Charles F. Mullen

Development of a New Clinical Training Model

November 1st, 2006

Development of a New Clinical Training Model also available in .pdf format.

Background
Since the 1970’s, optometry has been in a state of metamorphosis with the introduction of pharmaceuticals and advanced clinical procedures. Optometric clinical education likewise has evolved in response to the expanded patient management and treatment responsibilities of optometric practice. However, the traditional clinical training model and terminology is not consistent with the current functional reality and presents obstacles to inclusion in and compliance with major federal programs.

The profession of optometry has benefited from inclusion in the federal program Medicare by being classified in medical terminology as physicians and are treated on a par with other physicians (MD, DO, DMD, DPM) regarding payment for patient services. Optometric education, however, does not conform to medical terminology nor the medical training model. Federal agencies administer health care and health education programs based on the medical model and terminology. While optometry is included in the Health Professions Student Loan programs, it is excluded from numerous special Federal Health Professions Education Programs sponsored by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) and from the Graduate Medical Education (GME) program, the educational component of Medicare. The Federal Government appropriates billions of dollars per year for the programs, but optometry is not eligible for these funds while all other health professions participate in these programs.

The premise behind why GME payments are made to financially support clinical training of physicians, dentists and podiatrists is that clinical training is inherently inefficient. All clinical training for optometry students, however, must take place in the four-year curriculum and not in post graduate residency programs since the graduate must be prepared to enter practice after graduation. The financial burden for the inherent inefficiencies in clinical training is placed upon the optometry student in the form of higher tuition. Inclusion of optometry in GME would provide additional revenue to optometric clinical facilities to partially offset the cost of these inefficiencies.

Medicare bases its regulations on the medical teaching model. Optometry’s traditional teaching model and terminology is not analogous to the medical model. However, functionally optometry’s model is consistent in several important aspects with the medical model. Current Medicare regulations regarding student supervision significantly impede optometry students from acquiring patient evaluation and management skills, since regulations do not permit third and fourth year optometry students to contribute to billable services. Medical interns, residents and fellows, however, can contribute to billable services and have ample opportunity to acquire patient evaluation and management skills without significantly affecting the efficient provision of health care.

Realignment of the traditional optometric clinical training model and terminology is necessary to facilitate inclusion in and compliance with major federal programs and to reflect the current functional reality.

Objectives of a New Clinical Training Model
The main objective of a new model and terminology would be to position optometry to be consistent with current Federal law and regulations pertaining to eligibility for GME, National Health Service Corps (NHSC), and Medicare billable services regulations and facilitate inclusion in and compliance with these programs. Participation in GME and NHSC would provide significant Federal resources currently not available to optometry. Realignment of the clinical training model would also ensure that third and fourth year optometric trainees receive meaningful and cost-effective training in patient evaluation and management (E/M) by placing optometric trainees in full compliance with Medicare billable service regulations without the need for the attending to repeat all clinical procedures.

Other objectives include increasing participation in Medicare, increasing the number of community-based training sites, and controlling educational debt. Inclusion in GME would result in significant funds paid to optometric clinical facilities for participation in the Medicare program. Given the financial benefit, GME participation would encourage an increase in Medicare services provided. The NHSC would provide significant resource and loan repayment for optometric residents and graduates practicing in federally-qualified health centers. Inclusion in the NHSC would encourage schools and colleges of optometry to increase the number of affiliated community-based training sites. Community-based training has proven to be highly cost-effective. The NHSC provides an opportunity for student loan repayment up to $50,000, thus providing a means to help control student debt.

Functional Reality of Current Optometric Training Model
Optometry residents are not truly residents, but function as medical attending or fellows according to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The fourth year of optometric education has evolved into an intense clinical experience in response to the expansion of patient management and treatment responsibilities of optometric practice and is analogous to medical residency training. Fourth year students are expected to evaluate and manage patients and function as medical residents. Third year optometry clinical training has also increased in intensity in response to the expanded scope of optometric practice. This is the transitional year from classroom and laboratory activity to patient care. Supervised third year optometry students function as medical interns. First and second year optometry students have limited clinical training and function, for the most part, in a manner similar to medical students. (Table 1.)

Table 1: Comparison of Optometric Clinical Training Model to Medical Model

Optometric Model (Traditional)		Medical Model
Optometry Residents	function as	Medical Attending or Fellows
Qualified to: Bill for Medicare services when licensed No GME No NHSC		Qualified to: Bill for Medicare services Receive GME Payments Qualify for NHSC
Optometry 4thyear students	function as	Medical Residents
Qualified to: Cannot contribute to Medicare billable services No GME No NHSC		Qualified to: Contribute to Medicare billable services Receive GME Payments Qualify for NHSC
Optometry 3rd year students	function as	Medical Interns
Qualified to: Cannot contribute to Medicare billable services No GME No NHSC		Qualified to: Contribute to Medicare billable services Receive GME Payments Qualify for NHSC
Optometry 1stand 2nd year students	function as	Medical Students
Qualified to: Cannot contribute to Medicare Billable Services No GME No NHSC		Qualified to: Cannot contribute to Medicare Billable Services No GME No NHSC

Actions Required to Realign the Optometric Clinical Training Model
The following actions are required to place the traditional optometric clinical training model in conformance with functional reality and medical terminology. Current third year optometry students would be redesignated as interns and current fourth year students would be redesignated as first year residents (Post-Graduate 1 or PG-1). Current optometric residents would be reclassified as PG-2, PG-3 or Fellows. First and second year students would remain classified as students. Since fellows, residents and interns can contribute to Medicare billable services, optometric trainees in this new configuration could receive meaningful and cost-effective training in patient evaluation and management (E/M), while in full compliance with Medicare billable services regulations.

In order to qualify for GME, the Social Security Act needs to be amended to require the Secretary of HHS to make Medicare, Graduate Medical Education (GME) payments to optometric affiliated facilities for certain costs associated with the clinical training of optometric interns and residents (PG-1 - PG-3), including resident stipends. Existing law/regulations need to be amended to direct HRSA to include optometry in the National Health Service Corps (NHSC). Inclusion in the NHSC would provide for resident stipends and educational loan repayment for up to $50,000 as well as other potential resources.

Conclusion and Recommendation
The traditional optometric training model and terminology are not consistent with the functional reality, with medical terminology and federally-supported programs and present obstacles to inclusion in and compliance with major Federal programs. There is a need to comply with Medicare regulations regarding student billable services and significant benefits of inclusion in GME and the NHSC. Formation of a broad-based task force is recommended to thoroughly review the issue regarding clinical training models, terminology and related considerations. Also, the task force would contribute to the political strategy to include optometry in GME and NHSC.

Journal of Optometric Education
Volume 32, Number 1, Fall 2006
Charles F. Mullen, O.D., F.A.A.O.

Posted in Strategic Planning and Measured Performance | Comments Off

My Best Day in Optometric Education: Signing the Affiliation Agreement Between the Illinois College of Optometry and the University of Chicago

September 30th, 2006

In 1996, I accepted the position of president, Illinois College of Optometry (ICO) and brought with me nearly thirty years of experience in collaborative relationships between optometry and ophthalmology. My conviction of the importance of cooperation between the two professions began at the New England College of Optometry in Boston’s community health centers, was carried forward at the Pennsylvania College of Optometry with the affiliation with Hahnemann University’s Department of Ophthalmology. It was tempered by my federal government experience as the director of optometry service at the VA and was fully realized with the signing of a comprehensive patient care, education and research affiliation between ICO and the University of Chicago (UofC).

Thus, October 16, 1997 was my best day in optometric education and reinforced my conviction that cooperation between the two disciplines presents numerous opportunities for enhancing patient care and clinical training for students and residents, and for fostering a better understanding and respect between the two professions, while reinforcing their natural synergism. The affiliation continues to this day, as a vibrant patient care and clinical education collaboration.

Although I remain convinced that affiliation with academic medicine will significantly enhance both clinical education and patient care for both optometry and ophthalmology, there are other challenges that also need to be addressed before optometric clinical education can reach its full potential. Some schools and colleges of optometry have addressed several of these challenges, but much still needs to be done. With continued support from the American Optometric Association (AOA) and the Association of Schools and Colleges of Optometry (ASCO), many of these objectives can be achieved within the next five years.

• Include optometry in the federal programs of Graduate Medical Education (GME) and the National Health Service Corps (NHSC).
• Increase collaboration with community health care programs and increase commitment to public health responsibilities.
• Downsize large single purpose and costly campus-based clinics and replace with smaller referral centers and community-based training sites.
• Achieve Joint Commission for the Accreditation of Health Care Organizations (JCAHO) accreditation for campus-based and college-operated clinical facilities.
• Reorganize the colleges’ clinical programs into separate legal entities with their own administrations and governing boards.
• Implement incentive-based compensation (IBC) plans for faculty that integrate student and resident training.
• Develop and operate ophthalmic surgi-centers in partnership with medical school affiliates.
• Establish a national clearinghouse and placement service for optometric externships.
• Fund the Regional Centers of Eye Care Excellence (RCEE) within the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and expand the Vision Impairment Centers to Optimize Remaining Sight (VICTORS).

Dr. Mullen was president of the Illinois College of Optometry from 1996 to 2002. He is currently on the Board of Trustees at the Pennsylvania College of Optometry and on the Board of Directors of the New England Eye Institute.

Journal of Optometric Education, 2006

Posted in Academic Affiliations | Comments Off

Charles F. Mullen’s Speech at the Kennedy Library

May 14th, 2003

Thank you, Barry, for the warm welcome and your kind remarks. It is a pleasure to be back in Boston to celebrate a commitment to excellence in community collaboration and the creation of the New England Eye Institute.

Honored guests.

This morning, I would like to share with you the beginnings of optometry’s first program to collaborate with community health centers to improve access to eye and vision care services and enrich optometric clinical training.

I will attempt in my brief remarks to relate the common elements of the initial program to the new corporate structure and community governance model of the New England Eye Institute. I plan to outline the challenges which, I believe, still lie ahead for the new organization and finally, with your permission, offer a few observations or suggestions from my years of experience in interprofessional cooperation.

In the late 60’s and the early 70’s, the New England College of Optometry decided to expand and enrich the clinical training environments to which its students had access.

