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Winter 2024

Renovate to Innovate: Modernizing the Primary Eye Care Clinic

WRITTEN BY:

Sheila Quirke

After almost forty years, the Primary Eye Care Clinic at the Illinois Eye Institute (IEI) is getting a complete renovation.   The glass bricks and dusty rose Formica will officially be retired. “This is much more than a facelift,” says Stephanie Messner, OD, Vice President and Dean for Academic Affairs, “The Primary Eye Care Center is where clinical education begins and where nearly every adult patient enters the IEI. It is foundational to the clinical experience at ICO.” 

Each and every alum of ICO since the mid-1980s has trained in virtually the same space, which has gone largely structurally unchanged. This, despite the tools and technology of optometry rapidly evolving during the same time frame. Patient care could not be impacted during renovations and so we waited till the right solution was found. The administration and faculty of ICO have spent decades ensuring that students and patients receive quality education and treatment, respectively, that is finest in its class. Now, both students and patients will receive these things in a setting that reflects the quality of what is provided within the walls of the IEI.  

“When you walk into a space, how it makes you feel is important.”
Nicole Wheatly

“Renovations to the Primary Eye Care Center have been included in the campus master plan for many years,” recalls Dean Messner. “Now that many other elements of that plan have been completed, including other building projects, we have a ’staging area’ available to us that will minimize disruption to students and patients, making this a good time for construction to begin.” 

The way Dean Messner describes it, there is a Tetris-like component to the construction, enabling clinical education to continue at full capacity during the renovation, “The demolition that needs to happen will occur at night, minimizing the impact on providers and patients. As we complete each area, we will move from the old to new space, enabling work to begin on the recently vacated area. Construction projects are like a game of dominos, and this one is no different.” 
 

Dan Ren, Chief Operating Officer of the IEI, has managed each of the previous construction projects that now enable the Primary Eye Care Center to be the star of the show, the belle of the ball, its own main feature. “The project will take less than two years to complete and occur in three separate phases,” explains Ren. “At each of these phases, twenty-nine exam rooms will be available for use. When construction is complete, there will be thirty-seven exam rooms and fifteen testing rooms available for clinical care.”  

The construction is broken down into the following phases: 

  • Phase One: Converting current office space to patient care space; 

  • Phase Two: Building out common areas and the north end of patient care space; and 

  • Phase Three: Renovating the south end of patient care space. 

ICO faculty and IEI staff have worked closely with an architectural/interior design firm to fully realize the needs a modern eye clinic requires. As a means of ensuring continuity within the larger structure, the same firm that was engaged in upgrading the Rosenbloom Center on Vision and Aging, the Lewenson Center for Pediatric and Binocular Vision, and the Dr. Newton K. Wesley Research Center has been working to finalize the plans for the upcoming renovations.  

Anne Rozwat, OD ’94, Chief of Primary Eye Care and an Associate Professor at ICO, confirms that clinic staff and faculty were actively involved in the design process, “Every single thing was a group decision. We 100% changed things to accommodate our clinical needs.”  

One of the changes Dr. Rozwat is looking forward to is that all suites will be equipped with uniformly sized patient rooms. As they currently exist, some exam rooms are large and can accommodate student learners, others are small and narrow, making clinical training harder than is ideal.  

Other concrete structural changes are also planned. Some of those changes include: 

  • Moving all primary eye care to the second floor, leaving the first floor for specialty clinics.  

  • Replacing a solid brick wall with a large floor-to-ceiling window spanning the north side of the second floor, providing much needed natural light and a view of Chicago’s iconic skyline. 

  • Adding additional rooms dedicated to teaching and conferencing in all the clinical settings. 

  • Improving access for testing, increasing the overall number of testing rooms to twenty. 

A word that both Dean Messner and Mr. Ren use when describing the scope of the project is ’flexible.’ “Flexibility is needed,” says Dean Messner, “in every way to deliver the quality care and education ICO is known for.”  

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Mr. Ren breaks down what that flexibility will look like in the new space, “The only fixture in every room will be plumbing for sinks. Nothing else will be affixed. Power, data, and connectivity will be built to accommodate future needs. Every space will be a flex space, meaning rooms could be used for exams, consultations, testing – whatever is needed. All equipment will be portable and able to be moved easily from space to space.”  

This need for flexibility is strategic in the concrete ways that Mr. Ren describes, but also in more abstract ways. Dean Messner describes the renovations as an opportunity to, “re-examine how we deliver patient care. Alums can look back on their clinical education at the Primary Eye Care Center as the foundation that sets the stage for their career. The routines, habits, and practices that will serve them throughout their career are all established here in those early years of learning.” 

Right now, first year optometry students spend approximately 5% of their time on patient care in the clinic. That jumps to 20% in year two, 52% in year three and 98% for year four learners. Dean Messner thinks there is room for that to change incrementally, “I think we will be able to involve early trainees, especially first year students, through use of new technology. They may be able to gather patient examination data and provide it to upper-level students who will analyze the results and complete the examination. This would enable third- and fourth-year students to focus on data analysis, patient management, and communication skills.” 

Patients, of course, are an integral part of the caliber of education students at ICO receive. Patients also present a true variable to the educational experience. Dean Messner calls clinic days, “anything-can-happen-days,” as you never quite know what a clinic day in primary eye care will hold. “It can involve simple refractions, but more often will require management of complex ocular disease.” Leaving room, both literal and figurative, for whatever may happen in those crucial early clinic learning experiences is of primary importance in the renovation process. 

ICO Board Member and Public Trustee Nicole Wheatly has a unique perspective about the upcoming renovations, as a community board member, a Bronzeville real estate developer, and the mother of a current IEI patient. Her son is seen in the Lewenson Center for Pediatric and Binocular Vision for myopia.  

Because of that, Ms. Wheatly has experienced, firsthand, the positive impact of structural renovations at IEI, “When you walk into a space, how it makes you feel is important. Now in the pediatric clinic there are bright colors, artwork, and staff you can see. It has a state-of-the-art look to go with the state-of-the-art work they are doing. ICO is at the forefront of tackling myopia in children. This is a public health issue. The advanced tech and research that happens here serve so many people.” 

For Mr. Ren, feedback like that is confirmation that the renderings for the upcoming renovations are right on track, “Using the same [architectural] firm, like we have, keeps our look and branding consistent. They understand what we are trying to do.” While managing those previous clinic renovation projects within the IEI, like the Lewenson Center, Mr. Ren and the architectural partners have integrated lessons they have learned along the way to their upcoming plans, “Every time we undergo a renovation, we learn something valuable. Those lessons will be applied to the Primary Eye Care Center.”  

With her background in real estate development, Ms. Wheatly believes that the physical changes planned for the clinic will be welcomed and appreciated by IEI patients and community members, “This facility represents the important work being done at ICO. From a consumer’s point of view, it can be an intimidating experience visiting the doctor, but these planned changes will result in an inviting and beautiful space. I love when existing spaces are transformed and people can see the turnaround. An old space gets a whole new vibration. It’s putting love into a building.” 

Dr. Rozwat sees the renovations as a “reinvestment in the community,” a community that has shaped every learning experience of every graduate of ICO since the IEI remodel in 1985. And, with student and patient experiences as intertwined as they are, an investment in the community becomes an investment in the student experience at ICO, offering more opportunities for every level of trainee. “This change in infrastructure,” says Dean Messner, “will impact our clinical training model for the benefit of all.”  

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