Mobile optometrist Tia Crockwell has no office. Her business card reads: “Eye come to you”.

“I believe I am the only optometrist going directly to clients,” the founder of Onsight Optometry said. “There used to be someone else but they no longer do it.”

The average optometrist uses 15 different pieces of equipment in their office. Ms Crockwell carts around everything in her suitcase – including tonometer, retinoscope, autorefractor, and lenses, and ten boxes of eyeglass frames.

“I carry them around in my car, but only take them into the client’s house if they are needed,” she said.

One of her challenges is the physical exertion of picking up the overloaded suitcase, especially if it has to be carried up a flight of stairs.

“I don’t need a gym membership,” she joked.

She tests vision, provides spectacles and contact lenses, monitors eye health, and does glaucoma and retinal screenings, among other things.

If she does see sign of eye disease or the client needs surgery or some other follow-up, she refers them to an ophthalmologist.

Many of the people she sees are elderly or physically challenged, but she also goes directly to busy offices or to schools to see clients there.

She always knew she wanted to go into healthcare, but decided on optometry because the hours were better than other health specialities.

“I have two young children and can pick my hours,” she said.

After graduating in 2016 from Aston University in Birmingham, England, she worked for Boots opticians before moving back to the island in 2020.

Working in a traditional optometry practice in Bermuda, she noticed that people would often come in looking for frames for their elderly family members who were in the hospital, in a care facility or confined to their bed.

“The patient had lost or broken their glasses, but could not actually come out to have an eye exam,” she said. “We tried to accommodate them, but technically, the patient should have an up-to-date prescription before we dispense a new pair of glasses. I kept saying, they need to have a mobile optometrist, someone who can go to them.”

Then one day the thought came to her. Why couldn’t she be that someone? Doing some research, she found that most equipment in an optometry office is portable.

Onsight Optometry was born. “I was not nervous when I started the business,” she said. “I thought if it did not work out, I could always go back to working in a regular office.”

However, things have been so successful, she is now considering renting office space, or at least buying a van that she can work out of.

“I really need staff now to help me,” she said, “particularly with the administration”.

She also needs storage space. Her home is filled with lenses, frames and other bits of equipment.

In her work, she sees a lot of glaucoma and cataracts.

“The bright sunlight in Bermuda can really speed those conditions up,” she said. “If you have a family history of glaucoma it is important to protect your eyes when out in the sun.”

Her hope is to get the word out to more nursing homes and care facilities that her mobile services are available.