We knew that optometry students would benefit from health care environments in which the optometrist was one of many health care professionals contributing to the care of the patient.

Inner-city demographic data suggested that students would have the opportunity to participate in the care of patients with serious eye and vision problems unlike the university students they typically examined at the College’s Kenmore Square Clinic.

We wanted students to learn in a quality health care environment and not a teaching clinic as was customary at that time. Quality clinical training could only be achieved in a quality health care setting.

Coincident with our educational mission and not at all incompatible with it was a commitment to providing eye and vision care services to inner-city residents who were unable to meet this health care need in their own communities.

We concluded that the most promising scheme for fulfilling both our educational and community service objectives was to form an innovative network of affiliations with existing health care centers. Innovation was an important element in the development of the clinical network as it is today for the New England Eye Institute.

As we began to develop the program, any illusions we may have had about the ease of executing our new strategy were quickly dispelled. We learned a lot about skills we thought had nothing to do with eye care or optometric education: about convincing skeptics, compromising, introducing safeguards, planning, and negotiating.

In the first place, there was a reluctance on the part of health center administrators to permit students to participate in their programs.

Historically, the health center community was disenchanted with receiving its health care in the emergency rooms of large teaching hospitals and our proposed program, they thought, was precisely what they were seeking to escape.

Our second problem revolved around the reluctance of medical staffs at some health centers to work directly with optometrists, since the physicians had little experience working with us.

It was necessary to convince the medical staff at a very fundamental level of the ability of optometrists to function in and contribute to an interdisciplinary environment.

We also encountered considerable political pressure from the ophthalmological society which opposed cooperation between optometry and ophthalmology in the new eye and vision care model to be developed in the community health centers.

I am always reluctant to single out individuals for fear of omissions, but I would be remiss without citing the bold leadership of a few who were responsible for the success of the 70’s community eye care initiatives: Health Center administrators, Jim Hooley, Dorchester House, Mel Scovell and Tris Blake of the South End Community Health Center and Bob Morgan of the Dimock Community Health Center in Roxbury. Bill Baldwin, President of the New England College of Optometry for granting me the opportunity to participate in the development of the clinical network.

The optometrists who were willing to pioneer a new approach to interprofessional collaboration: faculty from the New England College of Optometry–Ralph Levoy, Jerry Selvin, Matt Garston, Jeff and Neal Nyman and the young Barry Barresi.

And, three courageous ophthalmologists, David Miller from Beth Israel Hospital and Harvard and Marc Richman and Andre Quamina from Boston University, who believed in the new model and were committed to providing comprehensive eye and vision care to the community health center clients. They withstood the persistent political pressure and the new optometric-ophthalmological interactional model was implemented at the South End and Dimock Community Health Centers and the Dorchester House for the first time in the United States. Bold leadership was as important then as it is now.

This eye care protocol has now evolved throughout the country, more recently into a comprehensive affiliation among the Illinois College of Optometry, the University of Chicago Medical School and its University Hospital System for the provision of ophthalmic care, medical and optometric education and research.

And, the fourth problem had to do with the antagonism our new eye care model aroused among private optometric practitioners, many of whom were our own alumni and friends. They felt that we were intruding into an area that is rightfully theirs.

I was pleased to learn that this issue has been largely resolved through the leadership of the Massachusetts Society of Optometrists.

The common element that emerged throughout the development process was the importance of effective collaboration among all of the constituencies. Community health center boards and community advocacy groups at first were skeptical, then later became strong supporters of the effort. Their support was critical to the success of the program.

The College and health center collaboration soon began to develop into a successful story of mutual respect and aligned missions. These were the key ingredients in improving community access to eye and vision care services in the 70’s, as they are today.

After successfully negotiating a mutually acceptable agreement with the Dorchester House Multi-Service Center and after strengthening our affiliation with the U.S. Public Health Services Hospital in Brighton, we went on to develop additional relationships in Boston. The South End Community Health Center, Dimock Community Health Center, Eye Research Unit of the Joslin Diabetic Foundation, the Kennedy Hospital in Brighton, Cotting School for Handicapped Children, Department of Veterans Affairs Outpatient Clinic, and the Gundersen Eye Clinic at Boston University.

Other institutions, upon hearing of the success of our collaboration and new eye care model, asked for assistance in establishing eye and vision services. These included: the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard Community Health Plan and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

All of these organizations were willing then to take the risks of new programs and innovative approaches to community eye and vision care as the New England Eye Institute member organizations are willing to take the risks of new programs and innovative approaches in this exciting new venture.

In 1976, upon leaving for Philadelphia, I wrote in an article later published in the Journal of the American Optometric Association on my assessment of the initial phase of the program.

We have reason to believe that we have achieved most of our clinical development goals to a greater degree than we ever could have anticipated.

Over 45,000 eye visits were provided to community residents in 1976. Many community residents had never before received eye or vision care.

Our students are seeing more challenging patients than their predecessors saw.

They have learned from and worked effectively with ophthalmologists and with professionals in pediatrics, internal medicine, nursing, psychology, and low vision.

Faculty and students were successful in convincing many that optometrists can make an important contribution in an interdisciplinary health care setting.

A very workable eye care protocol involving technicians, optometrists and ophthalmologists was developed and implemented.

Our graduates have very different professional aspirations as a result of their community health center experience. Some went on to work in community health centers and some have become deeply involved with the whole issue of public health and some are seeking to broaden their education and assume roles in health care policy. We have a living example here today in Barry Barresi.

A new level of innovation and collaboration has been introduced in the 21st century to build on a program created in the 70’s.

A major step was taken by the New England College of Optometry by reallocating its clinical assets into a community governed organization. Even with a history of over 30 years of collaboration, much work is still needed to be done to truly transform the New England Eye Institute into a leading community services organization for Greater Boston and a model for other cities around the country. Several challenges can be identified.

Educational programs need to be expanded to include trainees not only in optometry, but also ophthalmology, medicine, nursing, and other health care professionals, such as occupational therapists, social workers, low vision and blind rehabilitation specialists.

It will not be sufficient to provide only eye and vision services, for the New England Eye Institute needs to embrace a community oriented approach to health promotion and prevention.

The new organization must be flexible and integrated to truly meet the public need. It must position the Institute to meet the needs of special populations – the homeless, the frail elderly, the home bound, the developmentally disabled, the severely visually impaired, and others.

The quality of care must be monitored and maintained with appropriate mechanisms and oversight.

And, development efforts need to be aggressive in seeking the necessary operating and capital funds to support the Institute.

Finally, I would like to conclude with a few observations based on my many experiences in interprofessional collaboration that could be applied to the New England Institute.

The key ingredients in any successful collaboration are mutual respect and aligned missions.

Innovation must be proceeded by careful planning and boldness tempered by fiscal reality.

There are few cities better positioned than Boston to achieve excellence in collaboration to meet the public need in eye and vision care services, in health professions education, and health promotion and prevention.

I urge the many collaborators in this new initiative to reflect on the approaches and successes of a few bold individuals who in the 70’s were willing to take risks of new programs and innovative approaches and apply the same persistence, commitment and risk taking to the New England Eye Institute.

Thank you for remembering me.

Dr. Charles F. Mullen
Kennedy Library, Boston, MA
May 14, 2003

Posted in Community Based Optometric Clinical Education | Comments Off

Presidential Farewell Address - Illinois College of Optometry

September 13th, 2002

Dr. Henry, faculty, students, staff, family members, and honored guests.

Today is a bittersweet occasion for me as I bid farewell to this fine institution and to many valued colleagues, students, and friends.

Let me begin by saying how proud I am of your many achievements during the six years of my tenure. Through the combined outstanding effort of our faculty, administration, students and staff we have worked together to strengthen the College for today and for decades to come.

Together, we have created a new culture at ICO. It is a culture that encourages innovation and creativity; it recognizes personal initiative as well as individual and collective accountability. It calls for improved outcomes and heightened productivity. It is a culture that demands we be models of ethical behavior and integrity. A culture committed to growth and improvement.

Avenues of dialogue among all ICO constituencies have been opened. Faculty, staff, and students are positively engaged in strengthening the institution. As the Accreditation Council on Optometric Education stated during their visit to our campus earlier this year “a commitment to excellence was evident at all levels of the institution.” It was clear to the Accreditation Council, as it has been clear to me, that you are always reaching for the next level – not satisfied with second best. You have much to be proud of.

I would like to highlight the extraordinary achievements of our years together as well as share the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.

First to Dean Scharre and the entire ICO faculty, I extend my sincerest appreciation for your tireless commitment to excellence in securing the College’s legacy for the future. Your contributions to our academic culture have been enormous and far-reaching.

In the past six years, the College has undergone three major accreditation reviews while five residency programs were evaluated. In all cases, the strength of ICO’s academic and clinical programs was reaffirmed by external reviewers. For example:

• Performance of ICO Students on the National Board of Optometry examinations is the best ever.
• The student externship program was expanded from just 9 sites to 144, providing over 160,000 additional clinical teaching encounters.
• Individual student’s clinical encounters increased from 500 to over 1260 by graduation.
• The IEI census increased by 47% providing 70,000 clinical encounters each year.
• Faculty scholarly presentations, publications, and grant submissions are at an all-time high.
• ICO’s affiliation with the University of Chicago’s Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Science was developed. This relationship has continued to succeed both academically and clinically.
• Faculty membership in the American Academy of Optometry increased from 48% to 92%.
• Student retention rate reached an all-time high of nearly 99%.
• Students on the Deans list increased to over 50% for some classes.
• We initiated several research projects at the College’s new small animal research lab.
• Faculty governance was strengthened to include a voting member on the Board of Trustees.

Thanks to our administrators and staff, ICO continues to function from a strong financial and operational position. You, too, should be proud of your many achievements, as follows:

• A strategic and tactical planning process was implemented which is open, consultative and collaborative, employing a performance-based monitoring of progress. The plan is actively employed in the management of the institution.
• Student tuition was frozen for four years, helping to control student debt, and scholarships were increased. The work study program was doubled in size.
• ICO has been approved as a participating lender in the Federal Family Education Loan Program, which will result in projected annual revenue of $735,000 for FY2003.
• We successfully restructured the College’s overall debt by issuing $45 million in variable rate tax exempt bonds.
• ICO investment assets increased by $6.7 million, despite a serious downturn in the stock market.
• IEI patient services revenue increased 59%.
• We completed the IEI construction project in addition to $8.5 million in physical plant, equipment and information systems technology improvements.

