Healthcare Solutions Forum

This morning I attended the Regional Partnership Healthcare Solutions Forum, put on by several Triangle based Workforce Development Boards.  The topic was the shortage of healthcare workers.  It’s clear, not just in NC, but nationally, that there is a growing unmet need for trained healthcare workers in just about every area of healthcare. 

To use the Triangle as an example, this area has added 2,000 businesses and 30,000 jobs in healthcare, just since the year 2000.  Add the growing population (the Triangle expects to add roughly 275,000 people over the next 5 years), to aging baby boomers, AND aging/retiring healthcare providers, and you’ve got a serious shortage of healthcare workers.   

This forum was attended by various executives from healthcare employers, like area hospitals (referred to as Healthcare Worker “Consumers” at the mtg.), producers of healthcare talent, like Technical Community Colleges (referred to as “Producers”), and those in the middle acting as ”Distributors” (that’s Local Eye Site!).  We discussed various issues that are realities of this current situation.  Here are a few:

1.  Shortage of training programs.

2.  Communication breakdown between what Healthcare worker “Consumers” need in their employees, and how “Producers” are training them.

3.  Aging workforce.

4.  Lack of Private Sector involvement.

5.  ”Producers” aren’t using today’s technology to reach the potential pool of talent to spread the word about potential career options in healthcare.

6.  ”Producers” aren’t using the technology partially at least because of lack of funding.

7.  Healthcare can be a difficult job.

8.  Competition with other careers. 

9.  Retention not what it should be.

 So, what’s the solution?  Everyone should join the Local Eye Site Community, of course!  I’m kidding, sort-of, but I was encouraged by Local Eye Site’s  role with this issue.  Eye Care faces these issues, in fact, even more so than other specialties.  Ophthalmology and Optometry will face a disproportionate share of this pressure as the boomers age over the next 10 years.  Not every Senior Citizen, thankfully, has to see an Oncologist, but almost all of them need to see an Eye Doctor. 

So, join the LES Community as we enhance careers, increase educational opportunities and foster communication in eye care!

Local Eye Site: A Media Darling

The press has picked up on the success of Local Eye Site!  A press release about LES’ early success and rapid expansion was picked up by at least 3 websites, and expanded nationally by Google News Alerts on Ophthalmology.  The News & Observer of Raleigh called also, and published a piece on August 13th in Business Doings.  Wow, we’ve never been a media darling before.  Perhaps we should change our name to LocalObamaSite.com.  Just kidding, settle down. 

Carolina Newswire

Business News at RaleighDurham.com

dBusiness News.com

THE LES ipod Winner Cheryl Sims!

Hello Local Eye Site Community! 

Congratulations to Cheryl Sims of Kelly Eye Center!  Cheryl won our first “eye” pod contest by emailing some fantastic ideas about additions we could make to Local Eye Site.  Thank you Cheryl for the great ideas…enjoy your ipod!

 

Remember, you could still be a winner.  We have another ipod contest running between now and the AAO in Atlanta.  You can enter the contest two ways:

 

1.  Encourage an Eye Care Professional friend to Register at Local Eye Site.  Be sure to have your friend type your name in the “Additional Detail” box during registration.

 

2.  Email helpful ideas about information, tools, or resources you would like to see added to Local Eye Site.  You can email those directly to info@localeyesite.com.  We value your input.

 

Way to go Cheryl!

 

Thanks for your support,

 

The LES team

Local Eye Site expands into SC, GA, TN, VA and FL

Local Eye Site became my full time passion in April of this year.  I founded this company with the mission of improving the quality of eye care through enhancing communication, increasing educational opportunities, and fostering professional development in eye care.  The response has been more than we dreamed at this early stage.  In the first four months, LES has attracted roughly 7,000 visits with about 2,200 of those by unique visitors.  Of those 2,200 visitors, almost 500 of these eye care professionals have registered to the Local Eye Site community database. 

