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History of the Richmond Eye Hospital
A woman who felt the joy of surgically restored eyesight vowed to bring the same opportunity to others. Click the History & Mission link above for the rest of the story.
WHEELS
The WHEELS program, a new initiative jointly developed through Prevent Blindness Mid-Atlantic and the Richmond Eye and Ear Foundation, is a pre-school vision and hearing screening program. It is designed to promote healthy vision and hearing as a component of school readiness. Click the WHEELS link above to learn more!
Funding to Date () Community Outreach ($1,158,082)
Our Foundation supports numerous worthy causes, places and programs throughout Central Virginia. Click the Community Outreach Funding link above to learn more.
Funding for Scientific Research
We are currently sponsoring research projects at VCU, UVA, EVMS, Texas Tech and Ohio State. Click the Scientific Funding link above to learn more.
Since 1998 we have been helping the vision impaired in Richmond resume their daily living activities, regain their independence, and improve their quality of life.
History of the Richmond Eye Hospital
Virginia Fox Beveridge, the daughter of James and Amanda Crisp Fox, was born in the capital city of the state for which she was named. Her date of birth is not a matter of record. Her father served in the Confederate Army with the rank of captain, as officer in charge of construction of war vessels. The Fox family resided in a splendid home on Richmond’s Church Hill.
“Ginny” as she was called by all who knew her, was married in old St. Mark’s Church to Stephen Taylor Beveridge, son of John and Lucinda Carter Beveridge. Shortly after the marriage, Mr. Beveridge established the wholesale grain firm of S.T. Beveridge and Company which he headed as president until his death in 1939. There were no children of Virginia and Stephen Beveridge.
It is believed that Mrs. Beveridge was stricken with blindness in her later years. Although Mr. and Mrs. Beveridge traveled extensively and pleasurably for years, at this time, the journeys were always in search of a cure. An operation performed on her eyes partially restored her vision. She was so grateful for her small release from darkness that she resolved to make possible the most advanced-design institution where unsurpassed surgical techniques might be obtained by others like herself – even those persons unable to pay. This was the foundation of her dream, and the foundation on which Richmond Eye Hospital was built.
Richmond Eye Hospital, including ear, nose, and throat services, opened for patients on May 19, 1952.
Formation of the Richmond Eye & Ear Foundation
The mission of the Richmond Eye and Ear Foundation is to receive and maintain a fund or funds to use exclusively for the benefit of its charitable, scientific, literary, or educational purposes . Two committees of the Foundation supporting its mission are:
• Education & Outreach Committee –Partnering with community organizations, objectives are to oversee educational and grant-making activities in the fields of ophthalmology, otolaryngology, and oral maxillofacial surgery. The grant-making focuses on underserved, uninsured, or medically indigent children and adults in need of services ; improving access and outreach , providing healthcare education and/or preventive care.
• Scientific Research Committee – It’s main objective is to solicit and examine proposals for medical and research grants in the fields of ophthalmology and otolaryngology; providing start-up funds for new or novel ideas that will advance medical knowledge and treatment options for future patients.
 WHEELS
The WHEELS program is a new initiative developed through the work of Prevent Blindness Mid-Atlantic and the Richmond Eye and Ear Foundation.
This is a pre-school vision and hearing screening program utilized to promote healthy vision and hearing as a component of school readiness. An estimated 80 percent of what a child learns in a normal classroom setting is through vision and 75 percent of a child's normal school day includes an auditory component. Considering these statistics, it's easy to see how healthy vision and hearing contribute to a child's overall success in school.
The WHEELS program contains both a screening and educational component and works with area Pre-School Directors to deliver mobile services to their students. The program will reach 3,000 students and their families in the first year.
WHEELS assistance will be available for scheduling in the cities of Richmond, Colonial Heights, Hopewell and Petersburg;
and the counties of Chesterfield, Hanover, Henrico, Goochland, Powhatan, New Kent, Charles City, Lancaster, Northumberland, Richmond, Westmoreland, Amelia, Nottoway and Cumberland.
To learn more about WHEELS please visit the website at wheelspbma.homestead.com.
