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ST. LOUIS—EyeCare Partners (ECP) has taken several strategic actions to adapt to the challenging circumstances which COVID-19 has presented to the optometry and ophthalmology communities working to continually support patient care while keeping physicians, employees and the public safe. EyeCare Partners currently offers comprehensive medical eyecare services throughout Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, Ohio, North Carolina and Indiana. In a statement issued Friday, the company said, "Our highest priority has been to continue to care for our patients with emergent needs, while keeping everyone safe. Working within CDC guidelines, ECP continues to offer restricted hours to care for emergent medical conditions in both our optometry and ophthalmology offices. Our ophthalmology physicians continue to serve patients with retinal, corneal and glaucoma emergencies, but have discontinued all elective surgeries.

"ECP quickly launched two new programs to support patients impacted by our reduced office hours. We recently introduced our telehealth initiative, where patients experiencing a medical eye emergency can visit with our optometry and ophthalmology physicians virtually, from the comfort and safety of their own homes. ECP also enhanced its online contact lens ordering service to further support our patients. These two programs have already served more than a thousand patients in the past three weeks and are expanding rapidly."

In addition, the company pointed out that its national support center quickly established work from home opportunities, including answering patient phone calls and managing patient schedules to provide critical support to our doctors, staff and patients. "Having a highly skilled and trained staff in our Patient Engagement Center allows us to adjust phone call routing to support inbound phone calls, rescheduling of appointments, directing patients to telehealth options and online contact lens ordering."

ECP chief professional officer, James Wachter, OD added, “Working within CDC recommendations, and to lessen the number of potentially unnecessary hospital visits, many of our offices are open limited hours for urgent and emergency cases. We are committed to serving the public and to complying with these guidelines for the safety of our communities.”

Crucial steps are underway to reduce expenses during this temporary suspension of normal operations, including reduction of all discretionary spending, deferring capex expansions and collaborating with trade partners to provide payment term flexibility, ECP said. “To ensure a strong future for our company, we must simultaneously control spending and reallocate resources to doctors and employees working on the front line who serve our patients’ most critical needs during this pandemic,” offered Kathy Shea, chief financial officer.

To support team members who have been furloughed, ECP has granted two additional weeks of paid time off. In addition, ECP is covering 100 percent of the cost of employee health benefit coverage in April. For further support, ECP has initiated an employee assistance fund to serve the critical needs of its teammates, the company noted.

Kelly McCrann, CEO, stated, “Our hope is to restore normal office hours for comprehensive eyecare as soon as possible, but until that time, our attention is focused on keeping our patients, doctors, staff and support center employees safe. Our goal is to provide emergent patient care, without endangering the health and safety of our patients, doctors and clinic staff. I am incredibly proud of how our team has come together to navigate this unprecedented health crisis, and confident we will emerge stronger because of it. ” He added, “These are the most challenging times EyeCare Partners has ever faced, but our communities and patients are depending on us to serve their healthcare needs throughout this pandemic.”

EyeCare Partners issued its first statements about the emerging coronavirus pandemic on March 20, as VMAIL previously reported.