Introduction

Welcome to West Tennessee Eye! The doctors and team members look forward to having you as a part of our vision and medical eye care team. We will provide you with a clinical environment that will foster personal and professional growth and compliment your academic training. We look to move you beyond your comfort zones and provide you with new opportunities of development. We want to work with you to correct the deficiencies you believe you have in your training.

We are glad you selected West Tennessee Eye for your residency. We strongly believe our practice is unmatched by another private practice in the opportunities we can offer residents.

West Tennessee Eye is a comprehensive eye care company offering complete medical and vision services to a diverse patient population in three primary eye care centers. The eye physician team consists of two partners, Dr. Cooper and Dr. Talley. There are two associates, Dr. Dorkowski, and Dr. Rixon and three independent eye surgeons, Dr. Gollamudi, Dr.Krauss and Dr.Savage. This team is supported by more than 20 clinic and administrative team members to carry on our 30-year history of patient care.

Our recent three quarters of a million dollar investment in new technology provides residents with clinical experience on state of the art instruments. You will become proficient on Topcon’s newest digital IVFA photography system, Image Net, as well as Zeiss’s Optical Coherence Tomography system. With our in-office laser surgery facilities, residents actively participate in preoperative and immediate postoperative care of patients needing procedures like focal and pan retinal photocoagulation, iridotomy, trabeculoplasty, and capsulotomy. Residents perform minor surgical procedures, such as papilloma removal, chalazion incision and curettage, and cyst drainage. The quarterly “Advanced Ophthalmic Practice Series” (AOPS) enhances your clinical knowledge.

This residency is grounded in traditional optometric services. Residents see a large volume of patients and refine their refractive skills and gain valuable experience in contact lenses, binocular vision and low vision services. The in-house optical laboratory offers residents the opportunity to learn at a lab that produces over 1000 pairs of glasses per month. Additionally, the resident will receive extensive training in the diagnosis and management of ocular disease.

Rounding out the West Tennessee Eye residency is an emphasis on practice management. You will learn proper medical record documentation, coding and billing based on Medicare and Vision Service Plan guidelines. You will observe contemporary business models and management styles in practice. You will gain insight into the federally mandated Medicare Compliance Program and Occupational Safety and Hazard Administration's standards.

You will learn how to thrive in a managed care environment while being dedicated to excellence in eye care.

Primary Care Philosophy

Optometry has developed into a primary care profession very similar to the family practitioner. There is much confusion about what is “primary eye care.” One simple definition is as follows:

Providing eye care for most of the people...most of the time.

West Tennessee Eye believes that the optometrist is the primary eye care physician in the health care community and is responsible for all eye care services provided to patients. This encompasses vision services such as prescribing glasses and contact lenses as well as utilizing the appropriate ophthalmic materials for each patient’s special needs. Medical services are equally as important as vision services and include the diagnosis and treatment of ocular diseases utilizing all forms of medications, vision training, and minor surgical procedures. Many times providing medical services to patients requires ordering laboratory and radiological testing as well as communicating with other physicians and health care specialists.

When the patient needs exceed the realm of primary care, the optometrist must coordinate with the ophthalmic surgeon to provide secondary and tertiary eye care services. The ophthalmologist who provides general microsurgery of the eye such as cataract, refractive and laser retina can best demonstrate secondary eye care services. West Tennessee Eye has three surgeons on staff to provide these services. Occasionally, patients will require an ophthalmologist who sub-specializes in cornea, glaucoma, oculoplastics, or retina. These doctors provide tertiary eye care. West Tennessee Eye has a surgeon on staff that sub-specializes in the anterior segment, in glaucoma, as well as in vitreoretinal disorders.

Professional relationships have been created with several oculoplastics and strabismic surgeons within the Memphis community, allowing West Tennessee Eye to provide and coordinate all eye care services for the patients it serves.

Mission Statement

To establish a regional eye care delivery system offering the public quality eye care, in a cost effective environment advocating the cooperative efforts of opticianry, optometry, and ophthalmology in clinical care, education, and research. West Tennessee Eye emphasizes primary eye care services offering the most advanced technology utilizing evidence based medicine in order to enhance the life of every patient we encounter.

Quality Pledge

Nothing is more important to West Tennessee Eye than quality. Quality must be in everything we do and must be consistent and continuous. This concept involves not only direct patient care, but also answering the telephones, filing insurance, team member training, medical record documentation, profitability, etc. The Chief of Quality Assurance (CQA), working with the Senior Management Team, strives to promote this ideal. A simple rule to follow is:

Try to do today...BETTER than that you did yesterday.

Questions

For more information or to arrange a site visit contact:

David Talley, OD

Residency Supervisor

901.357.0371 ext. 224

westtennesseeeye@bellsouth.net