One of the most significant catalyst for the LES growth has been the blessing of two fantastic new team members.  Lee Ann Harrison and Nicole Papworth-Jones joined the LES team in the last couple of months.  Lee Ann is a Regional Sales Manager, and Nicole has assumed some important LES Sales & Marketing projects.  Lee Ann and I have worked together in two previous jobs, so I knew how effective she would be.  I met Nicole while making a presentation to the Duke University Ophthalmic Technician Training Program.  Nicole completed the COT program at Duke, but has been with Local Eye Site ever since. 

This dynamic team has produced so much activity (20 new customers in NC, SC and GA) that we’ve decided to take it up a notch, and expand the scope of our markeing efforts across most of the Southeast.  Although our database of “job seekers,” or eye care professionals is National already, our customer base is currently predominately in NC, with a couple of accounts SC and GA.  We plan to change that soon.

So, look out VA, SC, GA, TN and FL eye care professionals, the LES team is headed your way.  We look forward to seeing you too join the Local Eye Site community, and you can look forward to an experience like Tara from Charlotte Eye, Ear, Nose & Throat:

“Since 1923, Charlotte Eye Ear Nose and Throat, Associates (CEENTA) has strived to meet the increasing ophthalmology and otolaryngology healthcare needs of the population. By partnering with Local Eye Site (LES), we hope to continue to provide opportunities for regional ophthalmology professionals to receive continuing education opportunities to meet the rising eye care needs of the aging population. Since joining together with Brad McCorkle and the staff of Local Eye Site, we have been so impressed with their dedication to providing a professional and informative site to meet the needs of eye staff in the area. Within just hours of posting a new opening we were thrilled to locate a possible candidate. Thanks Brad; we look forward to a long relationship as we anticipate the rapid growth of LES.

Look out Southeast…here we come!

South Carolina Optometric Association Summer meeting

 

 

Local Eye Site had the pleasure of exhibiting at the SCOA meeting at the beautiful Ritz-Carlton in Greensboro, GA this past weekend.  Our meeting was right on the heals of the ACC football coaches pre-season conference at the same location, last weekend.  Yes, SEC fans, the ACC does play football.   

What a great meeting.  I’ve attended a lot of meetings like this over the years, and the SCOA did a nice job with this.  Educational opportunities, wonderful location and great food, but most importantly as a vendor, the Society itself and the members made us feel welcome and appreciated.  It wasn’t the largest meeting I’ve been to, but you can only talk to so many people.  From our perspective, it was just the right size.  Less vendors to compete with, and the majority of the attendees approached the booth and gave us the opportunity to tell them about our company.  Well done SCOA.

Advancing America’s Priorities Act

Senator Harry Reid has introduced the Advancing America’s Priorities Act, which includes the Vision Care for Kids Act. As you know, the Vision Care for Kids Act was introduced to ensure that children at risk for vision problems have access to eye exams and appropriate follow-up care. One in four school-age children has a vision problem significant enough to affect their learning, and unfortunately far too many children are not accessing the vision care that they need.  The Senate is planning to vote on this critical legislation this week. 

Support the Advancing America’s Priorities Act and children’s vision health.  Please write, call or email your Senators today and urge them to support this important legislation.

 

 

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Passing of Senior Senator Jesse Helms

North Carolinians and pretty much all Americans held polarized opinions about the career and person of Jesse Helms.  I’ve watched some of the coverage of his career since his passing, and the opinions are passionate and extreme.   

Senator Helms and I were born in the same town, Monroe, NC.  In fact, the Jesse Helms Center is just up the road from my Grandparents house to this day.  So, I thought it fitting in recognition of Senator Helm’s passing to take a look at some of his positions on Healthcare.  Please follow the link below to see his voting record on some key Healthcare related issues. 

http://www.govote.com/Social/Jesse_Helms_Health_Care.htm

Local Eye Site

A win for “Aye-care”

By a overwhelming majority, the Senate Wednesday passed the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act of 2008 (H.R. 6331).  The 69% to 30% margin was “veto-proof.”  The bill would halt the 10.6 percent Medicare physician payment cut that went into effect on July 1 and provide a 1.1 percent physician payment update in 2009. H.R. 6331 now heads to the White House, where senior staff had indicated that they would recommend President Bush veto the bill. If he vetoes the bill, it goes back to the House and Senate for a veto-override vote, which is expected to pass.

