CLEVELAND — A northeast Ohio nonprofit organization is working to provide free healthcare for underinsured people in their community.
What You Need To Know
- Medworks partners with the Cleveland Clinic to offer a free vision clinic once a year
- Patients get an eye exam and free prescription eyeglasses
- Medworks also offers free dental, health and mental health clinics in the community
Dr. Jeff Goshe is an ophthalmologist at the Cleveland Clinic and loves what he does.
"The best thing about being an eye doctor is that when we fix a problem, particularly in my area, I treat diseases of the cornea, which is the window into the eye and those things. When people get fixed they're often even better off than where they started out," said Goshe.
It's one of the reasons why he volunteers his time and expertise to an eye clinic at the Cole Eye Institute.
"For me, I work with our training program so I've been residency training program director for the last seven years, and I think it sets an example that we as physicians need to give back and try to find time to do things for the patients outside of our usual work hours," said Goshe.
The free clinic is put on by Medworks, a nonprofit organization that provides free healthcare services to underserved communities.
"Vision care is really critical. Getting a vision exam and finding any underlying issues is really important to peoples sight and retaining your sight," said Jennifer Andress, executive director of Medworks.
Together Medworks and the Cleveland Clinic hope to bridge the gap between access and care for the communities that need it. That includes free prescription eye glasses and resources for continued care if needed.
"We do see so many patients who need further care and further appointments with specialists. So we have schedulers upstairs and after they get done with the appointments, if there is an issue that they see where they have an eye health issue going on, they will come and schedule, and get in with a specialist so they can get further healthcare, so they can treat their eyes so it doesn't get any worse," said Alan Steinberger, operations manager at Cole Eye Institute.
For Goshe, knowing that he's able to help provide this care for the community is something that makes him happy.
"Everyone is always in such a good mood. The patients really appreciate it. I've never had a patient anything other than superbly grateful about the opportunity to come in and get this taken care of," said Goshe.