Ophthalmology Centre for Excellence

Sagam Community Hospital’s (SCH) Eye Department is an important part of the hospital’s mission in providing comprehensive care to our community.   The Eye Department’s expansion of ophthalmic services to include the establishment of a monthly eye clinic, periodic eye camps, eye surgeries and the recently launched well-stocked eye shop with a full-time optometrist.

The eye shop comprises of a range of eye glasses including, budget and designer frames to meet the need, preference and pockets of our various clientele.  This expansion builds upon SCH’s collaboration with Dr. Dan Kiage, who established the Innovations Eye Centre, a state-of-the-art ophthalmic hospital in Kisii. Beyond serving as an Honorary Faculty under our Family and Emergency Medicine (FEM) Residency Programme, he also provides advisory and consultative services to SCH in regard to ophthalmic personnel, equipment, infrastructure and standards as we expand our eye services.

Other collaborative efforts include those with T. Kesia Nyawara Foundation and the Lions Eyeglass Recycling Center of Northern Virginia (Arlington). Through them we have received  over 1,400 pairs of glasses, which will be distributed to appropriate patients.

More specifically, the Eye Department has become a focus under AIHT’s mission towards innovation in a resource challenged environment and has participated in various studies in partnership with Harvard University’s School of Medicine and the Fred Hollows Foundation (FHF). With the former, AIHT partnered with the School of Medicine in using an Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) scan to study the properties of the eye and relation to cognitive development in children. With the latter, AIHT is assisting FHF in reviewing the impact of its projects in nine (9) counties across Kenya with regards to uptake of eye services.