Set back off Madison Avenue in Midtown could be one of Memphis’ best-kept healthcare secrets. While people driving along the street recognize the Southern College of Optometry tower, many don’t realize the campus also houses The Eye Center, a full-service primary care vision center, said James Venable, associate professor and vice president for clinical programs.

The clinic not only provides a nationally recognized program for training future eye specialists but a space for the treatment of multiple visual issues, as well. The center provides care to more than 60,000 patients each year.

And for a significant number of those people, the clinic is able to provide free or low-cost care.

“We strive very diligently so that no one who is referred to us, who comes to us, goes without care,” Venable said.

Doctor shortage:As Mid-South grapples with doctor shortage, how a Caribbean medical school is helping

Medical news:This brain surgery is a last chance, and there’s only one place in Memphis to get it

Funding for that comes from grant funding and from corporate partners. Vision Service Plan, a vision benefits company, provides vouchers to clinics around the country to help uninsured or underinsured patients get the care they need.

The center also dedicates some of its annual revenue toward providing that free or affordable care. It is also currently in the sixth month of a $150,000 grant from the United Healthcare Foundation to provide free vision care to three underserved ZIP codes in Memphis.

This all comes as The Eye Center is celebrating its 20th year of operation as both a primary care facility and a crucial teaching center for the Southern College of Optometry, one of fewer than 25 schools of optometry in the country.

About 60 physicians work at The Eye Center, which provides not only care for Memphis patients but patients from all over the country. Venable said the large number of doctors at the center who are nationally recognized in their specialties draws patients from well beyond the Mid-South.

The college has graduated more than 6,000 students since it opened in 1932 who have gone on to practice across the country and around the world.

“(The eye center is) looked to because of the level of care that we provide, and the level of expertise that our physicians have,” Venable said.

Cutting-edge education

Part of that starts with training the next generation of optometrists. And Venable said the school and the center have long been ahead of the curve in terms of what students learn and have a chance to practice.

They have been taught minor surgical procedures, which can be done in the clinic setting, since 1994. Many other schools of optometry have only started teaching those in recent years and many still are not teaching the use of lasers for glaucoma and cataract treatment.

Those laser treatments are performed in conjunction with ophthalmologists, a different but overlapping specialty, because of a Tennessee law requiring it.

As part of an ongoing, $3 million renovation project on the campus, the college is also updating its technology and creating a new service area where students will be able to perform those minor surgical procedures more frequently.

Some of those minor medical procedures include removing lumps from the eye and performing biopsies to determine if those might be malignant.

Healthcare news:Flu shots and omicron boosters: What to know and when to get them in Memphis

Healthcare in Memphis:As noted surgeon Eason and Methodist part ways, what's next for transplant institute?

Third and fourth years students at Southern College of Optometry spend much of their time getting clinical experience at The Eye Center. Fourth-year students also spend time at clinics at Crosstown Concourse and the University of Memphis.

The center treats about 60,000 patients annually between those three clinics.

'We're a vital part'

But despite the availability of quality optometric care in Memphis, it remains somewhat overlooked locally and across the country. In a Johnson & Johnson survey released in 2020, 80% of adults surveyed said they considered routine eye exams important for overall health. However, only 46% said they got one annually.

“So while they think it's important, for whatever reason, they don't reach out and get the service on a regular basis. It's incumbent upon us as a profession to try and underscore the importance, in particular in children, who have no frame of reference,” Venable said.

He praised the children’s vision benefit portion of the Affordable Care Act and has since seen a significant uptick in the number of patients under 20 seeking vision care.

“We've caught a significantly greater number of children who would have visual problems that would go undetected and been able to address those, manage them treat them so that they can function optimally in the school system as well as for work and just general life,” he said.

Catching and correcting potential vision problems can have a significant impact on children’s potential career paths. Professions ranging from pilot to electrician and engineer to military service member are inaccessible to those with certain visual issues.

Memphis business news:18,000 jobs, $4 billion impact: A look at Memphis' medical device manufacturing industry

St. Jude expansion:'Commitment to Memphis': Here's what St. Jude's $12.9 billion expansion means for the city

“Oftentimes, we don't catch problems with vision until a child fails in a school screening. Largely, probably, it's because the eyes usually don't hurt. So we don't think about them. And young children don't have a frame of reference,” he said.

That is where the center comes in. Children should have annual vision screenings and adults should have one about every three years.

“Just because your eyes are you think your eyes are functioning for you. That does not mean that there are not physical changes that are going on in the eye that might predispose certain health conditions that could severely limit your vision," he said. "As you age, the eye changes."

Memphis has a rich healthcare ecosystem, and The Eye Center is a part of that, Venable said.

“We work very closely and cooperatively with the healthcare community. We're almost adjacent to Methodist University Hospital here. We're just down the street from the University of Tennessee. And we refer patients back and forth quite frequently. We provide cooperative care,” he said. “We’re a vital part of the primary health care network in this area.”

Corinne S Kennedy covers economic development and healthcare for The Commercial Appeal. She can be reached via email at Corinne.Kennedy@CommercialAppeal.com

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: The Eye Center at Southern College of Optometry in Memphis turns 20