Transitions Optical has launched a revamped version of the Vision Education Kit, produced through the Transitions Healthy Sight Working for You program to help raise awareness among employers and employees about the importance of regular, comprehensive eye exams and the right eyewear to help workers see their best and improve their health and productivity. Eyecare professionals can use the kit to reach out to local employers, educating them on the importance of offering a quality plan and pointing them to resources to share with employees.
“Only 16 percent of employees report receiving eye health education from their employers, which is a huge missed opportunity to provide pre-visit education, especially when you consider that over half of eyeglasses are purchased through managed vision care and that many employees begin considering how they should spend their healthcare dollars well before they make it to their eyecare professional,” says Smith Wyckoff, key account manager, managed vision care/online, Transitions Optical. “Eyecare professionals can really make a difference by encouraging local employers to place more focus in this area.”
Wyckoff added that by taking steps to be involved in an employer’s health education efforts, such as by conducting vision screenings or delivering a short seminar during a health fair, eyecare professionals can also bring greater attention to their practice, which could mean a significant increase in patient traffic. To help eyecare professionals cultivate this type of opportunity, the kit includes a Vision Education Day tip sheet that can be shared with employees, featuring ideas on how employers can host a vision education day for their workforce, or integrate vision into their existing wellness strategy. The kit also includes several PowerPoint presentations that eyecare professionals can adapt for delivery to employers or employees, as well as instructions on how to order or print complementary brochures and flyers for distribution at health fairs.
Additionally, the kit includes a range of tools the eyecare professional can hand over to the employer to integrate within his or her own employee communications. Many of these tools can be used in or adapted for the eyecare professional’s own patient and community education efforts, as well.
Resources include:
• Enrollment slide about the importance of enrolling in and making sure employees use their company vision benefit.
• Individual Healthy Sight Calculator, which shows employees their unique risk for vision and eye-related health issues based on their specific age, gender and ethnicity–and provides insights into the time, money and sight they could save through their vision benefit.
• “If You Can’t See Well, You Can’t Work Well” poster that can be displayed in the workplace or in a patient waiting area.
• Newsletters on topics such as UV and glare protection, diabetes, kids’ vision and progressive lenses.
• Resources flyer listing all of the education materials available from the Transitions Healthy Sight Working for You program.
• Healthy Sight Working for You business card that eyecare professionals can share with employers to get them thinking about their vision wellness strategy.
The Vision Education Kit is downloadable from the “Tools” section of HealthySightWorkingForYou.org and also available as a print version by request by e-mailing info@healthysightworkingforyou.org.
About Transitions Healthy Sight Working for You
Transitions Healthy Sight Working for You is a public education initiative established by Transitions Optical to raise awareness of the value of quality vision benefits. Reaching eyecare professionals, employers, benefits brokers and employees, program outreach focuses on ways that comprehensive vision care and the right eyewear options can help to manage healthcare costs and increase productivity. Complimentary vision savings calculators and additional employee education materials are available through HealthySightWorkingforYou.org.
