Optometrist jobs in Los Angeles, CA

ABOUT LOS ANGELES COUNTY DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH SERVICES:

The Los Angeles County Department of Health Services (DHS) is the second largest municipal health system in the nation.  DHS operates as an integrated health system, operating 25 health centers and four acute care hospitals, in addition to providing health care to youth in the juvenile justice system and inmates in the LA County jails.  Across the network of DHS' directly operated clinical sites and through partnerships with community-based clinics, DHS cares for about 600,000 unique patients each year, employs over 23,000 staff, and has an annual operating budget of 6.9 billion. For additional information regarding DHS please visit www.dhs.lacounty.gov.  

Through academic affiliations with the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), the University of Southern California (USC), and the Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Sciences (CDU), DHS hospitals are training sites for physicians completing their Graduate Medical Education in nearly every medical specialty and subspecialty. In addition, to its direct clinical services, DHS also runs the Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Agency and the County's 911 emergency response system, as well as Housing for Health and the Office of Diversion and Re-entry, each with a critical role in connecting vulnerable populations, including those released from correctional and institutional settings, to supportive housing.

• Interviews and examines patients having a full range of vision problems, consulting medical charts when available.
• Determines, using a full field of optometric instruments and equipment, such things as patients' visual acuity; amplitude of accommodation; refractive state at far and near point; and accommodation, convergence, and biocular coordination at far and near point.
• Conducts fundus (living eye) examination through biomicroscopy, including viewing with fixed lens and camera.
• Utilizes ophthalmometry for high astigmatic diagnosis.
• Employs low vision aids such as telescopic and microscopic lenses for the correction of sub-normal vision.
• Determines proper remedial alternatives and discusses and interprets findings with patients and/or parents; suggesting appropriate remedial method.
• Refers patients with indications of possible pathological condition to an ophthalmologist for additional examination.
• Consults with ophthalmologist when appropriate.
• Calculates proper prescription employing formulas ranging from those necessary to calculate simple, single corrective lenses, through those necessary to calculate contact lenses, prisms, iseikonic and ophakic lenses.
• Instructs resident ophthalmologists and paramedical personnel in the field of ophthalmic instrumentation and procedure by planning and developing a course of training under the direction of a chief of ophthalmology services; conducting lectures and demonstrations, and observing clinic practice.
• Prepares, justifies and submits the annual optometry budget based upon estimates of space and equipment needs and projected workload.