Alameda Health Services – Hayward Wellness Clinic

Contact Person: George Lee, OD, Director of Community Services

Clinical Teaching Faculty:
Melissa Valdellon, OD, mavaldellon@gmail.com

Jeffrey Kong, OD, jeffrey_kong@berkeley.edu

Type of Practice: Community Health Center

Overview:

Hayward Wellness Center is part of the Alameda Health System (AHS) Ambulatory Health Care Services network. The AHS is a public agency regulated by the State of California, though directed by a Board of Trustees. AHS’s primary mission is to provide health care to all County residents, regardless of ability to pay. This facility has been providing health care services to the residents of the East Bay for well over 130 years. Additionally it is a training institution for many health care students, residents, interns, and is active in medical research. There are several hospitals and health centers that form the network of AHS. Fairmont Hospital in San Leandro, San Leandro Hospital in San Leandro, John George Psychiatric Hospital in San Leandro, and Highland Hospital in Oakland form the hospital system. Additionally there are several Ambulatory Health Care Services centers that serve the community. These are the Eastmont Wellness Center in Oakland, the Highland Wellness Center in Oakland, the newly opened Hayward Wellness Center in Hayward and the Newark Health Center in Newark.

Hayward Wellness Center:

The Hayward Wellness Center, formerly Winton Wellness Center, is located in Hayward at the Southland Shopping Mall. This is a completely brand new facility with state of the art facility for many of the services provided. The clinic officially opened the doors to patient care on August 18, 2014. This is a multi-disciplinary health care organization with services that include Adult Medicine, Ob-Gyn, Women’s Services, Dermatology, Pediatrics, Podiatry, and Mental Health among others. Optometry services started in September 2014, through an affiliation between AHS and the University of California, Berkeley School of Optometry.

Transportation:

From the University Eye Center, exit onto Piedmont Ave to Ashby Ave. Turn left on Ashby and continue onto Highway 13. (Keep on right hand side). Take Highway 13 until it merges onto 580. Take 580 to the 150th Avenue exit. Turn right on 150th Ave, turn left on Hesperian Blvd, then turn left on Southland Drive and right into Southland Mall. The clinic is located between Macy’s and Round 1.

Demographics:

• Mix of patients from newborn to the elderly
• Primarily East Bay residents
• Large African American, Hispanic and Filipino population
• Low income, county and Medi-Cal patients

Prerequisites:

• 4th-year clinicians: Satisfactory completion of 3rd-year clinics
• 3rd-year clinicians: Satisfactory completion of summer clinic, honors program

Patient Services Provided:

• Optometry services are provided Monday through Friday (Saturday at later date).
• Hours are from 8:00AM to 6:00PM.
• Primarily young adults and older, majority being adults and seniors with diabetes and cataracts; patients are not self appointed, rather all patients are referred by health care providers from either the Hayward Wellness Center or one of the affiliate ambulatory health centers.
• Full-scope Optometry care, limited to examination services only at this time. There will be no cosmetic contacts lens related care; however, considerations may be made for medically indicated situations.

Optometry Clinic:

• Located in the Specialty pod, rooms C-3, C-4 & C-5. Rooms C-3 and C-4 are set up as complete exam rooms. Room C-5 is for auxiliary testing, visual fields and/or photography/OCT.
• Consult area is available across the hallway for the faculty and clinicians. This is a shared room for the clinical providers of the day.
• The staff will check in Optometry patients at Registration area #2 located to the right of the Hayward Wellness Center foyer entrance. Patients are escorted to and from the exam rooms by the Optometry clinicians, resident or faculty.
• Patients are scheduled approximately every 15 minutes for comprehensive examinations. The schedule is designed in units of 15 minutes. There are double-books in both the morning and aftenoon. Any follow-up should be re-scheduled according to # of units. Efficiency is critical to the overall operation of this clinic. There are 11 patients scheduled in each AM and PM units, typically total 22 patients for the day. The patient show rate is quite variable, from 50% to 100%.
• The patient’s complete health care record is available to each clinician once Optometry via Epic. Make use of all information on the record to familiarize you with the patient’s overall health condition and medications, but be mindful of navigating into areas of the patient’s chart that optometric clinicians should not be viewing. (This is constantly being audited for violation of access to patient health care information.)

Equipment:

• Although exam rooms are fully equipped, clinicians are asked to bring their own diagnostic equipment and BIO. Please remember to pick up your equipment at the end of the day as the center is not responsible for any equipment left behind.

Educational Objectives:

• Experience Optometry care within a multi-disciplinary health care setting.
• Opportunity to interact with other health care professionals.
• Inter- and intra-clinical referral procedures and protocols.
• Opportunity to work with diverse group of ethnicities, primary low-income.
• Efficient assessment and evaluation of patient cases is expected.
• Ability to manage, assess ocular manifestations of systemic diseases; treat ocular diseases within the scope of CA Optometry guidelines.
• Expect ability to perform examinations efficiently in a fast-paced designed clinic.

Resident/Student Responsibilities:

• Provide care to a large volume of patients, minimum of 22 scheduled patients per day for the Optometry clinic.
• Seminar and case discussions.
• Communicate with other health care providers.
• Referrals to other health care providers.
• Complete all referral/consultations request forms for each patient.
• Complete all necessary examination services coding for billing.
• Ability to work efficiently and cooperatively with attending OD, resident and students.

Faculty Responsibilities:

• Facilitate efficient patient flow among faculty, resident and student.
• Provide direct patient care as necessary.
• Facilitate appropriate inter- or intra-clinical referral/consultation.
• Mentor resident and student in patient care.
• Evaluate resident and student clinical performance.
• Seminar, grand rounds and case discussions.

Referrals:

• Ophthalmology referrals are sent to Highland Hospital. The attending Optometrist may consult with the Ophthalmology resident at Highland prior to referring a patient over. Primary medical care is referred back to the patient’s PCP.

Miscellaneous:

• Due to a patient schedule that can be quite erratic, bringing your lunch is recommended. There is a food court downstairs in the mall and shopping of a wide variety.

Absence Policy:

• Please note that the absence policy for AHS Hayward Wellness Clinic requires that students submit absence requests via Meditrek at least SIX WEEKS in advance of the desired absent date. This is due to Alameda Health Systems’ internal patient scheduling policy.