In-House Eyeglass Fabrication for Blind Rehabilitation
Last updated
Share PrintInstead of outsourcing the prescription eyeglass orders for visually impaired Veterans, this program makes these glasses in-house at the Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Blind Rehabilitation Center. Doing this significantly reduces the turnaround time between order and issuance of the eyeglasses and allows for better assessment of needs and a reduction in unused prosthetics. This program can also provide the same service to outpatient low vision clinics within the blind rehab center’s VISN or catchment area which reduces the amount of travel required for these Veterans to obtain their glasses and allows them to be used during their outpatient programs.
Origin:
March 2021, Louis Stokes Cleveland Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center (Cleveland, Ohio)
Adoptions:
9 successful, 1 in-progress
Awards and Recognition:
iNet Spark Award Investee, iNET Spread Investee, Diffusion of Excellence Promising Practice, VHA Shark Tank Winner
Partners:
Blind Rehabilitation
Recent Updates
Overview
The problem
The expected wait time for prescription eyeglasses from a VA optical shop is 4-6 weeks. The average length of stay for a legally blind Veteran at a VA blind rehabilitation center is 28 days. These Veterans don’t receive their glasses during their training program to troubleshoot and evaluate effectiveness with a low vision specialist. Instead, the glasses ar
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The expected wait time for prescription eyeglasses from a VA optical shop is 4-6 weeks. The average length of stay for a legally blind Veteran at a VA blind rehabilitation center is 28 days. These Veterans don’t receive their glasses during their training program to troubleshoot and evaluate effectiveness with a low vision specialist. Instead, the glasses are shipped, at an additional expense to the VA, to the Veteran’s home. Most are unable to independently travel to have the glasses fit properly. Leading to the glasses going unused, not working properly, and very often affecting the effectiveness of their low vision devices. The goal of this program is to reduce turnaround time from order to issuance of the eyeglasses while also providing significant cost avoidance and most importantly high Veteran satisfaction.
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The solution
Instead of outsourcing the prescription eyeglass orders for visually impaired Veterans, this program makes these glasses in-house at the Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Blind Rehabilitation Center. Doing this significantly reduces the turnaround time between order and issuance of the eyeglasses and allows for better assessment of needs and a reduction in unused pr
...
Instead of outsourcing the prescription eyeglass orders for visually impaired Veterans, this program makes these glasses in-house at the Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Blind Rehabilitation Center. Doing this significantly reduces the turnaround time between order and issuance of the eyeglasses and allows for better assessment of needs and a reduction in unused prosthetics. This program can also provide the same service to outpatient low vision clinics within the blind rehab center’s VISN or catchment area, thus reducing the amount of travel required for these Veterans to obtain their glasses and allow them to use their glasses during their outpatient programs.
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The results
Veterans at the Cleveland Blind Rehabilitation Center have been able to receive their prescription eyeglass orders in 6 days as opposed to 4-6 weeks. This has allowed the specialty tint, frame, and prescriptions required by many of these visually impaired Veterans to be properly fit and assessed by a low vision therapist. Receiving their glasses in a timely
...
Veterans at the Cleveland Blind Rehabilitation Center have been able to receive their prescription eyeglass orders in 6 days as opposed to 4-6 weeks. This has allowed the specialty tint, frame, and prescriptions required by many of these visually impaired Veterans to be properly fit and assessed by a low vision therapist. Receiving their glasses in a timely manner allows the Veteran to utilize them during their training program which has resulted in a reduction in unused low vision prosthetic devices. Over the life of the program, the Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center alone has seen a substantial cost savings of over $400,000 and 100% Veteran satisfaction to date. Many low vision clinics within the blind rehabilitation center's catchment area have stated that after hearing of the program in Cleveland, their Veterans have requested to come to so they can to experience the benefits of this program.
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Metrics
- An average cost avoidance of $215 per pair of prescription eyeglasses resulting in a total savings of over $1,000,000 across all facilities to date.
- 100% satisfaction from over 4500 low vision and legally blind Veterans who have experienced the program benefits.
- Reduction in average turnaround time from order to issuance of the prescription eyeglasses from 4-6 week or more down to 7 days.
Diffusion tracker
Does not include Clinical Resource Hubs (CRH)
Implementation
Timeline
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Week 1
Establish points of contact at adopting facility:-Low vision optometrist-Prosthetics agent/chief-Logistics agent/chief-Fiscal representativeAll points of contact would be given an overview of the flow of the program and their role in the process. Payment methods (cost transfer vs individual accounts) would be discussed and decided to determine the next step. -
Week 2
-If adopting site would like to have their own individual accounts, prosthetics and logistics agents would be connected with appropriate vendors to ensure adopting site has accounts with the required vendors.-If adopting site wants to do cost transfers instead of establishing individual accounts, fiscal from adopting site will be connected with fiscal from Cleveland VAMC to establish cost strings for monthly facility to facility transfers.-Adopting site should create a consult template and determine their process for closing consults -
Week 3 and on
When all appropriate vendors have been added to the adopting site or fiscal cost transfer strings have been created and established, the program can begin with adopting site sending prescription eyeglass orders through the in-house edging program.
Departments
- Logistics
- Finance department
- Low vision and blind rehabilitation
- Rehabilitation and prosthetics
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About
Origin story
Having worked in private optometry prior to coming to the VA, I knew the numerous benefits of a patient receiving their prescription eyeglasses in a timely matter. Once I began my time at the VA, I was shocked to learn that it took our visually impaired Veterans 4-6 weeks or more to receive their prescription eyeglasses. I was more shocked that the average l
...
Having worked in private optometry prior to coming to the VA, I knew the numerous benefits of a patient receiving their prescription eyeglasses in a timely matter. Once I began my time at the VA, I was shocked to learn that it took our visually impaired Veterans 4-6 weeks or more to receive their prescription eyeglasses. I was more shocked that the average length of stay for a visually impaired Veteran at an inpatient VA blind rehabilitation center was 28 days which meant our Veterans were not even able to receive their prescription eyeglasses during their inpatient stay. I knew there was a better way, but did not know how to go about bringing it to my Veterans. Fortunately, I learned of the VA Innovation Network and our incredible innovation specialist William Corcuera. Mr. Corcuera guided me along the application process to trial my idea as a Spark project. The success was so overwhelming we skipped the Seed phase and moved directly to the Spread. Again with Mr. Corcuera' s guidance, the program was trialed at 4 additional low vision clinics ranging from other inpatient blind rehabilitation centers to smaller, outpatient low vision clinics. Again, the success was staggering. All spread sites have adopted and sustained the program at their facility with several other clinics in VISN 10 and 12 potentially adopting as well. My goal is to significantly reduce the turnaround time from order to issuance of prescription eyeglasses for every visually impaired Veteran while also significantly reducing the costs for the VA.
Original team
Robert Wrubel
Blind Rehabilitation Specialist
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