Proposed stop to eye services angers locals

Jason Baker, who is slowly losing his eyesight due to Type 1 diabetes, was among many area residents who passionately addressed the Sierra View District Hospital Board of Directors Tuesday night, imploring them to reconsider their October decision to cease offering eye surgery.

Emotions ran high at the two-hour public forum, intended to facilitate communication between the community and hospital officials concerning the proposed cessation of the hospital’s ophthalmology services, currently housed in the Ambulatory Surgery Department (ASD) outpatient building.

“You will never be able to attract quality doctors to this hospital if we keep reducing services,” said Baker’s sister Dawn McMaster, a Terra Bella resident.

Each person, bar one, who stepped up to the microphone to address the hospital’s Board of Directors and senior management at the Tuesday night meeting vehemently opposed ending ophthalmology treatments.

On a regularly scheduled meeting on Oct. 27, the Board of Directors voted to cease eye surgeries at the hospital, where about 350 such operations are done each year. The public information session was scheduled after the announcement of the decision on Nov. 10 resulted in great public outcry.

The meeting was standing-room only, as people from Porterville and the surrounding communities took turns at the microphone to express their concerns.

Ninety-year-old Virgil Rogers spoke in favor of keeping the eye services, which he and his wife Lennie, 86, have both received. “How many of you would like to drive to Visalia when you’re our age?” he asked. He said eye surgery restored both of their vision to 20/20 — and allowed him to continue driving.

Cataracts affect nearly 22 million Americans aged 40 and older. By age 80, more than half of all Americans have cataracts.

SVDH surgeon Mark Tindall, dressed in scrubs, expressed his belief that another solution could be found, instead of totally eliminating the services. “I know we can work this out,” he said.

A PowerPoint display listing reasons behind the proposal to end eye surgeries preceded nearly an hour and a half of comments from the public. The space currently used for ophthalmology services, the slideshow explained, was needed for the growing number of endoscopy patients. Hospital officials said those types of operations increased by 27 percent in the past two years.

According to hospital officials, the goal of the relocation of endoscopy services to the ASD is to free up six inpatient beds, currently used by endoscopy patients, and reduce the “bottleneck” of post-anesthesia case unit (PACU) patients in need of a place to recover from surgery.

While some spoke for themselves, many spoke for others — elderly relations, future children and those without the funds or ability to travel elsewhere.

Allison Landucci said she believes her mother would never had gotten eye surgery in 2008 had she had to travel outside of Porterville.

Retina specialist Dr. Shashi Ganti, who has operated out of the ASD for three years, promised to donate a $40,000 laser and other surgery equipment to the hospital if it meant services could be kept, and eventually expanded. He said with the equipment, he could perform 300 retina surgeries per year at the hospital.

His announcement, as with almost every speaker’s points, were met with loud applause from the audience.

The sole dissenting comment, from Boyd Leavitt, was met with exclamations of disapproval from the crowd.

Leavitt said he agreed with the board’s decision because it would allow the hospital to serve the greatest number of people.

Another reason given for the decision to stop offering ophthalmology services was the “outdated” microscope currently used at the ASD. Director of Surgical Services Sheila Smith said certain parts of the instrument, in use at SVDH since 1987, would be impossible to replace. According to the PowerPoint presentation, a new microscope would cost $133,000.

However, Dr. Wallace Ruminson, one of the three eye surgeons who work at SVDH, disagreed emphatically with the estimate of the microscope’s condition.

“It is an older scope, but the optics are excellent,” he said. He said he had spoken with a representative for microscope manufacturer Leica MIcrosystems who told him the microscope’s faulty parts could indeed be replaced.

He likened the decision to cease eye surgeries to a “slap in the face” for the Porterville community.

Ruminson was granted an additional five minutes over the designated three minutes speaking time after audience members requested that he be given their allotted time to continue speaking.

Board member Brent Gill addressed the audience after a tumultuous series of comments to ensure them that the board was taking their opinions into account.

“I want you to know that we are not ignoring you,” he said. He added that the decision will be a difficult one to make.

“Will we make the decision you want? I don’t know,” he said.

SVDH CEO Dennis Coleman said senior management was in the process of following a board directive to review their options prior to the Jan. 26 meeting during which the decision will likely be announced.

Editor's Note: The print version of this story referred to the six beds that would be freed if eye surgeries are ended as "outpatient." They are actually inpatient beds that would be used for patients waiting to be treated in the ER. We regret the error.

--Contact Sarah de Crescenzo at 784-5000, Ext. 1045, or sdecrescenzo@portervillerecorder.com.