Before You Begin

Information for Your Telemedicine Visit

In the midst of this COVID-19 pandemic, it is in the best interest of our patients, staff, and community to limit in-person office visits to urgent problems only.  However, we also realize the importance of being able to follow the progress of your or your child’s current treatment.  A telemedicine visit is a good way to both maximize safety and check your status.

A Johnson City Eye Clinic technician will be contacting you the day before your video-chat with more information prior to the virtual visit with you physician.

As with any medical appointment, please be prepared to display your valid photo ID and insurance card(s) along with copies of any medical records that may be pertinent to your health.  Please have a list of current medications prepared to share with the technician.

Instructions for drive-through eye pressure checks:

Please be aware that you may be asked to come to Johnson City Eye Clinic for drive-through testing prior to your scheduled video chat.  Please be prompt in arriving for this quick test.  A technician wearing personal protective apparel will be waiting at the covered main entrance.  The technician will verify your name and date of birth and proceed with testing.  This information will be documented for your doctor to discuss during your video chat appointment.

You may wish to check eye pressures at home prior to your visit.  Please refer to the video descriptions here so that you have a comparison to report to the technician.  You may be asked to come by for a drive thru screening before you chat with the doctor.

Instructions to check vision:

There are three options for you on the Tele-Health tab: Mobile Devices, Printable Eye Charts, Desktop Eyecharts.  The technician will direct you to the proper chart during a preliminary telephone consultation the day before your appointment.

Tele-Health Resources

Below are links to resources for your Tele-Health visit.

Checking Your Vision at Home

Visual Acuity Test

Test Guidelines

General tips:

No cheating!

  • Make sure your child’s eye is patched or completely covered and they are not peeking.
  • Do not give your child any hints.

Practice first
Especially for the HOTV test, stand close to your child and practice. Make sure they understand the “game”.

Children

Prior to your telehealth appointment, please check and record your child’s vision in their right eye and their left eye. If they have glasses, please ensure they are wearing them during the test.

  1. If possible, have a small flashlight and small toy available. This will help check alignment, eye movements, and allow better lighting, if necessary.
  2. The day of the visit, prior to the appointed time, please test the visual acuity in your child’s right eye and left eye separately.

If your child wears glasses, cover the eye not being tested by putting a tissue behind the eyeglass lens of that eye.

  • Put the tissue between the glasses and the left eye to test the vision in the right eye, then
  • Put the tissue between the glasses and the right eye to test the vision in the left eye.

If your child does not wear glasses, you can test the vision in each eye by:

  • Covering the eye not being tested with your or your child’s hand (be careful your child is not able to peek through fingers or around the hand)
  • If you have a play pirate patch around the house, cover the eye not being tested with this, making sure your child’s head is straight and not turning in order to peek out of the covered eye.

Please refer to the helpful Checking Vision videos below.

Adults

For the best accuracy (and to prevent memorization), have someone assist you when testing your vision with this eye chart. If you use eyeglasses or contact lenses for driving or other distance vision tasks, wear them during the test.

  1. Place the chart on a wall or easel 10 feet away.
  2. Cover one eye with your hand, a large spoon or some other item that completely blocks the vision of the covered eye. (Do not apply pressure to the covered eye, as it might affect that eye’s vision when you test it.) 
  1. Identify a line on the chart you can comfortably read. Read the letters on that line aloud. Have your assistant stand near the chart and record your accuracy.
  1. Continue trying to read the letters on each successively smaller line. Do not squint.
  1. Have your assistant stop you when you fail to correctly identify at least 50 percent of the letters on a line.
  1. Switch to the other eye and repeat.

Record your visual acuity for each eye by noting the line for which you correctly identified either:

  1. More than half the letters on that line, but not all of them.
           OR
  2. All letters on that line, plus a few letters (less than half) on the next line.

Examples:

If you correctly identify five of the seven letters on the 20/32 line, your visual acuity for that eye is: 20/32–2/7 If you correctly identify all seven letters on the 20/32 line and three of the eight letters on the 20/25 line, your visual acuity in that eye is: 20/32+3/8