Portland, Oregon’s OHSU Casey Eye Institute has partnered with community health clinics across the state to provide free and low-cost eye care and help prevent vision loss and blindness. Learn what this could mean for you. 

Recognizing a Need for Better Vision Care

When Gisela Ayala Echeverria started kindergarten about two decades ago, her family realized she needed glasses. Her parents, farmworkers who only spoke Spanish, didn’t know where to turn for eye care. While they were eventually referred to a local doctor’s office, young Gisela had to act as interpreter during her eye exam because the provider didn’t speak Spanish. 

Today, Ayala Echeverria is one of nine community health workers from Hood River’s One Community Health who have received basic eye health training as part of Oregon’s statewide initiative to improve eye care access for underserved and underinsured residents. 

How OSHU Is Addressing the Need

Driving the initiative–called the Oregon Vision Health Network–is the growing number of OHSU Casey Community Outreach Program partnerships with community clinics across the state. OHSU is training local community health workers and clinical staff to help residents determine if they need glasses or if they might have a condition that could lead to vision loss. The organization will also provide its partner clinics with ongoing support and resources. 

One of those resources is advanced eye imaging equipment that uses a technology called optical coherence tomography (OCT). The equipment will be used in up to eight partner clinics, providing a noninvasive way to diagnose eye conditions and inform treatment. Local clinic staff will operate the OCT equipment and send the resulting images to Casey Eye Institute ophthalmologists in Portland for review and recommendations. In December, One Community Health in Hood River is expected to become the first partner clinic to receive OCT.

A New Dawn in Local Vision Care

One Community Health currently offers basic medical care, dental care, and behavioral healthcare to its 18,000 patients. Approximately 64% of those patients are either on Medicaid or uninsured, and about 40% of them primarily speak Spanish. Becoming a network partner enables the center to expand its services and its reach. For the Network’s first five years, patients will receive care free of charge.

The OHSU’s mobile eye clinic has provided free eye exams throughout Oregon since 2010, but where the mobile clinic can only visit each community about every two years, the newly-trained community health workers and clinical staff can perform eye disease screenings for local residents year-round.

“This statewide network provides local health leaders with the knowledge they need to prevent eye issues and preserve vision in their community,” said Mitchel Brinks, MD, MPH, medical director of the OHSU outreach program and associate professor of ophthalmology in the OHSU School of Medicine. “We’re honored to work alongside community health clinics to better meet underserved Oregonians’ eye health needs right in their own backyards.”

*White, F. (2021, Nov. 16). Bringing Eye Care Closer to Home: OHSU Trains Community Health Workers for Statewide Network. OHSU News. https://news.ohsu.edu/2021/11/16/bringing-eye-care-closer-to-home-ohsu-trains-community-health-workers-for-statewide-network