East Coast Eye care first opened its doors in 1979 under the title “Dr Halleran’s Office”. At that time the clinic had two optometrists, Drs. Dean and Debora Halleran and one employee. It served as a place where one could receive an eye examination and purchase vision correction. Since that time, the practice has grown far beyond what was even fathomed when the business began. In 2015 a proposed name change to the practice was put into place and the clinic became known as East Coast Eye Care. The practice name now encompasses what the business truly stands for: complete wellness and care for those patients who come to utilize the services from all over the island and Labrador.
Over the past number of years, the practice has truly become a hub for vision care and wellness for those in the surrounding area. The clinic also provides safety eyewear for the employees of many local businesses. In addition to the Optician, East Coast Eye Care has 4 full-time trained and certified Optometric Assistants and the practice currently has 4 Optometrists on staff. East Coast Eye care is now the largest Optometrist owned and operated clinic in Newfoundland and Labrador.
The clinic’s team is passionate about giving back to the local surrounding community and supports many local clubs, events and fundraisers throughout each year. The clinic is a long-time sponsor of the Kiwanis Club of Clarenville, the White Hills Ski Resort, Arts under the Stars, the Clarenville Nordic Ski club, The High School Scholarship Trust Fund, Clarenville Days, Clarenville Wintertainment and most recently, became a major sponsor of the Clarenville Farm and Market. In 2017 East Coast Eye Care also sponsored its very first local Hockey Tournament for Bantam levels players.
In 2011 Dr. Clare Halleran joined the practice along-side her parents, Drs. Dean and Debora Halleran, and had a vision to expand the services the clinic was able to provide. Dr. Clare Halleran started a dry eye clinic within the practice and now offers services to patients all across the province including Labrador. She is also trained in the fitting of Scleral Contact lenses a service not provided anywhere else in the local region. As well, Dr. Clare is trained to utilize suture-less amniotic membranes as a means to heal the eye, a service not offered anywhere else in the province currently. She has also consulted for a number of pharmaceutical companies in the area of dry eye management and has lectured across the country on the matter. Additionally, she has been a part of numerous clinical studies and has presented her research at several international conferences and in 2016 was recognized for her clinical research ambitions and was named to Primary Care Optometry News’ list of the 350 most innovative Optometrists in North America. At the end of 2016 Dr. Clare took sole ownership of the practice from her parents with ambitions to keep the practice at the forefront of Optometry.
With growth, continually in the mind of the practice, in 2014 Dr. Lorielle Pevie joined the practice. Dr. Pevie hails from nearby Arnold’s Cove and was excited to join a practice so near to her childhood home. Dr. Pevie also had a passion for eye care beyond the general eye examination and is now one of the most highly educated Vision Therapy providers in the province. The start of East Coast Eye Care’s vision therapy program over the last year has been amazing. Vision therapy is a means of correcting the visual pathways without the need of glasses, giving the ability to correct visual dysfunction, improve coordination and help children with vision problems affecting their learning ability. The practice has hopes to expand this area of the practice in the form of vision rehabilitation services for those having suffered from traumatic brain injury and concussion. It is the practices’ hope that with increased awareness of how vision therapy can be helpful it will be able to offer care to many patients who currently do not have anywhere to seek such care.
In April of 2017 the clinic suffered a setback when snow caused the roof of the long time clinic location to collapse. After a hard few weeks it was decided now was the right time to expand and renovate the clinic so the clinic can live up to its fullest potential. It is the goal of the team to continue to expand the services so that the patients in this area have access to the best healthcare possible. With the new expansion, the clinic will be able to offer everything within its scope of practice and grow into the future.
The new clinic expansion will include 2 additional examination rooms so more efficient service can be achieved for all patients. There will be a room dedicated to vision therapy to help expand the services and benefit that it can provide. Additionally, the new plan includes an Ophthalmic finishing laboratory meaning that glasses can be made on site in the clinic. With the new lab, patients will experience a faster turnaround time for glasses as well as the potential for some new local business. The expansion will also allow more space for additional diagnostic equipment, meaning patients will no longer have to travel outside Clarenville to access complete eye care.
The goal of East Coast Eye Care is to provide the highest quality eye care for people of all ages of this area and beyond.
