to also train local ophthalmologists to provide the care needed. It is most important that we stay at the forefront of this exciting new effort.

Finally, we are indebted to the wonderful group of volunteers that made this trip. They were spectacular under difficult conditions. They never faltered; they only asked what else they could do. I don't understand how we are so fortunate to be blessed by this quality volunteerism but we, as an organization, must recognize, treasure, and when possible, reward them.

For more information about VOSH PA, visit www.vosh-pa.com.