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Eye Care Camps- Need and Assessments
- 1. Community Health Series EyeCare (Importance and its Process)
- 2. Monitoring and assessmentof activities of outreach eye camps
- 3. Eye camp conceptis a highly desirable and accepted strategy in providing eye health services to the populations in remote and underserved areas of developing countries. Eye camps are generally of two types. 1. Comprehensive eye care camps 2. Mass cataract camps
- 4. In mass cataractcamps the prime emphasis is on cataract surgery. No other services are routinely provided.
- 5. Comprehensive eye carecamps are concerned with primary eye care approach providing several types of services for many ocular or systemic conditions that lead to visual disability or blindness if left untreated.
- 6. Example:- Identifying corneal disease,cataracts, refractive errors, glaucoma, squints, Eye infections, allergies, trauma and other common eye conditions.
- 7. Most eye campsare organized by non governmental organizations. They have a major role in organization and conducting eye camps. Technical inputs are provided by the institutional ophthalmic team where the eye surgeon is the team leader.
- 8. The camp organizersshould be highly motivated, devoted and committed to the cause and the community participation is a very important factor in making an eye camp a success.
- 9. Corrective measures forthose identified conditions are usually undertaken either at the camp or after referral to the base or main center.
- 10. Manpower and Duties Inaddition to routine eye care workers (Eye surgeon, Ophthalmic nurses and refractionists) several other health personnel are required in such programs including ophthalmic assistants, public health workers and nurses.
- 11. Distribution of workduring an eye camp has to be very clearly defined before the commencement. Work should be assigned to different personnel on their qualification and experience.
- 12. Work Screening for visual defectsusing Snellens chart and examination for obvious anomalies IOP checking using Shiotz tonometer Refraction Personnel Trained Ophthalmic - Nurse / Medical officer Trained Ophthalmic - Nurse / Assistant Refractionist / Trained - Ophthalmic assistant
- 13. Work Drug distribution Diagnosing, treating andreferral Health education Logistics Personnel Trained Ophthalmic assistant Ophthalmologist Nurse /FHW / Ophthalmic assistant Camp organizers
- 14. For the improvementof camp services, Monitoring of activities, finding the constraints and evaluating the effectiveness are major important feedback mechanisms. Recommended follow up activities should also be carefully monitored for the fulfillment of the concept of eye camps.
- 15. Monitoring and evaluationprovide a feedback on camp activities as well as information on the impact of the services provided. Some indicators are needed for this assessment.
- 16. Indicators should bebased on 1. Measuring the progress 2. Finding whether the set targets are achieved
- 17. Different performance ofeye camps are the easiest measures to use as the indicators. It must be comprehensive and cover all aspects of eye camp services. In using performance indicators a minimum manpower requirement should be finalized.
- 18. The team shouldconsist at least one ophthalmologist, one optometrist and two ophthalmic assistants/nurses. Performance unit for each activity are expected to increase with the increase of manpower.
- 19. 1. Patient examination A)20 patient examinations and treatment (Vision checking, anterior segment examination Funduscopy) B) 5 refractions (Dry / cycloplegic) 1 Unit 1 Unit Indicators suggested Performance in units
- 20. C) 20 IOPchecking D) 10 cataract referrals for surgery E) 30 referrals to base for follow up / investigation 1 Unit 1 Unit 1 Unit
- 21. 2. Intervention atthe camp / base A) 5 removal of superficial foreign bodies B) 5 any other minor procedure C) 1 cataract extraction at the camp D) 2 cataract extraction at the base E) 10 investigations and follow up at the base 1 Unit 1 Unit 1 Unit 1 Unit 1 Unit
- 22. 3. Screening proceduresonly A) 50 school children B) 50 community members 1 Unit 1 Unit
- 23. 4. Health education A)25 people given education (lecture/leaflet/posters) B) 1 film show / video presentation 1 Unit 1 Unit
- 24. 5. Rehabilitation A) Rehabilitationof 1 blind patient 1 Unit
- 25. Progress of acamp can be assessed using those set indicators and their performance units. Total number of units for each camp can be compared with another same type of a camp for each activity or for overall activities.It may be compared with a gold standard or set goals for a single camp too.
- 26. This procedure wouldprovide an opportunity for the organizers and the authorities to assess their own performances, which could be compared with other similar activities of the country. This ensures whether the planned procedures are on track and indicate the deviations allowing the adoption of corrective measures.
- 27. Eye camps arean essential component in prevention of blindness activities in the countries where community ophthalmology is not an established discipline.
- 28. In such situationsif a national program is planed for the prevention of blindness, these indicators could be used targeting certain number of unit values for different activities or overall unit value for total events at different levels for peripheral mobile units and central mobile units separately to achieve in a given time period.
- 29. An example forperforming evaluation of eye camp activities Five eye camps were conducted in different parts of a country for a period of six months.
- 30. Eye camp No.attended Camp 1 Camp 2 Camp 3 Camp 4 Camp 5 74 163 117 270 142 Total 766 Findingsofeyecamps conductedforpastsix months