Before Little Eyes Pediatric Care opened in Carmel, Indiana, Katherine Schuetz, OD, understood that children are a unique demographic. When it comes to practice management, children are unlike adults—many of whom come in for contacts, designer frames or routine vision correction. Many kids simply don’t need treatment yet. But early detection is critical, especially given the rise in rates of myopia.
In the early days, she looked for ways to introduce her practice to the Carmel community. “I knew that most referrals would come from pediatricians and school nurses, so I focused my outreach there,” she says. Armed with eyeglass repair kits and contact lens solutions, Dr. Schuetz visited every school nurse in her district. She introduced herself as the local pediatric optometrist and offered free classroom vision screenings for students.
SYMBIOSIS BETWEEN SCHOOLS AND ODS
Kady Weaver, BSN, RN, a nurse at Carmel Elementary School, is a vocal advocate for vision testing and referrals. As a parent of a child with vision difficulties, it’s important to her personally and professionally. “While I am not the first to notice issues with vision, I am the first contact a parent receives from school recommending further care. I don’t get as many referrals from classroom teachers as I did five years ago. I believe this is mainly due to not having as much work displayed on a whiteboard or projector screen as there was in the past.”
She alerts teachers to the clues of vision issues: squinting, holding reading materials too close and blinking excessively. “If teachers do notice issues, I will do a screening in my office and refer out as needed. I realize that when we do find a concern, the main goal is not just to get glasses, but to access treatments that can actually slow the progression of myopia. As a school nurse, I work together with parents and educators to instill habits that can help protect kids’ vision.”
She also recommends annual vision checks, noting that they are “just as important as preventative annual physicals, as our eyes are the key to the world.”
The effort started as one doctor covering a dozen schools over the course of the school year. Now, it encompasses a team of four doctors at over 20 schools last year—reaching hundreds of children. Dr. Schuetz describes these visits as highly efficient, thanks to years of refining her process. Because the doctors test objective measures—retinoscopy, ophthalmoscopy and cover tests—rather than acuity, she and her team can “zip through a hundred kids in about an hour,” she says. Plus, by scheduling these mini clinic visits early in the morning, she sacrifices hardly any time at Little Eyes and still reaches countless children who otherwise wouldn’t see an OD until symptoms arise.
She learned at her first visit that including acuity testing becomes too time-consuming; she leaves that screening to school nurses or the Carmel Lions Club.
EARLY INTERVENTION
If she sees a concern, Dr. Schuetz replaces the generic pass/fail note to parents with precise findings. “I’ll write, for example, your child’s left eye is farsighted and the right is nearsighted. Then I translate that into a clear referral plan so parents understand why follow-up is needed,” she says. “If parents only see that their child failed a screening—without any explanation—they often don’t grasp the concern and are less likely to follow-up.”
Parents who bring their children to Little Eyes often ask what the best treatment is for their children. “That’s one of my favorite questions and also my least favorite question from a parent,” Dr. Schuetz says. “There isn’t one best, overall. But we will work together to find the best fit for your child, based on their maturity, age and ability.” Dr. Schuetz can direct families to atropine, orthokeratology or a dual focus contact lens, such as the FDA-approved MiSight® 1-day lens.
By volunteering year after year, Dr. Schuetz has established trusted relationships with school nurses across Indiana. “We also always tell nurses, ‘If you have an injury or red eye situation, call us. We want to make sure those kiddos are okay,’” she says. The trust extends to families, too. Over a decade of dedication has led to more families scheduling exams directly in the practice.
Seeing how volunteer screenings benefit both her practice and the students served, Dr. Schuetz encourages fellow optometrists to do the same. “I’ve noticed that some ODs have gotten out of the habit since the pandemic,” she says. “It doesn’t have to take a ton of time. And it’s such a service to these children who don’t know they can’t see.”
SERVING THE KIDS
Beyond exams, Dr. Schuetz channels her community spirit into programs that give back. She launched Double Vision, a program that donates to the Indiana Blind Children’s Foundation with every pair of glasses purchased in-office. Little Eyes also partners with the Carmel Lions Club to recycle donated eyeglasses and redistribute them to community members in need. Today, she continues to volunteer at school-based screenings not to grow her practice but to serve as many children in her community as she can.