To the student body, I wish to commend you on your many contributions to the College and profession.

• ICO students’ participation in scholarship and leadership activities at AOSA, Academy and AOA meetings has been most impressive.
• Students continue to play an exemplary role in supporting neighborhood community service programs, the VOSH program, and Special and Junior Olympics.
• Students initiated a campaign to raise scholarship funds through their annual golf outing.
• The student representatives to the Board of Trustees, until recently Mr. Steinmetz and now Ms. McCann, have participated in Board activities with poise, dedication and professionalism.
• Student participation in the College’s Annual Play and International Night reflects a spirit of enthusiasm and pride.

Governance has grown ever stronger through the Board of Trustees efforts to increase its size and diversity.

• We continue to build a productive, solid relationship with our neighbors through our Community Advisory Board.
• We have strengthened our outreach and built better relationships with other health care professionals and community organizations.

The Illinois Eye Institute with its outstanding administrators, faculty, and staff has made outstanding progress in the past six years. Patient satisfaction at IEI is at an all-time high as measured by external surveys.

In particular, I want to acknowledge the very successful Vision of Hope program, which provides eye care to the uninsured and underinsured citizens of Illinois. Initially launched with a $250,000 grant from the Illinois State Legislature, we added private foundation grants and additional state support. Already we count this program among our most successful endeavors. Of the 1,700 patients examined, more than 70% exhibit some type of untreated serious eye condition.

We also completed a comprehensive review and reorganization of our Institutional Advancement office. We reenergized the College’s development, alumni affairs and public relations programs. Results have been most encouraging.

These are the accomplishments we can feel proud of, but the picture would be incomplete without noting the challenges which lie ahead.

• Meet the challenge of continued program growth as projected in our “Commitment to Excellence” strategic plan, while facing uncertain stock market conditions, a slowing economy and a decrease in the student applicant pool.
• Continue our commitment to recruitment and admittance of the most qualified students during the current applicant decline.
• Maintain tuition at a competitive level, while ensuring the availability of scholarship funds.
• Continue to recruit and retain outstanding faculty and staff.
• Keep pace with the changing regulatory standards imposed on health care and research institutions.
• And implement an institutional compliance plan and comprehensive risk assessment program.

But with these challenges come numerous opportunities. These include the potential to:

• Increase Illinois State appropriation to ICO.
• Increase the number of state contracts to support out of state student tuition.
• Qualify for Federal Graduate Medical Education (GME) funding for student clinical training.
• Build investment assets “endowments” by increasing gifts from alumni, friends, and foundations.
• Implement a Faculty Group Practice Plan in order to reduce the cost of clinical education, increase faculty income and enhance faculty retention.
• Strengthen the College’s research infrastructure.
• Secure additional grant funding for the clinical care of indigent patients.
• Establish an ambulatory ophthalmic surgi-center in partnership with the University of Chicago and qualify for Part A Medicare reimbursement.
• Achieve accreditation from the Joint Commission for the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) for the Illinois Eye Institute and proposed ambulatory surgi-center.

Now I would like to turn to many well deserved “thank yous”

Let me first thank the members of our outstanding faculty and ICO’s dedicated Academic Administration.

Also, I personally appreciate the support and always constructive approach of the Faculty Executive Committee.

I would like to recognize and further encourage the excellent cooperation and support of the student leadership. The Student Association goes to great effort to help us maintain a positive professional and social culture at ICO. The student body deserves much credit for the dedication and pride they bring to the pursuit of academic and clinical excellence.

I would also like to thank the many Operating Units of the College for the support they provide the faculty, students and administration.

The Office of Student Affairs has again been successful in recruiting academically gifted women and men to ICO. The office has also done an outstanding job to maintain a positive and supportive culture for our student body and has set a high standard for student services.

The Student Financial Services Office has again efficiently assisted our students in obtaining funds necessary to make their optometric education possible, simplifying loan processing.

Institutional Advancement has enhanced and supported fund raising efforts through the offices of Development, Alumni Affairs, and Public Relations.

Through the efforts of Human Resources staff, the College and the Eye Institute attract talented faculty and dedicated staff. They help ensure our environment is fair, friendly, and productive.

The Business Office continues to achieve a high level of operational efficiency and assists other College units in a professional and responsive manner.

Information Systems Staff completed the 22 major technology projects including the most sophisticated library system. A Faculty Technology center was developed to facilitate the use of advanced technology in teaching.

The Facilities Staff always does an outstanding job in maintaining one of the finest campuses in health professions education.

We would not achieve our goals without the uncompromising services and dedication from the Library, Registrar, Instructional Media, Biomedical Services, Institutional Health, Academic Support, Fitness Center, Food Services, Security, Mailroom and Bookstore. Thank you all for a job well done.

A special thanks to the alumni for serving as role models for our students through your success, and dedication to patients and the profession. Your role in identifying talented students for admission to ICO is greatly appreciated.

I would also like to thank our Alumni Council for their outstanding leadership. The Alumni Council plays a significant role as the College’s representatives to the Alumni. The Illinois Optometric Association has provided invaluable support the past six years.

A note of appreciation to my office staff for their loyalty and dedication.

Thank you to all of ICO’s partners – attorneys, accountants, bankers, and vendors for your excellent service and support to the College.

And finally, I would like to recognize Chairman Lawless and the Board of Trustees for providing the leadership the College requires to achieve our Commitment to Excellence goals. Thank you for your time, dedication and generous financial support.

ICO has a history and tradition that will guide the College through the future fulfillment of its mission – the pursuit of excellence in health care education, patient care, scholarly activity; and the development of leaders for the profession and society.

Yes, we’ve had an extraordinary six years together. ICO has an extraordinary future ahead as it continues in the pursuit of excellence. It is through your leadership that we will be able to continue ICO’s dramatic progress and to face the challenges that are ahead with determination and optimism.

As I stated in my inaugural speech in 1997. I was both humbled and honored to be appointed President of ICO. I only hope you are as proud as I am of the strength and integrity of this institution as well as its opportunities and hopes for the future.

Also, I stated that the measure I would use to judge our years together would not be what we have gained but what we have given to others. But I never envisioned the gifts that I personally would receive through these six years.

• The loyalty and support provided to me by my colleagues and of all those with whom I have worked.
• The trust that I put in our mutual vision is now not a dream but a reality, based on measured success and the evaluation of others.

These gifts are greatest of all. I strongly believe the last six years has changed ICO for the better, and changed each of us for the better. These gifts are invaluable treasures that we take on our respective journeys.

I had the opportunity to recently brief President-designate Augsburger on the State of the Institution. I am confident that he will not only sustain the excellence we have built, but will lead the institution to even greater levels of achievement.

Finally I would like to conclude my farewell address with an expression I have not used in over 40 years. As a young naval officer, on the bridge of the Radar Picket Ship Searcher underway in the North Atlantic, it was customary to brief the oncoming watch officer with the ship’s course, speed, position as well as other important data. And once he nodded his understanding of the status of the ship, I would render a snappy salute and say – Sir, I stand relieved!

Thank you.

Charles F. Mullen, O.D.
Presidential Farewell Address
Illinois College of Optometry
September 13, 2002

Posted in Strategic Planning and Measured Performance | Comments Off

Dr. Charles F. Mullen - Clinical Architect

April 20th, 2002

Dr. Charles F. Mullen - Clinical Architect is also available in .pdf format.

Today’s optometry students take for granted their ability to train at settings including neighborhood health centers and Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) facilities as part of their clinical education. Yet, these doors were not always open to them. While there were many people who contributed to this welcome change, the man with the vision to know where the profession was going and how to get there is Dr. Charles F. Mullen ’69.

Dr. Mullen, who recently retired as President of the Illinois College of Optometry, spent his entire career designing and reshaping the delivery of clinical education for optometry students and residents. He has advanced clinical education with his keen foresight and forceful leadership. In doing so, he has opened up eye care services to many previously underserved patients.

From 1970-1976 Dr. Mullen served President William Baldwin at The New England College of Optometry (then Massachusetts College of Optometry) as Special Assistant for Clinical Development. Baldwin appointed him shortly after his 1969 graduation.

Between 1976-1990, Dr. Mullen served as executive director of the Eye Institute at the Pennsylvania College of Optometry (PCO). He then directed the Optometry Service at the Department of Veterans Affairs in Washington, DC, from 1990-1996 and in 1996 was selected president of the Illinois College of Optometry (ICO).

Beginning with NECO, Dr. Mullen was able to plant the seeds of moving optometry into the forefront of primary eye care by developing a system that optimally served patients. Perhaps best known for clearly seeing the potential of expanding the scope of the practice of optometry, Dr. Mullen recognized in the early 1970’s that optometrists would be treating eye disease and the necessity for students in the clinical system of NECO to develop new skills. Think of how difficult this was without a single diagnostic or therapeutic drug law in place…

Working to implement new clinical protocols, Dr. Mullen creatively developed teaching affiliations with Boston’s system of neighborhood health centers and other multidisciplinary settings. He did this by partnering with a progressive team of optometrists and ophthalmologists in caring for patients in special and underserved populations as a way of enhancing the education of future doctors of all disciplines.

In the words of Dr. Mullen, “We had a need and wanted to enrich the students’ clinical experience and give them more exposure… we also saw an opportunity to provide eye care services to those who were underserved in the Boston area.”

Breaking Down the Barriers
To reflect back on the 1970s, when Dr. Mullen began his career in optometry, is to see a radically different time than today. Co-management was not the norm, as it is today. Diagnostics and therapeutic pharmaceuticals were the sole province of the medical profession.

Early in his career, Dr. Mullen understood that ophthalmology and optometry were complementary. However, integrating a different model in a resistant health care field would require both conviction and persistence. He and other clinicians saw an opportunity to introduce a primary care system into clinical education and, in 1970, circumstances allowed him to begin his mission.

In 1972, the College was commissioned by the State of Rhode Island to develop the clinical curriculum and certify its Optometric State Board in the use of diagnostic and pharmaceutical agents. Dr. Mullen directed the implementation of the clinical component for the first diagnostic pharmaceutical course and along with Dr. Matt Garston ’66 certified the first diagnostic pharmaceutical certified optometrist in the United States.