Funding to date () Community Outreach - $1,158,082.00
Stony Point Surgery Center Charity Care Exceeds $1.1 Million in 2010
Partnerships with Access Now and CrossOver Ministry provide help patients in need throughout Central Virginia.
Richmond, VA, February 9, 2011 Each year, Stony Point Surgery Center volunteers time, services and financial aid through its Charity Care Program in order to make healthcare more accessible to the less fortunate in the Richmond area. In 2010, Stony Point Surgery Center, Virginia's largest outpatient surgery center, provided over $1.1 million in charity care, offering ophthalmological and optometric care through two Richmond-based non-profits: Access Now and CrossOver Ministry.
"We strive to always provide quality healthcare for those less fortunate in our community," explains Bruce P. Kupper, CEO of Stony Point Surgery Center, "and are always looking for new ways to meet the growing demand for charity care"
Stony Point Surgery Center's partnership with Access Now provides extended care, eye treatments and surgeries free of charge to over 800 patients in need throughout the Richmond metropolitan area each year. One physician in particular, Geoffrey Cooper, M.D., recently operated on an Access Now patient at no cost. Stony Point Surgery Center also partners with CrossOver Ministry and, together, the two organizations have provided ophthalmological services at Cross Over Ministries' facilities to hundreds of uninsured patients over the last five years. Especially with the expansion of CrossOver Ministry in the West End near Regency Mall, many physicians at Stony Point Surgery Center are excited to donate their time and services to the free clinic, which now offers a full continuum of healthcare services such as family medicine, primary care, dental care, obstetrics and pediatrics.
"We're so grateful to [Stony Point Surgery Center] because over the years they have done hundreds of services for diabetics [who are in need of eye exams]," explains Julie Bilodeau, Director of Operations for CrossOver Ministry.
Providing charity care throughout Richmond is an ongoing priority for the surgeons at Stony Point Surgery Center. The Charity Care Program isn't a special event that only happens once a year; it's something that Stony Point Surgery Center aims to provide every single day of every single year, as they remain dedicated to making an impact. Their charitable partnerships and significant contributions, totaling to over $1.1 million each year, allow the doctors to develop a better, healthier and thriving local community.
About Stony Point Surgery Center-
Stony Point Surgery Center is Central Virginia's pre-eminent outpatient surgical facility. Founded in the tradition of the former Richmond Eye and Ear Hospital, Stony Point Surgery Center leads the industry in innovative hearing and vision corrective treatments. Stony Point Surgery Center provides a broad spectrum of routine and special healthcare services in addition to its specialization in Vision and Hearing practices. For more information about Stony Point Surgery Center, please visit their website at www.StonyPointSC.com.
$100,000/year donation from Richmond Eye & Hear Healthcare Alliance will fund research projects in the VCU Health System's Department of Orthopaedics.
Richmond, VA, December 6, 2010
A new partnership between Richmond Eye & Ear Healthcare Alliance (REEHA) and the Medical College of Virginia Foundation will provide over $500,000 for the VCU Health System's Department of Orthopaedics through December 2014. The multi-year research grant from REEHA marks the second major contribution since the opening of Stony Point Surgery Center (formerly Richmond Eye & Ear Surgical Specialty Center) opened its doors in 2002.
"This is an incredibly exciting new partnership between the REEHA and the [MCV] Foundation," said Robert S. Adelaar, MD, Chairman, Director of Orthopaedics, VCU Health System. "Bruce [Kupper] and his team are very active in the Health System, many of whom actually practice and teach in various departments at the University, and this is yet another way that they provide instrumental support for us."
"The [VCU] Health System has done so much for Stony Point Surgery Center in the past eight years and we are always looking for ways to repay the favors," said Bruce Kupper, CEO of Stony Point Surgery Center. "Additionally, this grant will enable VCU Health System's Department of Orthopaedics to fund various education and research projects for staff and students, as our two organizations continually strive to advance Richmond as a leader in medical research, education and practice."
