Protect Your Eyes Around the Home

Believe it or not, better weather here in the Cleveland area is just around the corner!   With more good weather more activity outside will take place and this is another chance to remind you of your eye safety.

What do a bungee cord, a pan of frying bacon and lawn-care chemicals have in common? 

They are just a few of the common items around the house that can cause eye injuries, which are
increasingly occurring at home. In fact, nearly half of the 2.5 million eye injuries that Americans
suffer annually now happen in and around the home in common places like the lawn, garden,
kitchen or garage.

“People need to be aware of the everyday dangers to their eyesight that lurk in the home,” said
Tamara Fountain, MD, an ophthalmologist and spokesperson for the American Academy of
Ophthalmology. “It is far easier to prevent an eye injury than to treat it. Ninety percent of all eye 
injuries can be prevented by simply wearing protective eyewear.” 

The Academy and the American Society of Ocular Trauma (ASOT) recommend that every
household in America have at least one pair of ANSI-approved protective eyewear to be worn
when doing projects and activities at home to safeguard against eye injuries. ANSI-approved
protective eyewear is manufactured to meet the American National Standards Institute (ANSI)
eye protection standard. ANSI-approved protective eyewear can be easily purchased from most
hardware stores nationwide and can be identified by the mark "Z87" placed on the eyewear.

“Slipping on a pair of safety glasses is quick and easy,” Dr. Fountain says. “People should use 
protective eyewear during any potentially hazardous tasks around the house, from cleaning your 
oven with a chemical cleaner to using bungee cords to hold items in place. In the event that you 
do suffer an eye injury, have an ophthalmologist examine the injury as soon as possible, even if 
the injury seems minor at first.” 

This article reprinted with permission from the American Academy of Ophthalmology's EyeSmart 
Campaign (www.geteyesmart.org).

SkyVision doctors and optical department can help you with a pair of safety glasses for whatever your needs are.  Just give a call and see what your options may be.

A Patient-Centered Approach To Eye Emergencies

                                 

We all have an occasional medical emergency. What happens in Cleveland when you have an eye emergency? What does "same day appointments" mean, the ones that you see on the big billboards around our town? Well, here's what it means if you are a Skyvision Centers patient: you are seen by a Skyvision Centers doctor in the Skyvision Center office you know and love RIGHT AWAY!


                               
It's very hard to know as a patient what is and what really isn't a true emergency. The staff members who answer our phones have been trained to ask you important questions to determine if you have the kind of emergency that requires you to come in on the day you have called. Curtains or shades coming over your vision? Come right in. Pain in the eye that is new and just won't go away? How fast can you get here?

How about nights and weekends? Yup...then too! Dr. White was out of town this weekend and he received a call on his personal cell phone from a patient with a family eye emergency. They were told to come right in. If you have an eye emergency at night or on the weekend a Skyvision Center eye doctor will see you even then.

If it seems like your problem is urgent but not an emergency our staff will discuss the timing of your visit, especially if we or you are very busy that day and we are trying to avoid a big wait for you. But in the end, a patient-centered approach to eye emergencies, the SKYVISION CENTERS APPROACH, is that if you are very concerned about your new eye problem we will find a way to see you that day. That's what Patient-Centered Medicine means at Skyvision.

Do you think that's what they mean on all those billboards around Cleveland?

Hurricane Sandy Visits SkyVision

People roll their eyes when we say things like "we have a very visual job", but when big storms hit our part of Cleveland it's never more true. SkyVision Centers, along with all of the businesses in the Crocker Park area of Westlake, lost its power on Monday night. We didn't get it back until sometime very early in the morning today. As luck would have it our phones were still kaput until just after noon. All is well and everything is up and running now, even our phones!

As much as any specialty, eye doctors are literally stopped cold without electricity. Not just those who have computerized medical records, but ALL eye doctors. If you think about it that makes a lot of sense. All of the instruments that our doctors use are electric in some way, shape or form. Even the lowly flashlights need to be plugged in to get charged.

We are fortunate to have highly qualified emergency room physicians in the Greater Cleveland area, and most of the hospitals have generators if there is an emergency that must be attended to immediately. Dr. White likes to say that SkyVision is open and available for eye emergencies 363 days of the year, we just never know which day will turn out to be #364 or #365. For us this year one of them was November 30th!

We are back and running strong today. Happy Halloween! Let's hope none of the Hobgoblins gives you such a fright that you need to see an eye doc, but if you DO...

A Patient-Centered Approach to Emergency Visits

We all have an occasional medical emergency. What happens in Cleveland when you have an eye emergency? What does "same day appointments" mean, the ones that you see on the big billboards around our town? Well, here's what it means if you are a Skyvision Centers patient: you are seen by a Skyvision Centers doctor in the Skyvision Center office you know and love RIGHT AWAY!

It's very hard to know as a patient what is and what really isn't a true emergency. The staff members who answer our phones have been trained to ask you important questions to determine if you have the kind of emergency that requires you to come in on the day you have called. Curtains or shades coming over your vision? Come right in. Pain in the eye that is new and just won't go away? How fast can you get here?

How about nights and weekends? Yup...then too! If you have an eye emergency an eye doctor will see you even then.

If it seems like your problem is urgent but not an emergency our staff will discuss the timing of your visit, especially if we are very busy that day and we are trying to avoid a big wait for you. But in the end, a patient-centered approach to eye emergencies, the SKYVISION CENTERS APPROACH, is that if you are very concerned about your new eye problem we will find a way to see you that day. That's what Patient-Centered Medicine means at Skyvision.

Do you think that's what they mean on all those billboards around Cleveland?

We are OK With Our Patients Talking Behind Our Backs!

We have been told growing up that it is not nice to talk behind someone's back.   Well, here at SkyVision,  it would not have grown so well if people had not done just that!

So, we are thankful that we have been able to give great eye care to individuals and families and that people are talking about it. 

A big thank you to those of you have done the talking!