Following that milestone, Dr. Mullen collaborated with a team of neighborhood health care and public policy leaders: Tres Blake of the South End Community Heath Center; Bob Morgan of Dimock Community Health Center and the Harvard School of Public Health; Mark Richman, M.D. of Boston University and the South End Community Health Centers; and David Miller, M.D., of Beth Israel and Harvard Medical School. All were committed to enhancing ophthalmologic clinical education and services.

The ophthalmic community and private optometric practitioners were skeptical, but the group stayed the course. Over time, local neighborhood health centers formed partnerships with the College and integrated optometric services and students into their clinical programs. Dr. Mullen is still viewed as the architect of the local model used in Boston and duplicated elsewhere to this day.

Dr. Barry J. Barresi ’77, Vice President for Clinical Care and Services at New England Eye Institute (NEEI), testifies to that fact. “Even today as we meet with Boston’s health care leaders to further expand the NEEI system of community-based clinical sites, many of them vividly recall the innovative leadership of Dr. Mullen some 30 years ago. With his colleagues, he built a strong foundation of community health partnerships. Today these collaborations are fueling continued innovation and growth in the College’s mission of excellence in patient care, clinical education and research.”

Dr. Gerald Selvin ’73, Professor of Optometry at NECO and National Education Chair for the Optometry Service Field Advisory Group of VA Central Office considers Dr. Mullen to have had the largest impact on his development than anyone else in optometry. While still a student, he remembers two particular proclamations made in 1972 which not only greatly influence his practice life but all of optometry.

“Optometrists will be treating eye disease routinely, so we are going to start to teach you how now.”;

“There are no welfare patients, no poor patients, no rich patients… there are only patients, and each individual will be treated with dignity and respect.”

These principles are what Dr. Charles Mullen has always placed above all else…take care of patients compassionately and with expertise. Never having lost sight of these principles is what made Dr. Mullen the visionary he is. And those optometrists who have had the good fortune to be directly influenced by him can imprint these values on a new generation of doctors, continuing his legacy.

The Eye Institute
Then it was time for another professional challenge. In 1976, Dr. Norman Wallis, former president of Pennsylvania College of Optometry (PCO) and now executive director of the National Board of Examiners, approached him about developing an integrated clinical system at PCO for the soon to be built Eye Institute. Dr. Wallis felt that Dr. Mullen was the only person capable of handling this daunting assignment. Dr. Wallis explained to Perspective that PCO’s objective was to establish an enterprise that resembled an “eye hospital.” It would combine the three O’s (opticianry, optometry, and ophthalmology) under one roof. This innovation in eye care education would completely change the character of the clinic, and – ultimately – eye care delivery.

With his characteristic methodical approach, Dr. Mullen set out to implement the model, which would greatly expand the scope of educational and training resources available at PCO. Dr. Wallis recalls why it was so successful.

“Charlie organized the clinic like a military campaign. Every aspect was covered to the greatest detail. It was like Operation Desert Storm.”

In the 1980’s, Dr. Mullen saw changes taking place in the profession and made great efforts to merge the interests between optometry and the medical community. He wrote that, “the impetus comes from outside parties – particularly third-party payers, health care policymakers and legislators – who will attempt to define the roles each profession will play in the future of eye care provision if the two professions do not actively define the roles themselves.”

He knew that the mutual interests could form a bond. Therefore, he initiated several affiliations with medical facilities in the Philadelphia region. The hallmark would be PCO’s affiliation with Hahnemann University, a Philadelphia-based medical college. The two combined their resources and worked to develop “unique approaches to ophthalmic education, eye care provision, and optometric research.”

Meeting More Professional Challenges
In 1990 Dr. Mullen left PCO to head the Optometry Service of the Department of Veterans Affairs in Washington, DC. With this post, he became the highest-ranking civilian optometrist employed by the government. A former Navy officer himself, he was familiar with the need for change in the VA system. True to from, he began a process of systematic restructuring. Under his stewardship, he implemented protocols for clinical privileging and standardized the educational component system-wide at the VHA. These guidelines are the principle force driving policy decisions today. He was also responsible for the sizable growth of the student and residency programs.

Many colleagues, including those at the Department of Veterans Affairs, feel that he was a perfect representative for the optometric profession in Washington. Described as a “visionary,” a “poised ambassador,” and an “executive’s executive,” he based his entire career on teamwork. When asked about his leadership style, Charles Mullen credits Dr. Wallis. “Norman taught me the ability to empower the people who work for you – to trust them and how to delegate authority.”

Another term that is often used in reference to Charles Mullen is “turn-around specialist.” In 1996, he accepted the challenge of the presidency at the Illinois College of Optometry. The institution had gone through a difficult time and needed to be restored to its previous stature.

Dr. Mullen confronted the issues head on, turning ICO into a thriving and stable institution. He implemented a strategic management plan, “Commitment to Excellence,” which restructured the college to address the challenges of the future.

Commenting on what he views as the most significant transformation at ICO during his tenure, Dr. Mullen is quick to state that “it has been the institutional culture. We initiated the process by focusing on the CORE four-year program and utilized tools to evaluate outcome assessment and national board performance. Change has permeated the institution.”

The list of accomplishments at ICO is noteworthy. ICO has increased its endowment, raised its clinical revenues, significantly improved student national board performance, frozen tuition, improved its student retention rate and increased student and faculty involvement in institutional governance. The outcome of Dr. Mullen’s taking charge is remarkable.

You can also see his trademark in the clinical programs at ICO. When he arrived there were only nine clinical affiliates. That number has grown to 137 sites throughout the United States and abroad. This has significantly impacted students’ access to patient encounters. In 1997, ICO formed an affiliation with the University of Chicago that has strengthened both institutions. ICO is now in the process of expanding that relationship further and plans are underway to move the University of Chicago’s ophthalmic surgical practice to the ICO campus.

With his retirement recently from ICO, you might expect Dr. Mullen to contemplate his golf handicap or other hobbies. But instead, he is thinking of returning to federal service. You can expect that wherever he heads next, his vision and leadership will do nothing short of transforming that entity.

The New England College of Optometry
Perspective Magazine. Spring 2002.

Posted in Building Quality Institutions | Comments Off

Commitment to Excellence

October 10th, 2001

Commitment to Excellence.pdf (64 pages)

From the Preface
Over the past four years, members of the Illinois College of Optometry community have winessed the College’s progress in meeting broad institutional goals and objectives initially articulated in “Prescription for Excellence” and in meeting specific performance targets described later in “Journey to Excellence.”

The latest version of the strategic plan “Commitment to Excellence” continues the process of transformation of the institution outlined in the earlier plans with further emphasis on measurement systems and quantified strategic and annual performance targets…

Commitment to Excellence.pdf (64 pages)

Posted in Strategic Planning and Measured Performance | Comments Off

The Road to Excellence

January 12th, 2001

The Road to Excellence is also available in .pdf format.

A CONTINUED HISTORY OF THE ILLINOIS COLLEGE OF OPTOMETRY
1997 – 2000

PREFACE
The conclusion of the book Optometry in America (1872-1995) offered a glimpse at the Illinois College of Optometry’s bright future. In February 1995, the College received a positive accreditation review by the American Optometric Association Council on Optometric Education (COE). Also that same year, the first stage of an ambitious campus expansion was completed in the building of a new residential complex on Indiana Avenue at 33rd Street.

By March 1996, however, the school’s bright future was overshadowed by controversy. A politically motivated article appeared in a Springfield, Illinois newspaper. This news item was picked up and published by the Associated Press. These two events triggered a series of allegations and investigations that resulted in the resignation of ICO President, Dr. Boyd B. Banwell.

Upon Banwell’s departure, a management team was formed by the Board of Trustees that included: Board Chairman Dr. John E. Brandt, Chairman-Elect Dr. Albert H. Rodriguez, Jr., and Trustee Dr. Joseph Henry. The team worked to maintain the daily operations of the college and assuage the concerns of faculty, students and staff. They also worked with legal counsel to satisfy the Office of the Illinois Attorney General, the Internal Revenue Service and the College’s financiers.

A search committee, chaired by Dr. Henry, initiated the recruitment of a new college president. This team included representatives from the Board of Trustees, faculty, staff, and students. After an exhaustive search, Dr. Charles F. Mullen – who was serving as the Director of Optometry Service at the Department of Veterans Affairs in Washington, D.C. at that time - was appointed the Illinois College of Optometry’s fourth president. Taking office on November 1, 1996, the college that Dr. Mullen encountered was not quite the utopian institution which many - both inside and outside the college - believed existed.

Dr. Mullen quickly realized that although a plan had been developed for the physical expansion of the campus, a more comprehensive plan was required that encompassed improvements in ICO’s academic culture, administrative operations, financial health, institutional image, revenue streams, as well as the physical plant. Working with the President’s Advisory Council, an administrative team assembled from existing faculty and senior staff, Dr. Mullen began the Herculean task of putting the college back on course and preparing it to meet the challenges dictated by the rapid changes in the health profession’s educational requirements.

Recording the events that took place since Dr. Mullen took office, The Road to Excellence serves as a supplement to Optometry in America, chronicling – in his own words - Dr. Mullen’s first four years at Illinois College of Optometry.

INTRODUCTION
Given the Illinois College of Optometry’s historically prominent position within the field of optometric education, I was concerned when I learned of the difficulties the college was experiencing in 1996. I believed these matters had the potential to harm not only ICO, but possibly even the profession of optometry itself. When I was offered the position of president, I felt it was my responsibility to my profession to accept this role. I was confident that, in a relatively short period of time, I could redirect the college’s resources and energies, creating a culture in which all members of the ICO community were actively engaged in strengthening the institution.

We immediately made a philosophical shift from emphasis on facility development to emphasis on programmatic improvements and on the personal service provided to our students, patients and alumni.

We set out to realize a culture at ICO that was based on innovation and creativity: where personal initiative coupled with individual and collective accountability are the norm. Our goal was to develop an institution managed by fact and outcome measures, resulting in heighten productivity; a model of ethical behavior and integrity; and a culture committed to growth and improvement.

The pages that follow document our progress in realizing this new culture at ICO.

