Eye Care Centre

At the Riverside Eye Care Centre, diagnostic tests are booked through the ophthalmologists’ offices and performed by our technicians. These tests include:

• Photography: Fluorescein angiography with digital photos to assess retinal circulation.
• Visual field: mapping a patient’s peripheral vision for any defects.
• A-scan / biometry: measuring the shape of the eye in preparation for cataract surgery and determining the IOL (intra-ocular lens) power.
• Optical coherence tomography: measures nerve fibre layer thickness for glaucoma patients, macular edema, macular holes, epiretinal membranes, post PDT.
• Pachymetry: measures central corneal thickness in glaucoma.
• IOL Master Laser Biometry
• Slit Lamp Anterior Segment Photography

Our treatment services are booked by referral from ophthalmologists, emergency physicians, family practitioners, or optometrists only. Our clinics include: 

• Eye Consultation Clinic 
  For consultations from family physicians or optometrists for diagnosis or treatment of eye problems.
• Glaucoma Clinic 
  For monitoring patients with increased ocular pressure.
• Retina Clinic 
  For highly specialized treatment of diseases of the retina.
• Laser Clinic 
  For laser therapy treatment of many eye diseases.
• Oculoplastics Clinic 
  For plastic surgery to eyelids, tear ducts.
• Adult Strabismus 
  For treating patients with strabismus (eye misalignment).
• Anterior Segment 
  For cornea, external disease, uveitis, corneal transplant.
• Neuro-Ophthalmology
• Ocular Pathology
• Photo Dynamic Therapy 
  For treatment of macular degeneration.

Emergency referrals are triaged by the nursing team and scheduled for treatment only when appropriate.

All surgical patients are seen in the Riverside Eye Care Centre, Pre-Admission Unit before the scheduled surgical date. If you wish, you may bring a family member/support person with you to the appointment. 

A Registered Nurse will interview you about your health history and you will receive written instructions to help you prepare for your surgery and your recovery. During this visit, you may also spend time with an anesthesiologist who will confirm your fitness for surgery. 

If you are scheduled for a second surgical procedure within one year of the first procedure, you will be interviewed by telephone and a return visit to the RECC may not be necessary. All surgical procedures are done on an outpatient basis.

The Riverside Eye Care Centre of The Ottawa Hospital has four full and two minor operating rooms equipped with the latest technology. 

The professional team of nurses, surgeons and anesthesiologists working here performed almost 10,000 surgical procedures in 2005-2006. This number includes cataract procedures and almost 625 retina procedures. Corneal transplants, glaucoma surgery, and oculoplasty procedures are performed as well. 

These numbers rank far ahead of most other major eye centres in Canada.

This spacious area is where you will start and end your stay at the Riverside Eye Care Centre on the day of surgery. 

Our enthusiastic team of nurses will spend time with your before your surgery and will be waiting for you upon your return for the operating room. You will be offered a nutritious snack and beverage following your surgery. The unit is fully equipped with modern monitoring equipment. 

You will be discharged and telephoned by a nurse to ensure that you are recovering appropriately.