West Oakland Health Center

Type of Practice: Community Health Center

OVERVIEW

• The West Oakland Health Center (WO) is a Federally Qualified Health Center providing health care services to the West Oakland community. The West Oakland Health Council (WOHC) was established in 1967 and supported by federal funding to provide primary care services in a medically underserved area. The West Oakland Health Council is a network of ambulatory care clinics in the greater Oakland area, with clinics at West Oakland Health Center, East Oakland Health Center, William Bryron Medical Clinic and the Albert J. Thomas Medical Clinic. The majority of clinical services are held at the West Oakland Health Center. West Oakland is largely a low income, African American community which lacked culturally responsive and high quality health care services. Thus the recognition for a need with the WOHC seeking funding for the health clinics. Services available to the community include primary medical care (adult and pediatric medicine), dentistry, optometry, mental health care along with substance abuse recovery services. There is an estimated 120,000 annual patient visits each year with a patient base of approximately 21,000 patients.

Driving

• The clinic is located a short distance from our own UCBSO clinic, approximately a 20 minute drive. It is located in proximity to the West Oakland BART station, a short 2-3 block walk from the BART station.

Patient Services Provided

• Predominantly primary care, including some pediatrics, ocular disease, TBI eye exams, low vision and specialty contact lens fitting.
• Observation of various surgeries (retina, refractive, glaucoma, etc.).

Demographics

• Patients care demographics range from pediatric to elderly and are multi-cultural. Most patients are enrolled in Medicare and/or Med-Cal.

Prerequisites

• 4th year clinicians: satisfactory completion of 3rd year clinics.

Patient Services Provided

• Full scope Optometric Care in a team ambulatory setting staffed with physicians, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, and family nurse practitioners. Most exams are comprehensive with dilated fundus examination accomplished the same day. Referrals are made to the local ophthalmologist when appropriate or coordinated directly to retinal specialists, primary care physicians, etc. There is no planned optical services at this time. Patients will be scheduled every 30-45 minutes with approximately 8-10 patients per day. All exams are recorded via Next Gen, their electronic medical records system.

Equipment

• The clinic is being planned for two or possibly three exam lanes. The exam rooms are expected to be equipped with state of the art vision examination equipment. The clinic will have an auxiliary testing room equipped with a Humphrey Visual Field, FDT, pachymeter, Tono-Pen and OCT. Students should bring their own BIO, lenses, trial lenses, and diagnostic equipment.

Educational Objectives

• Practice Optometric care within a multi-disciplinary health care setting with the opportunity to interact with other health care professionals leveraging inter and intra clinical referral procedures and protocols. Work with diverse, multi-lingual patients. Efficient assessment, evaluation and differential diagnoses of patient cases is expected. Ability to assess, identify, and manage ocular conditions (particularly diabetic retinopathy) within the scope of California Optometry guidelines. Expect ability to perform examinations efficiently in a fast paced designed clinic.