Variety partners with MercyOne for vision screeners benefiting our youngest patients

Cedar Falls, Iowa; December 13, 2023 – A generous grant from Variety – the Children’s Charity will provide two Spot Vision Screeners to be utilized at the MercyOne Cedar Falls Health Plaza and other MercyOne family practice locations.

The Spot Vision Screener is a handheld, portable, ocular screening device designed to help quickly and easily detect amblyopia vision issues in patients as young as six months.

Variety – the Children’s Charity awarded a grant of over $14,000 to the MercyOne Waterloo Foundation, which will pay for the screeners to help diagnose vision abnormalities quicker.

“We feel blessed to wrap up 2023 partnering with Variety to help our very youngest patients,” said Joe Surma, manager of MercyOne Cedar Falls and MercyOne Waterloo Foundations.

“These two spot vision screeners are helping our providers detect, diagnose, and refer patients to the professionals they need before things get worse, and thanks to Variety, we can bring this technology to our patients’ hometown MercyOne location.”

One of the Spot Vision screeners will be located within the Bluebell Road Health Plaza in Cedar Falls for the family practice providers. At the same time, the other will be rotated among the busiest rural family practice locations from Independence to Waverly to Tripoli and Laporte City.

Every year, 5% of children under five develop vision abnormalities. These patients are usually unable to voice their concerns about their poor vision. Unfortunately, this leads to abnormal development of their ocular muscles, resulting in squinting. This requires multiple corrective glasses and a potential need for strabismus (cross-eyed) surgery. The spot screeners will help provide an early diagnosis for this preventable condition.

Donating these two Spot Vision Screeners will mean Variety -The Children’s Charity can now say that their grants touch all of MercyOne’s family practice locations throughout Northeast Iowa.

The MercyOne Waterloo Foundation is a nonprofit organization serving the Cedar Valley by developing resources to support the health care needs of patients throughout the hospital.

Variety - the Children’s Charity is dedicated to improving the lives of children who are underprivileged, at-risk, critically ill or living with special needs. Grant funding is provided to programs and initiatives that directly impact the well-being of children. For more information on Variety grants and programs, visit www.varietyiowa.com.