VSP Global President and CEO Michael Guyette recently authored a LinkedIn post on the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and American Optometric Association guidelines regarding essential care and how VSP Global is responding to those guidelines.
Read the post here (LinkedIn login required) or scroll down to read the full article.
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Is Eye Care Essential During a Pandemic?
As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to unfold, we face new realities and new understandings of what is essential in our lives.
As more jurisdictions order the closure of non-essential businesses, it’s important to understand how the term “essential” is being defined, especially here in the United States.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a public health reminder to prioritize urgent and emergency medical visits. The American Optometric Association (AOA) responded in support and further defined the role of Doctors of Optometry as providers of essential care, with guidance that eye doctors limit access to routine eye care but remain accessible to patients who have urgent care needs.
VSP Global is in support of these guidelines because access to optometrists during the pandemic allows patients to maintain health and visual acuity and ease the burden on primary care physicians, emergency rooms and hospitals. You can read more about essential and emergency eye care vs. non-essential and routine visits here.
My recent conversations with VSP network doctors have validated this direction.
I spoke with a doctor who shared a story about a patient who complained of blurred vision. Rather than postpone a routine exam, the patient was instructed to come in and was then quickly diagnosed with advanced glaucoma. Two more weeks and she could have gone blind.
Another doctor was able to remove a significant piece of debris from a patient’s eye—keeping that patient out of an emergency room, reducing their risk of exposure, and allowing urgent care resources to focus on treating and containing COVID-19.
How We’re Responding
As CEO of a global organization operating in the healthcare continuum, the health and safety of more than 15,000 employees in 16 countries are my top priority. This ensures we’re able to provide business continuity and support our doctors, members and clients.
More than 95% of our eligible U.S. workforce is working from home and a similar percentage of our overseas teams are doing the same. For those who can’t work remotely—such as warehouse and manufacturing employees—we’re vigilant in creating safe environments where these jobs can be performed with social distancing and other safety precautions in place.
Within this rapidly evolving context, we also made the decision to temporarily close all Visionworks of America locations, while continuing to preserve access to those doctors for patients in need of emergency eye care services.
We made this decision to focus on protecting the health and safety of our employees, doctors and the communities we serve and to help alleviate any stress on local healthcare systems who are facing this unprecedented pandemic.
Our Mission During a Crisis
As we all settle into a short-term “new normal,” VSP Global’s collective mission of helping people see endures.
The context and setting in which we do so may be different right now. But that core mission and the role we play for our doctors, clients and members remains intact.
For example, while some of our Eyes of Hope initiatives are on standby, we’re still finding ways we can support our communities.
Marchon Eyewear—VSP’s eyewear business—has donated supplies of Dragon Eyewear goggles to healthcare workers around New York City, where need for personal protective equipment (PPE) is especially high. We’re also distributing product to hospital systems here in VSP’s hometown of Sacramento and Orange County, where the Dragon brand has its roots.
Motocross goggles may not be the perfect solution, but with healthcare workers on the frontlines pleading for PPE—including eye protection—we’re pitching in with what we have to offer and looking at ways we might repurpose other safety eyewear inventory for these needs, too.
Each of us has a role to play in these uncertain and unprecedented times. Whether that’s performing healthcare services, donating what you can, or simply staying home to help flatten the curve, we’re in this together.
We’re all essential.