According to the November agreement, Richmond Eye & Ear Hospital Alliance will provide the Medical College of Virginia Foundation with $100,000 each December through 2014, totaling to $500,000 over the five years. Other scientific funding provided by Stony Point Surgery Center to VCU since 2002 totals to more than $211,000. Stony Point Surgery Center has also funded medical research for the University of Virginia Health System, Eastern Virginia Medical School and Ohio State University, totally over $300,000.
Dr. Adelaar, along with School of Medicine Dean Jerome F. Strauss III, MD, PhD, MCV Foundation President William P. Kotti, PhD and VCU Health Sciences Vice President and VCU Health System CEO Sheldon M. Retchin, MD, MSPH, will receive the gift from Stony Point Surgery Center CEO Bruce Kupper, on behalf of Richmond Eye and Ear Healthcare Alliance.
• Better Housing Coalition– To support the expansion of the Senior Health Initiative to include auditory and visual care services, including financial assistance for hearing aids and glasses and visual and auditory health screenings.
• Bon Secours Richmond Health Care Foundation – To support CARE-A-VAN’s purchase of a titmus machine and audiometer, otoscopes, and ophthalmoscopes, and increased staff time of the pediatric nurse practitioner to complete comprehensive visual and hearing screenings.
• Children's Hospital – To support the Pediatric Dental Program, to include care of children with maxillofacial deformities in clinical and surgical settings.
•Commonwealth Catholic Charities – To provide reconditioned hearing aids
• Central Virginia Health Services – To support the purchase of a retinoscope and training for staff at the Appomattox Area Health & Wellness Center on use of equipment and reading of scan results for uninsured patients.
• Cross Over Ministry, Inc. – To support the Vision Care Program, including the purchase of new eye equipment and costs associated with the renovation and establishment of two fully equipped vision exam rooms
• The Daily Planet – To support the establishment of the Eye Care Center within the Planet’s Health Care Clinic to serve the eye care needs of the homeless in Richmond
• Prevent Blindness Mid-Atlantic – To provide school nurses with training and national certification as certified children’s vision screeners
• Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic– To provide education materials, equipment, and training for the blind and/or visually impaired students.
• Scottish Rite Childhood Language Center – To support the financial assistance program enabling families the opportunity to receive hearing screenings.
• Special Olympics – To support Health Athletes Initiative providing health screenings for athletes attending the Summer Games
• St. James the Less Free Clinic – To support the purchase of an optometric exam chair and eye clinic supplies.
• Virginia Voice for the Print Handicapped – To provide support for the agency to provide printed material – newspapers, magazines, books, and other publications – to blind and severely visually and physically handicapped individuals in Central Virginia.
• Challenge Discovery Projects, Inc. – To support the creation of the Parent-Child Advocate Program to provide outreach services, resource development and referral services for children and their families who are underserved, low-income, and who are deaf, hard of hearing, deaf blind or late deafened.
Current Funding for Scientific Research
 Funding for VCU:
• 5/05 - $50,000 - Evan R. Reiter, M.D. – Assessment of smell and taste impairment in patients undergoing treatment for head & neck cancer
• 8/08 - $16,000 - Kelley Dodson, M.D.. – Antimicrobial prophylaxis for fractures of the maxillary sinus
• 1/10 - $44,864 - Arti Pandya, M.D. – Early Detection and Intervention of Congenital Cytomegalovirus Associated Hearing Loss
• 8/08 - $37,300 - Chris Leffler, M.D. – Intraocular pressure response to Timolol with Beta 1 and Beta 2 receptors
• 1/10 - $16,570 - Amiee Potter, Ph.D. – Molecular research in calvarial suture morphogenesis
• 1/10 - $46,396 - Laurence DiNardo, M.D. & Catherine Dumur, Ph.D. –Gene expression profiling for predicting the therapeutic effectiveness of chemoradiotherapy treatment in head and neck squamous cell carcinomas
 Funding for UVA:
• 9/08 - $24,690 - Bradley Kesser, M.D. – Surgical repair of unilateral congenital aural atresia
• 1/10 - $22,671 - Spencer Payne, M.D. – Effects of itraconazole on the development and differentiation of T helper cells
• 1/10 - $47,834 – Paul Yates, M.D. – Use of human adipose-derived stem cells for treatment of diabetic retinopathy
 Funding for EVMS:
• 5/08 - $49,500 - Sandeep Samudre, PhD., MPH – Anti angiogenic effects of topically applied endocannabinoid analogs in a mouse mode of age related macular degeneration
• 5/09 - $10,000 - Michael Chu, M.D. – Minimally invasive, Local Pharmacologic Ischemic Preconditioning with a Vasoconstrictor in a Rat Model: Non-surgical Vascular Delay.
