We Care is not just a slogan for Dr. Robert Reinauer, an ophthalmologist with New Vision Eye Center, and Dr. Dennis Saver, a retired geriatric physician. It’s also the name of a medical nonprofit organization and a promise and commitment to give their medical expertise to help the underserved in our community.
Dr. Saver was one of the five doctors who founded We Care in 1991, and he continues serve as president of We Care of Indian River County, a nonprofit dedicated to improving the health of county residents. It’s his mission to attract and organize volunteer doctors willing to provide free medical services for uninsured Indian River County residents.
Dr. Reinauer is one of the newest We Care board members but is no stranger to pro bono medical work, having completed several ophthalmology missions to Mexico and Nicaragua as a volunteer doctor and board member with the Christian Ophthalmic Surgery Expedition Network.
The two physicians recently teamed up to offer free cataract screening clinics and surgeries for uninsured Indian River County residents, 18 years or older with incomes less than 200 percent of the poverty level – $25,520 for a single person and $52,400 for a family of four.
“A cataract is a clouding of the normally clear lens of your eye,” according to Mayo Clinic.
“For people who have cataracts, seeing through cloudy lenses is a bit like looking through a frosty or fogged-up window. Clouded vision caused by cataracts can make it more difficult to read, drive a car (especially at night) or see the expression on a friend’s face.
“At first, stronger lighting and eyeglasses can help you deal with cataracts. But if impaired vision interferes with your usual activities, you might need cataract surgery – generally a safe, effective procedure in which a highly trained surgeon removes the lens of your eye and, in most cases, replaces it with an artificial lens,” restoring normal vision.
The current We Care effort will provide 26 patients with free cataract surgeries and follow-up care. This number is quadruple the average yearly number of cataract surgeries offered by the organization in the past and has been made possible by the generosity of Dr. Reinauer, New Vision Eye Center, the Indian River County Health Tax District and We Care donors.
Dr. Reinauer, who joined the board at We Care in 2020, is donating his services for a pilot group of six patients who will have cataract surgery later this month. An additional 20 patients will have their surgeries this fall with the help of Dr. Stephen Tate, Dr. Sarah S. Khodadadeh and Dr. Mohamed Sayed – all New Vision Eye Center doctors.
“This is a great opportunity to change a life in 10 minutes or less with cataract surgery,” said Dr. Reinauer. “I’ve been doing mission work outside the country since 2008 and I wanted to offer my services to those in my own backyard. I’d been volunteering my services through We Care since I came to Vero in 2015, but now that I’m established, I wanted to do cataract surgeries on a larger scale.
“I gathered support from my colleagues at New Vision Eye Center and presented the idea to Dr. Saver. As ophthalmologists we have a special opportunity to help people regain their sight with cataract surgery. I’ve seen grandparents see their grandchildren for the first time after surgery. It’s very rewarding.”
“Dr. Reinauer said if we could cover the cost of the operating room and supplies and the cost of buying the intraocular lens, he would be willing to do the cataract surgery for free,” said Dr. Saver. “Normally We Care pays for five or six cataract surgeries a year out of our fundraising efforts, but because we got a little more money for salaries from the Health District that we didn’t use, we are able to fund 26 cataract operations.
“Preliminary screenings were held by primary care physicians at Treasure Coast Community Health and Whole Family Health Clinics and referred to We Care,” said Dr. Saver. “These two federally qualified health centers see county indigent people at zero charge and were able to assist with the laborious task of pre-screening. If they determined a patient may need cataract surgery they referred them to us, and Dr. Reinauer did the final screening. He’ll be doing the first surgeries later this month and the rest with the help of his colleagues in the fall.”
We Care celebrates its 30th anniversary this year with a network of dedicated physicians including ophthalmologists, cardiologists, gastroenterologists, urologists, oncologists, radiologists, surgeons and other healthcare professionals. Their services are valued at more than $1 million annually.
But even with the free physician service, there is still a need for medical supplies and facilities and other patient services. The We Care Foundation of Indian River was formed in 2011 to help with fundraising for the program.
In 2015, We Care opened its own clinic in a wing of the Gifford Health Center, funded in part by an Impact 100 grant. The clinic is staffed with a full-time primary care physician, and care coordinators with a mission to improve continuity of care. Salaries are funded by the Indian River County Hospital District and administrative services for the clinic are provided by the Indian River County Health Department. The We Care Foundation of Indian River funds ongoing supply costs and meets patient needs for non-physician services.
“We Care matches up a patient with a doctor who will see the patient for free,” Dr. Savor explained. “There is no co-pay and no sliding scale. The doctor is donating his time and expertise for the good of the community. We Care is run entirely by goodwill. Our organization ensures that everything that needs to be done before the evaluation is accomplished, so that when the patient shows up at the specialist, he’s already had all his medical history documented and his bloodwork, CT scans, X-rays and whatever else is needed is already done. The surgeon just comes in and does the procedure.
“He gets to do what he does best without all the backlog of the day-to-day preliminary steps. Our goal is to have our volunteer specialists feel so good and get so much pleasure out of helping people and they want to do it again and again.”
While this year’s cataract surgery patients have already been screened and selected, We Care hopes to get community and corporate funding for another expanded clinic next year.
“Our goal is to convince industry sponsors to donate intraocular lenses and supplies,” explained Dr. Reinauer. “Once we have the pilot program completed, that puts us in a good position to ask for their donations.”
Those who meet the financial criteria and think they may need cataract surgery need to get referred by a primary care doctor to We Care. There may be a waiting queue, but Dr. Reinauer and Dr. Saver hope the funds will be acquired to hold another large-scale cataract clinic in 2022.
For more information about We Care, visit www.wecareofirc.org or call 772-794-7422.