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| As a young girl, Dr. Carole Linn was prescribed glasses. This simple event set the course for her future and ignited her passion for helping others improve and preserve their sight. As a student at Westside High School, Dr. Linn shares that she enjoyed and excelled at math and science. It was at about this time that she began seeing a female optometrist for her eye care needs. “I just started asking her questions about where she went to school and what she did,” Dr. Linn recalls. “She said it was a great profession for women and it just kind of stuck.” Interested in the field of optometry, Dr. Linn says she followed her eye doctor as she changed clinics over the following years. She says it was when she started attending college at UNL that it all clicked. “I just realized that this is what I wanted to do.” Not only did her strong abilities in math and science benefit her, but her desire to help people also reinforced her career choice. “I knew I just couldn’t sit at a desk all day,” she says. “I wanted an interactive job working with people, and this is just everything that I wanted.” After graduating from UNL with a bachelor’s degree in chemistry, Dr. Linn went on to receive her doctorate from the Indiana School of Optometry. She returned to Omaha and began practicing in 1995. Two years ago, Dr. Linn opened her own practice. Northwest Eyecare is located near 103rd and Irvington Road. The cozy office is reflective of her mission: “To provide patients with the personalized care each one deserves and giving them the best eye care experience possible.” Northwest Eyecare is a full-service optometrist and corrective lens dispensary. Dr. Linn’s services range from routine eye care, diabetic eye exams, and management of eye diseases to pre- and post-operative care after eye surgeries such as Lasik, glaucoma, and cataracts. “We can take care of your eyeglass prescription as well as dispense contacts here,” she says. “I also do specialty contact lens fitting for both hard and soft lenses. It’s a passion of mine.” The office carries many contacts in-house and orders others when necessary. “We can manage medical conditions of the eye and/or do the initial evaluation and handle the referral to the ophthalmologist,” she explains. Her office will take care of the work before the surgery so that all the patient has to do is show up at the surgeon’s office on the day of the procedure. They also handle the follow-up care. “We’re basically the physician that is regularly checking the patient’s eyes, so when we see an issue that needs to be addressed we’ll make the referral to the appropriate specialist. We coordinate with the patient’s primary care doctor as well.” Dr. Linn treats children as young as age 2 and can easily accommodate individuals with special needs. While she sees patients with a wide variety of eye care issues from eye infections to glaucoma and diagnosing macular degeneration, she says it is often the people who do not think they have eye care problems who can cause her to worry. “They may not have had their eyes checked in many, many years because they see OK, so they think everything is fine…” Dr. Linn explains that for those who have not been examined in years, serious dangers to their sight, such as glaucoma, may be developing without their knowledge. The same can be true for people who have undergone a corrective procedure such as Lasik or cataract surgery. “They think now that their eyes are Ok that they don’t need to get them checked again.” Dr. Linn says it can be difficult to get the message across to people that even though a person’s sight may have never given them trouble, it does not mean that their eye health does not need to be addressed. She talks about an incident in which a former patient had not been in for an eye exam in years. Prompted to see an optometrist because of a failed peripheral vision test at the DMV, the patient soon discovered that he was in the late stages of glaucoma. With so many mega stores providing general eye care services, Dr. Linn says that it is the one-on-one attention that her staff provides that can mean the difference between quality eye care and ill-fitting frames or a faulty prescription. Prior to starting her own practice, Dr. Linn worked as an independent doctor of optometry at one of these mega stores. “I would provide services to the patient, and then there was the optical side of it [where they would purchase their frames and lenses and be measured by an optician]. I would get so frustrated because there should be the joining of the two…they go together.” She explains that prescriptions can be complicated, and the effectiveness of the prescription can be impacted if it is not fit to the patient properly. “People would come back because there was an error with the measurement or a poor lens or frame choice,” she says. “I just couldn’t be associated with it anymore.” She says that by starting her own practice, she enjoys being able to help her patients from start to finish. “When they come in the door I know they’re getting an excellent exam. I can help them select their frames and I can explain why they need this lens material or this frame. It’s so much more complicated than one would think.” While she enjoys having her own practice, she says that it can be a challenge to balance both the optometry side of things and the business side. “You go to school to be an optometrist and that’s your passion, but now you’re trying to mesh the business side with your passion. I think anybody in the medical field could attest that they don’t tell you to take business classes.” Add to that the changes in insurance requirements and health care reform, and medical practitioners have a very full plate. “It can take away from the joy of doing what you really love to do,” she says. She goes on to say, “I just like the interaction with people and knowing that I have made a positive impact on people’s sight,” she says. “That’s my objective—to make people happy and feel I’ve done a good job.” Northwest Eyecare is located at 6914 North 102nd Circle. For more information on Dr. Linn or her practice, visit the Web site at www.nweyecareomaha.com. You may also call 402-215-2020. |
Northwest Eyecare |
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