Name Change

For 37 years, Woodruff and Webb Optometry has served the eye care needs of families in Columbus and the surrounding communities. We take pride in the high quality comprehensive vision and health care services provided at our office. As we’ve grown to become one of the largest private practices in the area, we realize the importance of maintaining a personal relationship with our patients. Since a practice is more than just the doctors, we’re introducing a new name and slogan that reflect our commitment to customer service. Woodruff and Webb Optometry will now be called The Eye Place: Where Our Focus is You.

In addition to the new name, The Eye Place is excited to announce that Dr. Neil Pence will be joining our team in May. Dr. Pence, who maintains a private practice in Columbus, has been a member of the faculty of Indiana University School of Optometry since 1979. Recently, he accepted a position as an Associate Dean at the school. We congratulate Dr. Pence on his new role at Indiana University and welcome him to The Eye Place.

The Eye Place will continue grow and change in order to provide the highest level of eye care available in the area. This includes the implementation of electronic health records, or EHRs. In December of 2010, The Eye Place began the conversion process from paper records and examinations to EHRs. This conversion has had a positive impact on the quality of our care, as it allows our doctors to spend more time focusing on the needs of the patient. The change also requires our optometric technicians to play an integral role in the work-up process. In order to maintain a high quality of care, we have provided our technicians with extensive training, including courses to become Certified Paraoptometrics.

The conversion to EHRs isn’t the only change patients will notice at The Eye Place. We have remodeled the office to increase the number of exam lanes, allowing us to see patients more efficiently. We’ve also improved the privacy of our check out area, and we redecorated the waiting room to highlight the architecture of Columbus. This summer, we are planning to update our frame room to a more modern design that includes the latest trends in eyewear.

Even though we’ve had many changes at The Eye Place, our commitment to quality remains the same. We will continue to build personal relationships with our patients, treating them like members of our own family. Our wide selection of glasses and 2 year warranty will also remain the best in Columbus. And as always, it will be our priority to keep patients seeing for a lifetime. We’re still the people you need to see, and at The Eye Place, Our Focus is You!

Woodruff & Webb Staff: The Brady Bunch

We've added some new members to our team!

The Faces of Woodruff & Webb Optometry

Top: Debra Roccia, Ariel DeBusk, Debra Colvin
Middle: Heather Combest, Lorrie Coffey, Dr. Otte
Bottom: Kim Thomas, Lisa Copeland, Melissa Hendershot

Bahamas Mission Trip

I recently went on a mission trip to the Bahamas with my church, St. Paul Lutheran-Borchers. There were 22 people all together, 14 youth and 8 adults. We worked in a community near Nassau for 4 days, doing construction and painting projects. We were also able to interact with the children in the area. It was a great experience.

Computer Vision Syndrome

Spending all day staring at a computer monitor can do more than make you ready to call it a day; it can also lead to eye strain and other potential vision problems. Between 50 percent and 90 percent of computer workers suffer from computer vision syndrome. Symptoms include eye strain, fatigue, blurry vision, dry irritated eyes and light sensitivity.
You may not be able to stop working on a computer, so here are 10 steps you can take to lessen eye strain and other symptoms of computer vision syndrome.
1. Get a computer eye exam
According to the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, computer users should have an eye exam before they start working full time on a computer and once yearly thereafter. Your eye doctor can detect signs of dry eye that may worsen after long hours at the computer. They can also prescribe computer eye glasses.
2. Use proper lighting
When you use a computer, ambient lighting should be about half that found in most offices. If possible, position your monitor so that windows are to the side of it, instead of in front or back.
3. Minimize glare
Install an anti-glare screen on your monitor. If you wear glasses, have an anti-reflective coating applied to your lenses.
4. Upgrade your display monitor
Replace your old cathode ray tube monitor with a flat-panel liquid crystal display. LCD screens are easier on the eyes and usually have an anti-reflective surface. Chose at least a 19-inch diagonal screen for a desk top.
5. Adjust the brightness and contrast of your monitor screen
Adjust the screen settings to make sure the contrast between the screen background and the on-screen characters is high. Make sure text size and color are optimized for the most comfort.
6. Blink more
People blink about five times less often while working at a computer. This can lead to a condition called dry eyes. If you experience symptoms such as irritation, redness, blurriness or a heavy or tired feeling in your eyes, ask your eye doctor about artificial tears. Do not use drops that only "get the red out," as they may not reduce dryness. Ask your eye doctor about using fish oil, flax seed oil and/or omega 3 fatty acids by mouth which can help with dry eye. Finally, when your eyes feel dry, blink several times to rewet them.
7. Exercise your eyes
Every 20 minutes look away from your computer for 10 to 15 seconds at a distant object, which relaxes the focusing muscles to reduce fatigue.
8. Take frequent breaks
The National Institute Occupational Safety and Health found that discomfort and eye strain were significantly lower when computer workers took four additional five-minute "mini-breaks" throughout their work day. These additional breaks did not reduce workers' productivity. In fact, data entry speed was actually faster as a result of the extra breaks, and work output was maintained.
9. Modify your workstation
The top of your monitor screen should be at eye level. The ideal gaze angle is 10 to 2o degrees below the eye. A high screen gives rise to dry eyes because it forces you to keep your eyes wide open and blink less frequently.
10. Computer eyewear
For the greatest comfort at your computer, you may benefit from having customized eyeglasses prescribed for your computer work. Computer glasses are also a good choice if you wear bifocals or progressive lenses, because they generally are not optimal for the distance to your computer.