CHAPTER ONE
DEFINING EXCELLENCE
Documented in the 1996 book Optometry in America, the Illinois College of Optometry (ICO) can trace its origin to 1872. ICO, however, has only existed under its present name only since 1955: the result of the merger of the Northern Illinois College of Optometry and the Monroe College of Optometry.

Between 1955 and the present, ICO has had only four presidents: Eugene W. Strawn, O.D. (1955-71), Alfred A. Rosenbloom, O.D. (1972-82), Boyd B. Banwell, O.D. (1982-96) and now, Charles F. Mullen, O.D. (1996 - present).

The ICO Board of Trustees appointed Dr. Mullen as President on November 1, 1996. He assumed his duties on a full-time basis one month later. Mullen brought with him twenty-six years of administrative experience. He had served as Special Assistant to the President for Clinical Development (1970-76) at New England College of Optometry; as Executive Director, The Eye Institute (1976-1990) at Pennsylvania College of Optometry; and as Director of Optometry Service of Veterans Health Administration (1990-96) at the Department of Veterans Affairs, Washington, D.C.

Three years after he took office, Dr. Mullen discussed his initial impressions and objectives in a guest editorial that appeared in the Journal of the American Optometric Association (September 1999):

“Although I found there was an understandable sense of uncertainty regarding the immediate future of the College, morale was surprisingly good. It was my perception that faculty and staff were not only willing, but eager, to ‘right the ship’ and to positively engage in strengthening and improving the institution. I felt confident I could immediately assemble a capable administrative team from the existing faculty and staff.

My initial objectives included:

• Initiation of a strategic and tactical planning process.
• Enhancement of the academic culture by increasing support for faculty development, research and scholarly activity.
• Expansion of the clinical educational program by initially adding 50 community-based training sites.
• Initiation of a search for a new Dean/Vice President for Academic Affairs.
• Review and modification, as appropriate, of the administrative organization.
• Enhancement of the institutional culture, by improvement of services to students, patients, alumni and employees.
• Ensurance of the financial stability of the institution, including the enhancement of revenue streams.
• Review and modification of the master buildings and facilities program.
• Improvement of management information systems.
• Enhancement of personnel management.
• Development and implementation of public relations and fund-raising programs.
• Redirection of resources formerly allocated to an ambitious building program into programmatic improvements.

I believed that it was vital that our planning process promote open avenues of dialog with internal and external constituencies.”[1]

To achieve his objectives, Dr. Mullen formed the President’s Advisory Council (PAC) that included senior administrative management for the College and the Illinois Eye Institute (IEI),which is the school’s clinic facility. The PAC began to develop a strategic plan that defined the term “excellence” as it relates to ICO. The plan, titled Prescription for Excellence, contained five major goals, accompanying appropriate action, identification of departmental responsibility for each goal and designated completion dates.

CHAPTER TWO
PRESCRIPTION FOR EXCELLENCE
YEAR ONE
Dr. Charles Mullen understood the importance of open communication between internal and external constituencies in both the planning process and the implementation of each designated strategy in the Prescription for Excellence. As part of this process, President’s Advisory Council (PAC) members were given the opportunity to voice their opinions and concerns on a variety of subjects and to experience full responsibility for the achievement of each department’s goals. To begin their work, PAC commissioned surveys that addressed alumni and alumnae needs and concerns and student satisfaction. The compiled results had immediate impact on Dr. Mullen’s Prescription for Excellence.

In order to establish improved dialog with the community and to include them in the planning process, Dr. Mullen established a Community Advisory Board (CAB). Leaders of neighborhood organizations, school principals, clergymen, representative of community-targeted government agencies and senior ICO administrators were invited to join this team. The CAB continues to consider such issues as employment opportunities, real estate transactions, and minority student recruitment that have a direct impact on both ICO and its surrounding community.

In the Journal of the American Optometric Association (September 1999), Dr. Mullen discussed his strategic plan in great detail:

“It was now our task to channel these processes into a tangible plan of action. With input generated through countless meetings, reviews, evaluations, and re-evaluations, we created a 70-page document, the Prescription for Excellence. It contains five major goals, each with detailed, quantifiable action steps and completion dates. These action steps also identified the department responsible for their implementation. Regular monthly meetings were scheduled to evaluate our progress. These meetings – which continue today – are open to all members of the ICO community.

The Prescription for Excellence was immediately effective. The goals and directions we established continue to be important, but even more important is the process we created whereby each member of every ICO constituency has the opportunity to be meaningfully involved in the planning process…

Several important themes emerged during the planning process that have helped create a new culture at ICO. Through the planning process, five major goals were crystallized:

1. Provision of excellence in education and scholarly activity.
2. Creation and maintenance of reputation as an institution that is characterized by exceptional accountability.
3. Provision of excellence in service, as defined by our students, patients, alumni, and employees.
4. Provision of excellence in health care.
5. Achievement of recognition as a center of influence within the profession and the community.

These goals are now the basis for the performance agreements that exist between every member of senior administration and the President, as well as an agreement between the Board of Trustees and the President. These agreements are what each of us is measured by: they are the basis for budgeting and for departmental planning.”[2]

The results of that first year of implementation were noteworthy. Dr. Mullen reported those achievements to the ICO community at his first “State of the College Address” in October, 1997:

“What I have to share with you today is important to all members of the Illinois College of Optometry community. Today’s address deals with where we are at this point in time …and what our future course needs to be.

ACADEMIC CULTURE
“We have made steady progress in evaluating and improving the quality and cost effectiveness of our external clinical affiliations and our satellite facilities with a goal of achieving budget neutrality. Contracts have been renegotiated (and) as a result…we have reduced the net cost of our satellite programs by approximately $172,000. At the same time, we were achieving these reductions in costs, we have expanded our community based clinical affiliations from a handful to 75 (collaborations), providing more than 210 student rotations annually.

We have made several significant changes in ICO’s curriculum. The focus was changed to give students an overview of an optometric examination with a greater emphasis on technical skills. The optometry sequence has been modified…to complete the teaching of technical skills by the end of the winter quarter of the second professional year. This will make room…for closely supervised clinical experiences prior to the more independent work done during the third professional year…An interpersonal skills course has been added to the spring quarter of the second year including topics (such as) inter -and intra-professional communication.

A summer curriculum will be added to the third professional year beginning in May, 1998. The benefits (of which)…will include a smoother transition from pre-clinical training to actual patient care experience and more patient care experiences for third year students.

An agreement has been reached with the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Science at the University of Chicago to coordinate clinical, medical, educational and research programs with ICO. This is only the second such agreement between a college of optometry and a university ophthalmology program in the country…Among its benefits will be the creation of an O.D./Ph.D. program; increased opportunities for collaborative research; shared lecturers; and an expanded clinical base.

(The) faculty now has a voice in the deliberations of ICO’s Board of Trustees through elected representatives. A Faculty Council has been created with a written constitution and leadership provided through an elected Executive Committee.

In our efforts to develop external funding for research, we have made significant progress in improving our opportunities with various Federal Agencies by making certain we are in compliance - or making substantial progress toward compliance - in several areas from institutional protocols to record keeping.

ADMINISTRATIVE ISSUES
“We have thoroughly reviewed our organizational structures. We will shortly be submitting to the Board a revised organizational chart that reflects functions rather than individuals and is organized in a way to maximize our efficiency and service to our students and our patients.

Simultaneously with this review, we have taken steps to review all personnel and initiate changes to improve their efficiency. These include the creation of the ‘President’s Advisory Council’ to assist me in managing ICO. We are committed to diversity in our staff, faculty and student body and have taken steps to ensure a diverse ICO community.

FINANCE
“We have reorganized the Business Office to improve our financial management. We have completed a structured budgeting process with time lines and approval processes built in to insure that all ICO needs will be addressed in the budget process and properly prioritized within our educational and patient service commitments ….(and) to improve accountability.

We have also constructed a long-term debt management plan. ICO currently has an outstanding tax-exempt variable rate of indebtedness of $37 million dollars. We have been successful in negotiating productively to refinance this debt in a way that minimizes its burden on ICO and maintains our position of excellence in optometric education.

INSTITUTIONAL IMAGE
“How we see ourselves to a very large extent projects how others view us. For that reason, I have made improving internal communications (among faculty and staff) a high priority during the past year and will continue to do so.

We have attempted to address the information needs of our external constituencies, especially our alumni…This was the impetus for the creation of a quarterly newsletter. We are also in the process of creating an Internet mailing list of our alumni and developing a web site for ICO’s alumni and friends. We have initiated a mentoring program with the Illinois Optometric Association to link optometry students with practicing optometrists in Illinois, the majority of whom are graduates of ICO, furthering the ties between the College, our students and our alumni.

We have also created a public relations program with specific goals and objectives in the areas of media relations, community relations and greater visibility in professional journals and optometric associations. The public relations program contains a strong marketing component, chiefly (involving) the Illinois Eye Institute.

OPERATIONS
“The future of both health care and education will be greatly influenced by developments in communications. Without a significant increase in capital spending, ICO has moved forward aggressively in this arena through the efforts of our Information Systems Department.

Personnel management has been enhanced through greater accountability. Formal performance agreements have been created for each member of the administration, creating an objective measurement against which (each employee can be evaluated for his or her) performance.

PHYSICAL PLANT
“We are continuing to make necessary improvements to our (physical) plant. We recently installed exterior signage, increasing our visibility in the community and improving the marketability of our (Illinois) Eye Institute. We will shortly be changing our internal signage as well, making it more informative, user friendly, consistent and within Federal regulations.

Renovation of the Illinois Eye Institute is nearly complete. When finished, we will have a facility whose exterior and interior appearance matches the outstanding qualities of those who serve there.

At the same time, we have carefully evaluated the existing construction master plan, not only in terms of our needs but also within the framework of sound financial considerations and the need to maintain a competitive economic stance. As a result of this review, we have reduced the previous master plan by more than $23 million dollars over the next five to seven years.

REVENUE STREAMS
“We have made significant progress in increasing (the number of) alternative sources of revenue for ICO…(because) we cannot afford to neither compromise excellence nor over-burden our students with significant tuition increases.

We have begun with the creation of a marketing plan for the Illinois Eye Institute that recognizes that in addition to its educational mission the IEI must be competitive in its efforts to attract patients.

