Service Animals and Emotional Support Animals

The university has a general “no pets” policy in all of its buildings. However, service animals are generally allowed to accompany their handlers on campus, including our clinics.

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) defines a service animal as a dog (or alternatively a miniature horse) that has been trained to perform an active task that mitigates the impact of the handler’s disability. Emotional support animals are defined as animals that provide passive support that ameliorates the impact of a disability. Unlike a service animal, emotional support animals are not automatically allowed to accompany their handlers into university buildings. Patients who desire bringing an emotional support animal to accompany them on a clinic visit must obtain approval from the university ADA coordinator and provide advanced notice prior to arrival.

Protect Your Electronics

There have been recent instances regarding electronic device theft from the main campus clinic. Please be mindful of not leaving your cell phone, iPad, laptop, or other electronic devices unattended. Interns are recommended to have them on your person, leave them in your student locker, or lock them in the wardrobe cabinet in your assigned exam room. If a visitor claims to be lost in the building, escort the person to their intended location if you are able and comfortable doing so. If you see suspicious persons or activity, discreetly communicate with the supervisor for that area, an Assistant Clinic Director, the Associate Dean for Clinical Services, or the building coordinator. If at any point you witness a crime, or you or someone else is in danger, do not confront the perpetrator directly. Either hit the panic button within a clinical area or Call OSU Police at 614-292-2121.

Required Training Due March 1

As a healthcare institution, we must abide by regulations to protect our patient data and ensure accessibility of digital materials to all patients. To be in compliance with these regulations, all personnel who conduct any degree of work within our organization must complete required training courses.
As such, the annual Digital Accessibility Policy (DAP) training and IT Security Awareness training deadline is March 1. The DAP training is available from your transcript in BuckeyeLearn and the Security Awareness training is available through the Cybersecurity4you platform found at Cybersecurity For You | Ohio State (osu.edu). Completing these activities will allow you to maintain access to college and university IT systems.

New Exam Templates

The spring semester 2024 exam appointment templates for the main campus clinic have updated start and end times. These new exam templates represent the great work of the service chiefs to better align TOC clinic schedules with those of our satellite offices. Specifically, the goal is to have a real lunch break between morning and afternoon clinic sessions and to provide a better opportunity to finish the workday closer to 5:00 p.m. most days and 5:30 p.m. on Mondays. Be on the lookout for messages from each of the service chiefs to provide the template details for their respective service.

The clinical optometric education we provide is the best in the country. We are deeply committed to supporting a work environment that supports all clinic staff and faculty in that important work.

Updated Clinic Fees

Although the clinic will not be open for patient care December 27-29, the clinic staff will still be hard at work. One of the projects that will be completed is an update to certain clinic service and material fees that will go into effect spring semester on January 2. Although there are no changes to vision exam or refraction fees, a number of material and shipping fees were adjusted due to inflation. Additionally, the Contact Lens Service Fees have been restructured. Look for further e-mail communication from service chiefs or staff leaders about the details of the upcoming pricing changes.

Location of Clinic AED

The automated external defibrillator (AED) is located in a wall-mounted cabinet in the hallway across from the AOC consult room. In case of a healthcare crisis, never leave a patient in distress. Whenever a patient requires CPR or use of the AED, always have someone else bring the AED to your location and activate emergency medical services (EMS) by having someone call 911.