Photo By:Lindsey Lewandowski
Luther Midelfort Eye Care Center optometrist Bert Moritz examines the eye of a patient at the 733 W. Clairemont Ave. location in Eau Claire. He treats young and old patients who have eye disease.
Click here to access Moritz's Luther Midelfort online profile from their Web site.
Click here to access information about the Luther Midelfort Eye Care Center, 733 W. Clairemont Ave.
See more information about Dr. Moritz’s appointment to assist a professor of ophthalmology at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine in Rochester, Minn.
Click here to learn about the Illinois College of Optometry, where Moritz studied and earned his degree.
Optometrist offers gift of vision with a hint of humor
By Lindsey Lewandowski
lewandla@uwec.edu
At first glance, Bert Moritz has little in common Sesame Street’s Bert.
Bert’s eyes are white and -- while always lit up -- are masked by a strip of bushy black eyebrows. Moritz’s are brown and pensive, lighting up when he’s telling stories, especially about his patients.
Bert has black hair, Moritz’s is graying. The blue, green and fluorescent orange stripes on Bert’s V-neck sweater contrast his white turtleneck, and Moritz dons a suit. Bert is part of the Sesame Street gang, and Moritz is one of eight doctors who work at the Luther Midelfort Eye Care Center on West Clairemont Avenue in Eau Claire.
More than half of Moritz’s patients are above the age of 55, but some are as young as six months old.
When Moritz is treating younger patients, he brings to the appointment one of the plush Bert dolls that sits atop books on a shelf in his office. He’s been using one of the Berts in the bunch since 1976.
“That’s how I introduce myself,” he said of a patient-relaxing strategy he refers to a “the Bert thing.”
The point is to establish a connection with those patients.
“You want to do that with every patient,” he said.
Work in Eau Claire
Moritz sees on average about 28 patients during the course of his 10-hour day, which includes a break for a quick lunch and some catch-up paperwork in his office.
Sometimes he sees more, receptionist Sherry Schultz said.
“He’s so easy to work for,” she said, smiling, from behind a wrap-around desk. Nearby is a light-colored, wall-papered waiting room. Nurses in bright scrubs scurry about behind her, flipping through, stapling and filing paperwork.
“You can add people on,” Schultz said. “He never says no.
“Bring ’em on!” the other receptionist beside her pipes up. “That’s what he says: ‘Bring ’em on!” She smiles, and then she’s back to work, speaking into a headset, scheduling appointments.
“It’s a unique field,” Moritz said of optometry. “I see people at intervals of their life.
“I see kids grow. I see people change. They get married, they have children, they get old, and they die.”
Fatal diagnoses are rare. So are diagnoses that lead to neurological diseases or to other problems. In fact, his is an overall “profession of happiness,” Moritz said.
“It’s an enjoyable day,” he said of his room-to-room routine. “I greet people. They remember me. I shake their hand. They respect me, and they have a problem I can solve."
Most problems are short-term, he said, and can be fixed by changing a glasses or contact prescription.
He said young patients tend to want contacts. And every patient he sees -- from age 90 on down -- is interested in refractive surgery to reduce the need for glasses or contacts.
“The older patients don’t want to be left out of something that might be great, so they ask about it,” he said. And younger patients often just don’t want to wear glasses or contacts.
Some patients, he said, are just looking for a change or to improve themselves.
“That was my case,” said the 54-year-old doctor. “I had refractive surgery when I was 46 and needed bifocals, and I thought, ‘Well, I’m way too young for bifocals.’ ”
Moritz said while older patients are the ones who typically can afford such surgery, younger patients benefit more from it.
“They get pleasure out of it for 25 years before they need bifocals,” said Moritz, who said he will pay for his 16-year old daughter’s surgery when she turns 21. If she wants it, that is.