We have reinvigorated our commitment to fundraising, or ‘development,’ - so named in recognition of the fact that the creation of a significant philanthropic base is a developmental process (that occurs) over time.

In order to better fulfill our educational role to practicing optometrists - and to improve our revenue stream through education - we have adopted a more user-friendly stance toward continuing education or CE. We are in the process of creating a CE program (that will be) systematically planned and timed to coincide with the two-year cycle of CE requirements for licensure renewal in Illinois and one that stresses advanced competency.

We are also strongly committed to enhancing our efforts at student recruitment and retention, but please let me emphasize that this must not ever come at the expense of quality.

Our focus this year was to move admissions from a paper oriented (process) to more of a people-oriented process. In August, we held an open house for prospective students. An aggressive schedule of visits to undergraduate campuses for recruiting purposes has begun. Before the year is out, members of our faculty and staff will have visited more than 50 colleges and universities.

STRATEGIC PLANNING
“A Strategic Plan for an institution such as ICO…must do more than chart a course for the future. It must reflect the collective wisdom of the College. We have created such a plan and named it the Prescription for Excellence. It is now in the process of some final revision before being presented to our Board. It is available to all who wish to review it in its entirety. It is a living document in that it is intended to be amended as conditions and opportunities warrant. It addresses all aspects of our continued growth as an institution of health care education. And, as its name implies, it requires excellence as the standard of all our efforts. This is not a mere title, but a recognition of our potential and also of what will be required of those who will thrive in today’s health care environment…..I am confident that ICO and its students, faculty and staff will be among those who excel.”[3]

During this same month, Dr. Mullen was installed as Illinois College of Optometry’s fourth president at a ceremony that was held on October 18, 1997 in the Rockefeller Chapel on the University of Chicago campus.

CHAPTER THREE
PRESCRIPTION FOR EXCELLENCE
YEAR TWO
During Dr. Mullen’s second year at ICO, the benefits of his mandate for openness and communication among the student body, faculty, staff, alumni and administration became more apparent. Working closely with Janice E. Scharre, O.D., M.A., who had been appointed Dean/Vice President for Academic Affair in November 1997, a faculty opinion survey was developed and distributed to determine the College’s perceived strengths and weaknesses. The information was gleaned and processed into a series of positive actions that were designed to enhance ICO’s academic culture.

A similar survey was sent to students, requesting input on virtually every aspect of student life. Improved communication among the student body, faculty and administration produced a more user-friendly Student Guide; increased flexibility in student leave policies; and an expanded and simplified work study program.

The responses to an alumni-directed questionnaire would result in an initiative to freeze tuition, increased funding for scholarships and incremental reduction of entering class size.

In his second “State of the College Address,” which he presented on October 2, 1998, Dr. Mullen detailed some of the accomplishments achieved during the year.

FINANCE
“Let me start with our successful bond issue of $45 million dollars (in variable-rate, tax-exempt bonds by which ICO was able to successfully restructure the College’s debt. This freed $22 million in assets, which were previously held as collateral. Those assets were freed up to be applied to more flexible investments). This guarantees the sound financial footing we need to successfully continue ICO’s tradition of excellence into the next century…But the real significance of the bond issue is not in dollars, but in the confidence the financial community demonstrated in ICO’s future.

STUDENTS
“I am pleased to be able to report that the state of our student body - whose progress in advancing the profession is the yardstick by which we are all ultimately measured -remains extremely strong…We have implemented several new avenues for their input. Town hall meetings were instituted. The Dean’s Advisory Group has been reinvigorated and a student satisfaction inventory was administered last month, seeking input form every ICO student about virtually every aspect of student life.

(To enhance the students’ educational experience,) ICO continues an aggressive expansion of the externship program…(which has) grown from 13 sites in 1996 to 79 (sites which are) currently located throughout the United States and abroad…We have implemented an evaluation and monitoring process for our sites…(and) taken care to remain fiscally prudent during this period of expansion. We will continue to analyze our community-based sites, seeking to renegotiate financial arrangements when possible; increase patient volumes; and modify our time commitment to individual sites when desirable. External sites, such as (the ones) we have developed, allow students a greater breadth of experience. They allow students to choose diverse locations and types of clinical settings, better preparing them for the realities they will face as practicing optometrists.

FACULTY
“The state of the faculty is also strong. A revised Faculty Handbook, which consolidated the old handbook and academic policy manual - was developed cooperatively by the faculty and the Dean. During the past year, significant emphasis was placed on faculty scholarly activity….Faculty attendance at professional meetings increased by 71 percent during the past year…Twenty-seven faculty presented (papers) at last year’s American Academy of Optometry meeting. Publications by junior faculty have increased significantly.

The faculty has also made a concerted effort to increase research, specifically in securing external research funding. ICO received over $100,000 in external research grants in fiscal year 1997-98, including significant grants from the Pearle Vision Foundation and the Illinois Society for the Prevention of Blindness. To insure that progress continues in this area, we have been sending faculty members to AOA grant writing workshops as well as the Academy Research Symposium.

Continued improvement of faculty teaching effectiveness is a high priority. We have created a Faculty Teaching Circle, in which informal monthly meetings focus on various teaching topics. One outcome of these meetings has been the creation of student-faculty colleague groups. A faculty retreat featured guest speakers from the University of South Carolina and the University of Chicago who spoke on the importance of developing effective feedback mechanisms from students so educational techniques might be refined and improved at ICO.

CONTINUING EDUCATION
“Through our Institute for Advanced Competency, 197 practicing optometrists received 358 hours of continuing education. In this fiscal year, we have already provided 323 hours of continuing education for 270 optometrists. We have also entered into agreements with various members of the ophthalmic community to provide CE. Included are: Cole Vision, EyeQuest, Consolidated Vision Group, Vistakon and TLC.

ILLINOIS EYE INSTITUTE
“The Illinois Eye Institute continued to make great progress in successfully marketing its services to the community. Through a fiscally conservative strategy…including print and radio advertising, direct mail and an increased presence at health fairs and neighborhood events, IEI (patient visits) increased by 4 percent in 1997-98, while producing a 10 percent increase in revenue. Through the first two months of this fiscal year, figures indicate that patient encounters are up by 16 percent as compared to the same period one year ago.

Various venues for patient feedback gave been created, such as surveys and a telephone comment line. Responses are being analyzed and changes in IEI resource allocation will be influenced by patient response.

In the realm of managed health care, the College is committed to enhancing the role of the optometrist as the primary eye-care provider. Along with our affiliate, the University of Chicago, we are in the process of developing a university-based, comprehensive eye-care product.

TECHNOLOGY
“While focusing on human elements, we have not neglected the bricks and mortar side of ICO during the past year, as well as computer software and hardware. Compulink, a new clinical software system, is about to enter the testing and training phase. Our target date to have this system “live” is late January of 1999. The CARS system, our financial and administrative system, is approximately 75 percent complete. We have upgraded all of our desktop computers with the addition of Windows 95 and Office 97. (And) Internet access was provided to most desktop computers. Currently, a new library system us under evaluation and selection. The long anticipated One Card System, which will allow ICO students (to use) a single card for security access, identification and purchasing, is on schedule and will be implemented in 1999.

BOARD OF TRUSTEES
“With the support of our Board, we remained fully committed to increasing diversity at ICO last year. One outcome of this commitment was the appointment of ICO alumna, Dr. Millicent Knight, to the Board the first female African American to so honor her alma mater.

COMMUNITY
“(ICO has) successfully reached out to the community. The recently created Community Advisory Board is comprised of eleven individuals, representing area churches, schools, community groups, government agencies, and members of ICO Administration. (Its purpose) is to discuss areas of mutual concern and to formulate plans for improving the quality of life for all the residents of our community.

Our students have played a significant role in strengthening our ties to the community. Through patient care in the IEI and also through such neighborhood projects as unity day, the literacy program and donating toys for Christmas, students have helped show our care and concern for our neighbors on a very real, one to one basis.

ALUMNI
“As the largest college of optometry in the country, ICO benefits from having the largest number of alumni of any of the schools or colleges of optometry. Through newsletters, direct mail, individual and group meetings and receptions at various professional meetings, we continue to forge strong bonds with our alumni.

A benefit to our students, we hope, will be an increased commitment on the part of the alumni to the ICO Endowment Fund. We are aggressively pursuing deferred and major gifts from our alumni and our friends in the ophthalmic industry to add to our endowment.

OPHTHALMIC INDUSTRY
“We are continuing to reach out to our partners in the ophthalmic industry. The Practice Opportunities Symposium (which took place) this past spring was enthusiastically endorsed by representatives from a wide range of practice options. (This symposium provides the students with the opportunity to learn about all modes of optometric practice.) Through both… our alumni and our partners in the ophthalmic community, we have realized over $300,000 in pledges and gifts this year.

ACCREDITATION SITE VISITS
“During this past fiscal year, we benefited from two highly successful accreditation site visits: the Council on Optometric Education Interim Site Visit and the Primary Care Residency Reaccreditation. The COE visit confirmed that recommendations and suggestions made in its earlier report had been accomplished. The Primary Care Residency Reaccreditation was also highly successful as the accrediting team reported that all nine of its standards had been fully complied with. Preparations are now underway for the North Central Association accreditation visit in March of 1999…I am fully confident we will benefit from this examination and once again exceed expectations.

One year ago, I stood before you and announced that we had completed a strategic plan, our Prescription for Excellence (which would be) a living document to guide us through the coming year and into the next century….To date, of the 798 action items contained in the plan, 438 (items) or 55 percent have been completed. (Although) the Prescription for Excellence will continue to be our guide for the coming year…we have already begun the next phase of planning – identifying outcome measures, adding baseline data, and revising the plan to include new initiatives and linking a five-year operational budget to the plan.

As you know, this year we officially began our observation of our 125th anniversary as America’s oldest college of optometry. Over the years, the manner in which our profession is practiced and the way in which it is taught, has changed, but through it all our commitment to excellence has remained firm. With that continued commitment, I am confident that our progress over the next 125 years will be just as exciting.”[4]

It was during this academic year that Dr. Mullen led the school on a two-year journey toward excellence.

