Buckley optometry clinic opens eyes for service members, families

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Kali L. Gradishar
  • 460th Space Wing Public Affairs
BUCKLEY AIR FORCE BASE, Colo. --  Imagine living in a blurry haze where everything is distorted, fuzzy and something like a psychedelic dream. Consider how frustrating day-to-day functions and seemingly menial tasks would be to accomplish if poor eyesight blurred the computer screen or numbers on a cell phone.

The Buckley Air Force Base Optometry Clinic, located in the off-base VA Joint Venture Buckley Clinic in Aurora, Colo., offers services to enhance patients' visual quality of life, allowing them to clearly see the colorful Colorado sunsets, individual blades of grass, or the faces of their friends and loved ones.

The optometry clinic serves individuals from the 460th Space Wing, tenant units and more. The clinic cares for members of all service branches whether active duty, Guard or Reserve, as well as family members.

"I have to cover the entire population," explained Maj. (Dr.) Dan Gullekson, 460th Medical Operations Squadron Optometry Element chief. "Actually, 60 percent of my patients aren't with the (460th) Space Wing."

From 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Gullekson and his technicians process 13-15 patients a day ranging from basic eye care and writing prescriptions to fitting glasses and training people on contact lens use. The clinic staff consults for common cases of near and far sightedness, dry eyes, glaucoma and cataracts, as well as rare pathological eye diseases. The optometrist also writes referrals to specialized eye care centers for issues requiring more extensive care than Buckley's sole general optometrist can manage.

The human eye is an "amazing instrument - all of the processing we do. The retina itself has 10 different layers ... and it's amazing how well we see and how we tell contrast," said Gullekson, who started his military career as a security forces Airman in the 1980s and used his GI Bill and the Health Professions Scholarship Program to become an optometrist in May 1998.

Part of ensuring people have a positive experience in the clinic is patient interaction, which Staff Sgt. Jesus Almero, NCO in charge of optometry, particularly enjoys, he said. As the NCOIC and as a technician, Almero is also tasked with making sure patients are provided professional and timely care - from the time they make the appointment to the time they no longer require eye care.

Patients initially interact with an optometry technician prior to seeing the optometrist. The technician checks in the patient, reviews general medical and eye history, and completes screening tests to check the patient's eye pressure and visual acuity. Once screening tests are completed, the patient is seen by the optometrist who recommends a range of follow-up activities to include more testing, fitting for glasses by a technician, writing a referral to a specialist and other necessary actions.

"Sometimes it's very simple patients. You know the military is a pretty healthy population, so sometimes it's simply refractive error - someone's not seeing 20/20," said Gullekson. "We check out the eyes, and we figure out that they just need glasses or contacts to see clearer. Sometimes you find some disease. ... We diagnose disease and treat disease with medications.

"We'll do some minor procedures like taking foreign bodies out of the eye, (but) we also do referrals if they need surgeries. We do the refractive surgery program, so we do the pre-op for refractive surgery and then the actual surgery is done at the Air Force Academy; and we also do the post-op care for the surgery," added Gullekson, also noting the rewards of providing such a service to people who have worn glasses their whole lives. "We're pretty wide-range."

Along with the many eye-care services provided locally for members of Team Buckley, the optometry clinic ensures deploying service members receive prescriptive inserts for ballistic eyewear.

From general exams to preparing deployers, the clinic provides the best eye care possible to ensure Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines and Coast Guardsmen are optically primed to fulfill their day-to-day tasks both on and off duty.

"We always say in our profession, 'Vision ready is mission ready,'" Gullekson said.