• 5/09 - $44,280 - Joseph Han, M.D. – Immune Response in Chronic Rhinosinusitis
• 5/10 - $49,870 - Alireza Hosseini, M.D. – -inhibiting Vasoproliferation in a Rat Model of Retinopathy of Prematurity with a Novel Topical Anti-Tubulin Drug.
Other Funding:
• 5/08 - $49,958 - Wael Jarjour, M.D. – Regulatory t cells role in the pathogenesis of human Sjorgren's syndrome (Ohio State University)
• 1/10 - $19,105 - Bradley T. Smith, M.D. –Bevacizumab with and without laser for the treatment of central retinal vein occlusion.
The Sight Preservation Center at Stony Point Surgery Center, a service of the Richmond Eye and Ear Healthcare Alliance, Inc., is central Virginia’s only private low vision rehabilitation center. Since 1998, we have been helping the vision impaired in Richmond resume their daily living activities, regain their independence, and improve their quality of life.
Did you know that there are numerous low vision aids and scores of proven strategies for coping with low vision? These aids and strategies can likely help your visually impaired patients maximize their remaining vision and maintain their independence.
 Vision impairments may take many forms and be of varying degrees. Visual acuity alone is not always a good predictor of the degree of problems a person may have. Someone with relatively good acuity (e.g., 20/40) can have difficulty with daily functioning, while someone with worse acuity (e.g., 20/200) may function reasonably well if their visual demands are not great.
Most of the patients we see at The Sight Preservation Center at Stony Point have age-related macular degeneration, diabetic eye disease, or glaucoma. However, we see many patients that have suffered from stroke, rod-cone dystrophy, aniridia, achromatopsia, optic atrophy, cornea disease and many other eye diseases.
Some patients with low vision can use their residual vision to complete daily tasks without relying on alternative methods. However, many will experience difficulty with regular activities such as cooking, shopping, managing finances, watching television, reading, and taking care of their personal needs. Many patients with low vision have concerns about finding and keeping a job, interacting with friends and family members, getting around, and participating in recreational, social and religious activities.
The mission of the Sight Preservation Center at Stony Point is to improve the quality of life for those who are visually impaired through awareness, resources and solutions. Our team will maximize the functional level of a patient’s vision through optical and non-optical means. Primarily, this is by use of magnification in the form of telescopic systems for distance vision and optical or electronic magnification for near tasks, such as reading or writing checks. Rehabilitation and adjustment to significant vision loss will also be discussed in the form of advice on lighting and contrast to maximize remaining vision.
A patient does not need to be legally blind, but should be referred when functional vision complaints are reported, such as difficulty reading, writing, driving, seeing a computer or cooking. We have seen patients with 20/20 (but still having functional complaints) as well as totally blind individuals. There is no vision limit to what vision can be evaluated in our Center.
Knowledge is the key to living with low vision. Your patients with low vision can enhance their quality of life by learning which optical and non-optical aids can help them, and by integrating strategies for dealing with the vision impairment into daily life. Motivation and Attitude are perhaps the most important factors in determining one’s success in using low vision aids. If people are willing to give some energy and effort to learning how to make the best use of their remaining sight, they can do nearly everything they did before, perhaps just in a different way. Practice is an important next step. Just as an amputee must learn to walk with his new prosthesis, a person with low vision must practice using adaptive aids until they become second nature.
You may contact us directly at (804) 545-9435 or lowvision@stonypointsc.com to refer or ask any questions.
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