CHAPTER FOUR
JOURNEY TO EXCELLENCE
YEAR ONE
ICO’s 125th anniversary year (1998-99) marked not only a celebration of the College’s long history and its stature in the optometric profession. It also commemorated the beginning of momentous changes which would positively position the school as it entered the twenty-first century.

At the spring Interim Board Meeting, the Board of Trustees acted upon an alumni-inspired initiative and approved freezing tuition at the 1998-99 level ($22,668), while simultaneously increasing allocated funds for scholarship aid to $400,000 and gradually reducing entering class size for five years beginning in 2000. These directives had a crucial impact on ICO’s budget planning process, requiring mandatory expense reduction in order to maintain a balanced budget.

An ambitious $8.5 million campus capital improvement program - funded with revenues from the restructure of ICO’s debt - was completed during that year. The program included renovations to the physical plant; the purchase of new ophthalmic equipment; and the installation of extensive informational systems technology. With improvements to the campus’ external appearance along with other college-owned property, ICO participated in the continuing resurgence of community development.

Affiliation with the University of Chicago continued to flourish. A course in basic eye-care procedures for second-year University of Chicago medical students was developed and implemented.

In his “State of the College Address,” which he delivered on October 22, 1999, Dr. Mullen reflected on his years at ICO and the challenges that the College would face to maintain its leadership position:

“In preparing this year’s address, I found it useful to reflect back upon my arrival at ICO in 1996. At that time, I said three elements would characterize my presidency. (These were:)

1. The need to recognize the challenges that confront us and to clearly define them.
2. The importance of pervasive and detailed planning so we might marshal our resources and measure our progress in meeting these challenges, making adjustments as necessary.
3. Open and productive dialog among all members of the ICO family … the Board of Trustees, alumni, our many friends and partners in the ophthalmic community and businesses, and the residents of the community in which we are located.

I believe that our commitment to these three concepts provided the basis for significant progress at ICO during the past year. We have now successfully completed over 70 percent of the action items in our original strategic plan, Prescription for Excellence.”

Dr. Mullen further described in this same address some of the noteworthy accomplishments from that year as well as some of the challenges that lay ahead:

“We are in the process of (establishing) a faculty practice plan making ICO more attractive to (present) and prospective faculty.

Thanks to the hard work of our community based education staff, we have continued to expand our externship program…at over 100 sites throughout the United States and abroad. From these sites, combined with the Illinois Eye Institute, our students will benefit from more than 150,000 clinical teaching opportunities, significantly enhancing their educational experience. Student–patient encounters are up 68 percent compared to three years ago.

Our residency program has grown to include residencies in cornea/contact lenses and anterior segment/refractive surgery.

With the support of the Board of Trustees, we have embarked on a bold course to insure our position of leadership…(by freezing) tuition while simultaneously increasing scholarship aid. At the same time we committed to gradually reducing the size of future entering classes, beginning with a reduction by five for the class admitted in the year 2000.

To do this will be a tremendous challenge, but I am confident we can do it. However, these are not the only challenges facing ICO as we prepare for the next millennium. To maintain our position of leadership we must do the following:

• Continue to emphasize strategy and tactical planning with outcome-based assessment as the measure of progress.
• Amplify the voices of students in College affairs, including representation on the Board of Trustees.
• Continue to expand our recruitment of gifted foreign students beyond the confines of North America, while remaining a strong institution of choice for outstanding students from our neighbors to the north.
• Increase the size of the Board of Trustees, furthering its diversification. And recruiting members with needed expertise and philanthropic capabilities.
• Further enhance personnel relations within the ICO family, particularly as it pertains to fostering a positive attitude and respect for one another.
• Restructure the clinical education program to be more cost-efficient while we maintain academic quality.
• Accelerate the upgrade of instructional technology.
• Ensure that our curriculum is consistent with defined entry-level attributes.
• Develop and implement an advanced competency curriculum.
• Significantly increase the revenues of the Illinois Eye Institute.
• Implement a faculty practice plan.
• Continue to improve faculty scholarly activity with more externally funded research, clinical trials and publications.
• In cooperation with the University of Chicago, develop our role as a provider of comprehensive eye care services within the Chicagoland managed health-care market.
• Achieve continuing accreditation from the Council on Optometric Education.
• Achieve accreditation for the Illinois Eye Institute from the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Health Care Organizations, a first for an eye-care facility (that is) affiliated with a college of optometry.
• Launch major capital and deferred-giving campaigns to sustain an ongoing and significant development effort in keeping with our status as America’s largest college of optometry.
• Complete the cultural shift of the institution to one devoted to the continuous improvement of our programs, services and products.

Tomorrow night we will officially conclude our… celebration of our 125th anniversary. The highlight of the evening’s festivities will be the recognition of 125 individuals, organizations and institutions for their outstanding lifetime contributions to optometry. Some have contributed through research, others through practice, some through teaching, and some in the business world. Their contributions are as varied as their numbers…They have witnessed tremendous change in the way optometry is taught and the way it is practiced. They have learned to thrive in an environment of rapid change.

In the last year we have accomplished much…I look forward to reporting further progress in the years ahead.”[5]

Dr. Mullen then devoted the next year to the implementation of additional initiatives that had emerged during the previous identification and developmental period.

CHAPTER FIVE
JOURNEY TO EXCELLENCE
YEAR TWO
The mandate to successfully freeze tuition and increase the scholarship budget while maintaining a balanced budget and preserving the quality of education had a visible impact on ICO. Working on a 5-year budgeting plan, necessary expense reductions were made and continue to be implemented each year to achieve ICO’s goals.

A Voluntary Early Retirement Incentive Program was approved by the Board of Trustees, which took effect on January 1, 2000. Full-time employees with at least ten years of service and who are age 55 or older were eligible. Seven employees accepted the early retirement package. Responsibilities were reassigned so that, in most cases, those employees were not replaced.

The College worked diligently to increase income from non-tuition sources. Assets that could be invested grew by $6.5 million to more than $27 million since 1996. A Vision for the Future Campaign has been launched with the goal of growing the total endowment to $60 million by the year 2010. The Office of Institutional Advancement helped the President raise more than $1 million during the previous year.

Anticipating challenges such as the contracting student applicant pool and the changes in the healthcare industry, the administration tackled each situation head-on. Dr. Mullen reported these changes in his fourth annual “State of the College” address:

“We have had an outstanding year, thanks to every member of the ICO community. I am especially grateful to those who have played important roles in our ongoing strategic planning process. Much of our current and future success stems from those efforts.

It has allowed us to open new avenues of dialogue – within the college and within the profession, the healthcare industry and our constituents at large. It has allowed us to implement performance-based monitoring and measurement of our progress. And it has allowed us to positively engage faculty, administration and students in continuously improving our institution and our performance.”

Dr. Mullen then recounted some of the year’s achievements and strengths.

“Academically, we are stronger than ever. We have expanded externship sites to 118 (current sites) today…The (Illinois) Eye Institute and (these sites) now provide over 180,000 clinical encounters for our students each year. Our students’…pass rate on the National Board exams, at time of graduation, now stands at 94 percent. ICO has historically performed very well on the clinical sections of the National Boards and this year’s performance in Basic Science…significantly exceeded the national average.

Our student attrition rate is at an all time low of only 2.7 percent. We have expanded residency programs in cornea and contact lenses, refractive surgery and primary eye care…(We) have built research laboratory facilities and made significant technological improvements in our lecture centers.

Our graduates enter into practice better prepared to succeed thanks to significant improvements in our practice management course and programs such as the Practice Opportunities Symposium, Private Practice Club and ICO Placement Services.

Our affiliation with the University of Chicago’s Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Science stands unique among colleges of optometry. Our collaborative course for medical students speaks directly to our rigorous commitment to the arts and science of both medicine and optometry. We have also formalized our cooperative O.D./M.S. and O.D./Ph.D. programs with the University of Chicago.

Our faculty has enhanced its pursuit of scholarship. During the past year, a total of seven research grant proposals were submitted and six were funded. In addition, 21 articles were published in professional journals. Faculty representation in the American Academy of Optometry at the fellowship and diplomate levels stands at 87 percent up from 48 percent just four years ago.

Clinically, we are stronger as well. (There are) marked improvements in patient satisfaction and a 23 percent increase in Illinois Eye Institute revenues since 1997. Professionally, we have strengthened our outreach and built better relationships with other health care professionals and organizations through our Professional Advisory Board.

Financially, we are stronger than ever. Our (investment-worthy) assets have grown to more than $27 million, up more than $6.5 million in just four years. We have launched our Vision for the Future Campaign, with its goal of growing our total endowment to $60 million by the year 2010. Through a grant from the State of Illinois for $250,000, we have reestablished our indigent patient care program. We expect to reach thousands of high-risk patients in the coming year with this support.

We have also been able to freeze tuition at its level of two years ago (while increasing) the scholarship budget by nearly 50 percent…I want to recognize both the faculty and the students for independently and successfully launching and funding new scholarship programs to benefit students. Governance has grown even stronger through the Board’s concerted efforts to increase and diversify its members. We now have a voting faculty member on the Board of Trustees and student representation as well. But we cannot rest on our achievements and expect to maintain excellence. Challenges lie ahead. We must face them squarely. We can and we will.

Over the next few years, we have pledged ourselves to meet these challenges through continuous refinement of our strategic planning capabilities. Soon we will enhance patient care and clinical education by developing and implementing a Faculty Group Practice Plan.

In the face of a decreasing student applicant pool, we continue our commitment to recruit and admit only the most qualified students and assist them in managing the high cost of a quality education by continuing to freeze tuition and by increasing scholarship support.

Financially, we have committed ourselves to refining our financial planning in line with the goals of our strategic plan, Journey to Excellence. And we will continue to sustain and strengthen our capital and planned giving efforts. We will continue to enhance our academic culture through support of our faculty in their roles as teachers and through expanded opportunities for faculty research and scholarship. We will evaluate and modify our curriculum, striving to maintain an effective entry-to-practice model. We can prove our commitment to excellence in patient care by going forward with seeking accreditation from the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations.

The state of the College is strong because of the hard work and dedication of a great many people. Today, I would like to thank all of you…We’ve had an extraordinary year. We have an extraordinary future ahead of us as we continue to provide an outstanding education for future eye care professionals. I look forward to continuing on our Journey to Excellence with each and every one of you.”[6]

By meeting each of the Prescription for Excellence’s goals and applying the strategies in the Journey to Excellence, ICO is now prepared to face the future with confidence and a commitment to excellence.

