Tell us a little about yourself and your history.
My name is Dr. Rebecca Barcelow, and I am an optometrist practicing in Windsor County. I am a third-generation optometrist. My grandfather, Dr. Albert Barcelow, bought a practice in South Royalton, back in the 1960s. My father, Dr. Jerry Barcelow, joined him in the 1980s and moved the practice to Royalton in 1998. Currently, I work with my brother, Dr. Dean Barcelow, in both our Bethel and White River Junction locations.
My husband and I have two children, ages 13 and 11. We met the last semester of my senior year in high school and have been together ever since. We often joke that he misses all the family meetings because he doesn’t work in the eye care business. We have also fostered several children through DCF. I enjoy doing anything with children and actively work as the director of our church’s youth group.
What did your training and education look like to get to this point?
I attended a four-year college in Lincoln, Nebraska, and obtained my undergraduate degree in biochemistry. I took a gap year to get married and then entered into optometry at the New England College of Optometry, where I finished an additional four years of training in eye care and vision health in 2012.
How would the proposed scope expansion impact your work as a new practitioner?
I regularly have patients with ocular conditions for which they have to wait to see a specialist. Things that require laser treatment like elevated pressure, or a film in the eye are things that patients could have done in the office. Non-cancerous lid lesions like skin tags require them to travel to a specialist in Burlington when I could have removed them in the office.
Currently, a referral often means many months of wait time, additional travel, and extra office visits. Many of my patients are older, and the trip outside of their community can be difficult to make. Expanding the optometric scope to allow a few select procedures would reduce wait times, travel times and duplicate care for these patients. It would also alleviate patients’ stress as they can be treated by a doctor they already know and trust.
Share your thoughts about the frustration around a scope that stifles your ability to do what you’re trained to do.
The state has published an extensive report after reviewing the education of optometry students and the scope of practice across the country and has recommended expanding the scope of optometry in Vermont. This report aligns with similar reports out of Washington and Colorado that have looked at the same issue and concluded that Optometric education covers these in office procedures. Yet we are still waiting for Montpelier to take up our bill. It is beyond time for Vermont to catch up with the rest of the country.