Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, March 22, 1994 TAG: 9403220056
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Ophthalmologists at Gill Memorial Clinic and Salem Eye Center and Dr. Kurt Guelzow said Monday they have joined together, forming a new corporate entity, Vista Eye Care Center.
While the doctors of Vista Eye Care will continue to see patients at their established locations and at a consolidated office in Rocky Mount, they will be in a better position to offer more specialized services and to adapt to reform of the health-care system, they said.
Historically, most health care in the Roanoke Valley has been provided on a fee-for-service basis. But under reforms being discussed, most health care in the future will be provided under contracts with patients' employers or health insurance companies, said Dr. John Wood, a spokesman for Vista Eye Care and practitioner at Gill Memorial.
Vista Eye Care will be in a better position to negotiate those contracts and provide a fuller range of services, Wood said.
Some patients must now be sent out of the Roanoke Valley for certain treatments; but, because of its larger size, Vista Eye Care will be able to support doctors with sub-specialties not now available in the valley, he said.
While all three practices have maintained offices in Rocky Mount, they now will operate one consolidated office there. Vista Eye Care also will provide 24-hour emergency care and have office hours Saturday mornings and some evenings.
Physicians in the new group regularly treat patients from West Virginia and from throughout Southwest Virginia.
Gill Memorial Clinic on Jefferson Street in downtown Roanoke was formed in 1926 by Dr. Elbyrne Gill, a pioneer in eye surgery and treating eye disease in Virginia.
Seeing patients at the Jefferson Street location will be Drs. Wood, Guelzow, Ronald Harris, Junius Crowgey, Charles Shortridge, Kemper Humprhies III, and Ann Sowers.
Drs. David Keys, Mark Hanabury and Ole Renick, doctors at Gill who specialize in otolaryngology and head and neck surgery, will remain at the Jefferson Street location but have affiliated themselves with Lewis-Gale Clinic in Salem. Keys said they have not settled on a name for their downtown practice.
Salem Eye Center on Burwell Street in Salem was founded by Dr. Ronald Dillon in 1977. The group expanded to North Roanoke Valley Eye Center on Hershberger Road in 1986.
Seeing patients at the Burwell Street and Hershberger Road sites will be Drs. Allen Watson, David Kinsler, and Jon Brisley.
Guelzow has maintained a general eye and eye plastics practice with Tuck and Guelzow Eye Associates on Franklin Road in Roanoke since 1978. He will continue to see patients there, as well as on Jefferson Street.
The Vista Eye Care doctors and offices can be reached at 344-4000.
by CNB