CHAPTER SIX
COMMITMENT TO EXCELLENCE
WHAT LIES AHEAD

During these early years of the twenty-first century, both optometric education and the profession of optometry are facing new challenges: challenges that are both necessary and inevitable. Dr. Mullen predicted what the profession and Illinois College of Optometry might face in a guest editorial that appeared in the Journal of the American Optometric Association, (September 1999).

“The challenges facing ICO – to a greater or lesser extent – are the same issues that face many of the schools and colleges of optometry. In general I see the following trends in optometric education:

• We will see a lessening of our dependency on campus-based clinics for the clinical education of third- and fourth-year optometry students. Driven initially by economics – but, I believe, providing for greater diversity of educational experiences – we will see more community-based training sites or externships for fourth-professional-year students and some third-year rotations.
• Campus-based clinics will remain valuable for first- and second-year students.
• College-based clinics will serve a significant role as (the) faculty practice becomes more important as a means to enhance faculty income and improve (both) schools’ and colleges’ ability to recruit and retain highly qualified clinicians.
• We will see a movement away from traditional classroom teaching toward more technology-assisted self-learning through the rapid advances being made in communication and computer-based technology. The college, however, must be prepared to assist the faculty in changing their teaching strategies.
• Acquisition of critical analysis skills will become as important as a solid foundation in the basic and health sciences.
• There will be recognition that the function of a school or college is to prepare doctors of optometry for a life-time of learning in their field.
• We will have to redefine the entry-level attributes of our students and modify our curriculum to emphasize a lifelong commitment to learning.
• While graduates must learn to be well-grounded in the fundamentals of their profession, the purpose of this grounding must be to position them to continue the learning process.
• Students must learn to focus on the opportunity for interaction with faculty and with one another while on campus. They must commit to a philosophy that emphasizes the acquisition and appropriate application of knowledge over information absorption and memorization.
• We will see the development and utilization of a national faculty in several disciplines, linked through developing technology. All schools and colleges of optometry will be able to access a faculty made up of our very finest educators.
• Cooperation between optometry and ophthalmology that began at the New England College of Optometry’s Boston clinics and carried forward at PCO (Pennsylvania College of Optometry) with Hahnemann University and at ICO with the University of Chicago – will continue and intensify.
• We must then be prepared to offer meaningful advanced competency education to practicing optometrists as a core value of optometric education.
• Residency programs will continue to increase, but at a more modest rate. I believe the future direction of the profession of optometry will be fueled by the economics of the managed care marketplace.
• The cooperative environment among opticians, optometrists, and ophthalmologists that exists at the academic level and – in several instances – in other practice modes will intensify.
• Distinctions in practice modes will continue to blur among the three groups. Economic realities will override emotional opposition and force closer cooperation. Individual claims of priority and historical territorial imperatives will be forced to give way.
• Quality assurance programs and advanced competency certification and accreditation will become increasingly important.
• The expansion of the scope of practice of optometry will consist mainly of amendment and clarification to existing practice laws.
• Ultimately, all states will grant appropriate and extensive prescription authority to optometrists.
• The expanded use of laser technology by optometrists will evolve slowly over the next two decades.
• Consultation among practicing professionals will take advantage of advances in technology. Consultants with national eye centers of excellence will become the norm, as precise retinal images and other data are instantly transmitted from one point to another in real time.
• We will see fewer independent, private practitioners of optometry in the future and more multi-practice settings, more optometrists in HMOs, hospitals and other institutional settings. What is often termed ‘corporate optometry’ will continue to expand for the foreseeable future.
• Schools and colleges of optometry will recognize their responsibility to expose their students to a wide variety of practice modes and to discuss each opportunity openly and honestly.
• Health care third-party payers will continue to exert enormous influence on the practice of health care-eye care included. In this vein, it is imperative that optometry solidify its position as the primary eye care provider within the managed care market.

We live, learn, teach and practice in tremendously exciting times. I believe the future of optometry is as great as our ability to translate our vision for the profession into strategic and tactical plans of action - as promising as our courage and tenacity to implement those plans.”[7]

——————————————————————————–

[1] Excerpted from “Interview with Charles F. Mullen, O.D.” Journal of the American Optometric Association 1999; 70:556-60. (Copyright © 1999 by the Journal of the American Optometric Association. Reprinted with permission.)

[2] Excerpted from Interview with Charles F. Mullen, O.D. Journal of the American Optometric Association 1999; 70:556-60. (Copyright © 1999 by the Journal of the American Optometric Association. Reprinted with permission.

[3] Excerpts from “State of the College Address – October 01, 1997” which was delivered by Dr. Charles F. Mullen.

[4] Excerpts from “State of the College Address – October 02, 1998” which was delivered by Dr. Charles F. Mullen.

[5] Excerpts from “State of the College Address – October 22, 1998” which was delivered by Dr. Charles F. Mullen.

[6] Excerpts from “State of the College Address – October 20, 2001” which was delivered by Dr. Charles F. Mullen.

[7] Excerpts from “Interview with Charles F. Mullen, O.D.” Journal of the American Optometric Association 1999; 70:556-60. (Copyright © 1999 by the Journal of the American Optometric Association. Reprinted with permission.)

First published in 2001 by
Illinois College of Optometry
3241 South Michigan Avenue, Chicago, IL 60616 USA

Cover design:
Anistatia R. Miller
Jared M. Brown

Book design:
Alan Pouch

Photographs:
Ray Reiss, Sparkfactor
Andrew Fils, The Paul Studio
Alan Pouch, Illinois College of Optometry

Preface & commentary:
Barbara B. Renard
Copyright © 2001 by Charles F. Mullen, O.D. and Barbara B. Renard

All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (including electronic, mechanical, photocopy) whatsoever without written permission from the above publisher of this book, except by reviewers who may quote brief passages to be printed be a magazine or newspaper.

ISBN #: 0-9652759-Printed in the United States by Paperback Mfrs.

Posted in Strategic Planning and Measured Performance | Comments Off

Challenges and Opportunities in Optometric Education

June 10th, 2000

ICO President Shares Vision of the Future at Installation of Incoming New England College of Optometry President.

On June 10th ICO President Dr. Charles Mullen represented the Deans and Presidents of America’s Schools and Colleges of Optometry and spoke at the installation of Alan Laird Lewis, O.D., Ph.D., as incoming President of the New England College of Optometry (NECO). Inasmuch as the challenges and opportunities envisioned apply to ICO as well as NECO, Alumni Matters is pleased to reproduce Dr. Mullen’s brief remarks in their entirety.

Dr. Lewis, Chairman Spector, members of the Board of Trustees, distinguished members of the New England College of Optometry faculty and administration, colleagues and honored guests.

It is indeed a pleasure and a privilege for me to be here today as the representative of the Deans and Presidents of America’s Schools and Colleges of Optometry, as a friend and colleague of Dr. Lewis, and to return to my Alma Mater.

Over the years Dr. Lewis and I, to some extent, followed similar paths. We are both graduates of the New England College of Optometry. We both served as officers in the United States Navy and we both pursued careers in optometric education.

As Director of the Optometry Service at the Veterans Health Administration, I had the opportunity to work with Dr. Lewis while he was Dean at the Michigan College of Optometry. We worked closely during those years to expand clinical training for optometric students at various Department of Veterans Affairs medical facilities.

I have the greatest respect for Dr. Lewis’ abilities as an administrator and as an educator. He possesses those rare and most desirable talents of a keen intellect with the ability to comprehend and act on the larger issues, challenges and opportunities along with an appreciation for the importance of detail.

The challenges and opportunities all of us in optometric education will face during Dr. Lewis’ tenure as president are numerous.

We will see a lessening of our dependency upon campus-based facilities for the clinical education of students. Perhaps initially driven by economic considerations, the greater diversity of educational experiences provided by externships will increase pressure for more community-based training sites. The New England College of Optometry maintains a leadership role in the development and management of community-based sites and is already meeting this challenge.

College based clinics will play a significant role, however, as faculty practice becomes more important as a means for enhancing faculty income and improving our ability to recruit and retain highly qualified clinicians.

We will see a movement away from traditional classroom teaching toward more technology assisted self-learning through the rapid advances being made in communications and computer-based technology.

There will be an increased recognition that the function of a school or college of optometry is to prepare graduates for a lifetime of learning. We will redefine the entry-level attributes of our students and modify our curriculum to emphasize a lifelong commitment to learning. Students will learn to commit to a philosophy that emphasizes the acquisition of knowledge over mere information absorption and memorization.

We will recognize our responsibility to expose our students to a wide variety of practice opportunities.

We must also be prepared to offer meaningful advanced competency education to practicing optometrists as a core value of institutions of optometric education.

And, we must be ready to assist our faculty in adapting their teaching strategies to reflect this new paradigm.

And, finally we must find ways to reduce the level of indebtedness students face upon graduation, perhaps by controlling tuition increases and by providing increased scholarship support.

I also believe that the future direction of optometry will be fueled more than ever by the economics of the managed care marketplace. Quality assurance programs, appropriate advanced competency certifications and accreditation of clinical facilities will become increasingly important.

Consultation among professionals and the national academic eye centers of excellence will take advantage of advanced technology to become a standard practice. Precise retinal images and other data will be instantly transmitted from one point to another in real time.

We will see the development and utilization of a national faculty in several disciplines linked through developing technology. Schools and colleges of optometry will be able to access a faculty of our finest educators.

In such an environment, made possible by advances in technology and made necessary by economic imperative to be as efficient as possible, there will be unprecedented pressures to work together in a cooperative spirit. In this environment Dr. Alan Lewis, who has earned the respect and admiration of his peers will be indispensable as a leader.

I am confident that his contributions to the College, optometric education and the profession will be numerous and his leadership exceptional.

I pledge to Dr. Lewis my personal support and that of his fellow Deans and Presidents of Schools and Colleges of Optometry, and I wish him continued success as the President of The New England College of Optometry.

Thank you.

Alumni Matters - Summer 2000
Illinois College of Optometry
Charles F. Mullen O.D.

Posted in Building Quality Institutions | Comments Off