Interestingly, it was the Democrats that carried the day.  Every voting Democrat and Independent voted in favor of the bill.  30 of the 48 voting Republicans voted against the bill.  In case you’re curious, Barack Obama voted “Aye.”  John McCain…”no vote.”  Send your cards and letters to your representative’s office, folks.  Local Eye Site is just here to report the facts. 

Lookup your representative’s vote here:

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/vote.xpd?vote=s2008-169

Scottish Optical Shop

Hi again Local Eye Site community!  Today is my last full day in Scotland.  It is July 4th, so naturally I’m missing the U.S. and my family and friends, but I’ve had a wonderful time across the pond.

After the last round of golf on our trip (Prestwick), my friends and I were walking the streets of a nearby town when I spotted an Optical shop.  I popped in for a visit.  It could have been any Optical shop in the States.  Not much difference in the layout from what I could tell.  Frames on display everywhere, well featured; you know the drill.  Three charming young ladies greeted me at the counter with smiling faces.  I’m sure they could spot the American right away. 

I wanted to chat and try to get a feel for the likes and differences in eye care between the U.S. and the U.K.  I wanted to gain a little understanding of their eye care community culture.  Turns out that one of the ladies was an Optometrist, and the other two were Optical Technicians.  One of the first things we discussed was the addition of complete eye examinations that are now free to the public, and paid for by Scotland’s National Healthcare System (NHS).  It seems that it used to be that NHS would only pay for vision exams for the purposes of being fit for glasses or contacts, but now a complete eye health assessment is performed for free.  We also discussed independent prescribing by Optometrists in Scotland.  According to this OD, Optometrist do not yet have the priveledge to prescribe medications, but that priviledge was coming.  She talked of shared care with Glaucoma patients, and Cataract referrals to their MD counterparts. 

I didn’t pick up the tension that sometimes exists between the U.S. ODs and MDs.  I took away an impression that the roles of ODs and MDs were clearly defined, and although the OD community seemed to be growing in their level of care responsibility, this OD left me with the impression that this increased responsibility was in areas that most U.K. MDs and ODs were in agreement was appropriate and needed.  That was about it, because a patient then came in.  The OD greeted the patient right away, and took him back immediately.  There were no other customers in at the time, but service seemed a top priority by the way the OD handled the interaction with her customer. 

Keep in mind, this was only one conversation with one Optometrist.  Additionally, I had no interaction with any Ophthalmologist while in Scotland, nor did significant research on this topic.  So, take it for what it’s worth.  It was interesting to me, however.  Hope it was to you.  It would be great if others could share international experiences with eye care cultures abroad. 

Cheers.

Brad McCorkle

International eye problems

I’m taking vacation this week from Local Eye Site.  I was very fortunate to get the opportunity to come over to Scotland with my brother in law Bobby, and play some of the world’s oldest and most amazing golf courses.  As a guy with the last name, McCorkle, it doesn’t get much better than that! 

Just before we left, Bobby contracted a case of conjunctivitis, or “pink eye” from his 8 month old son.  He talked to his eye doctor and was prescribed some drops to treat it.  Fortunately, his eye responded well, and Bobby’s golfing ability wasn’t impeded (at least because of his eye that is). 

Wouldn’t you know it; during our first round of golf in Scotland, my eye started feeling weird.  Yep, you guessed it, I had picked up Bobby’s pink eye.  Fortunately, Bobby had multiple bottles of the drops, and he gave one to me.  Thank goodness, disaster was averted, as my eye also responded well to the drops (except for that birdie putt I missed on 14, that was my eye’s fault).  The point I’m trying to over dramatically make is that we serve a wonderful industry.  Pink eye isn’t the end of the world, but what would I have done without the wonderful advancements in eye care.  The eye care industry has created procedures and pharmaceuticals that allow us to treat conditions that once would have been disasterous. 

Carry on eye care professionals.  Job well done!

Brad McCorkle