Sacco Eye Group

02/01/2024

We have an alert from the FDA regarding potential infection from over the counter eye drops meant to mimic some Bausch and Lomb eye drops. Please use only what we advise you to use. Avoid the following should you see them over the counter (OTC):

South Moon

Rebright

FivFivGo

They may also claim to "treat glaucoma" which is incorrect. Glaucoma can only be treated with prescription medications and/or surgery. Call our office with any questions.

Dr. Sacco

12/23/2023

Wishing all of our patients, who we consider our guests and friends, a wonderful, safe and healthy holiday season. We appreciate you and are thankful for your support!

11/01/2023

I feel it's important to comment on the widespread recall of eye drops, some of which are known to lead to blindness. As of this writing there are 27 different drops being recalled, among them Equate brand from WalMart. Most of them are from CVS, Rite Aid, Walmart and Target. We have continued to stress to our patients to purchase the eyedrops that we recommend and not to switch to generic brands. Rest assured that pharmacies have pulled the recalled drops off of their shelves. We have not had any of our patients have problems with drops we have recommended. We have always felt that the branded drops we recommend are the safest. This also applies to contact lens disinfecting solutions. We are here to answer any questions you may have. Beautiful Vision!

04/19/2022

We are closed today 4/19/22 due to the weather and our employees safety. We will get you rescheduled. Thank you for your understanding.

12/29/2021

Seasons Greetings and Thank You!

Greetings! This update isn’t as COVID focused as past ones (YAY!!). COVID isn’t gone, but if we choose to, we place it further down the list behind family, our personal health, our pets, vocations and avocations, the current state of the New York Giants or price of ground chuck. I am COVID’ed OUT. We do continue to mask up and sanitize in the office because we prefer to be squeaky clean and avoid getting others sick. This is as much due to COVID as it is the flu, which, oddly, nobody seems to care about anymore.

We would like to send a sincere thank you for sticking with us for the last year and a half. We have experienced the ups and downs of the pandemic, a see-saw economy, rising prices, product shortages, and good help that is harder to find than sasquatch. In thirty years, I have never witnessed a hiring market this difficult. I have always tried to build our team using a simple litmus test, “We hire and fire attitude, the rest of the job we can teach you.” We would rather work short handed with good people than fully staffed with people who don’t get it. We hope you continue to see our office as a pleasant place to visit. We appreciate your patience with our scheduling, our growth, and our challenges. Our staff puts great pride in making sure your family is well cared for.

It warms the cockles of my heart when patients ask about my family, and I’m not even sure what a cockle is. Angelo is a sophomore at Scranton and is home for Christmas break. I never knew a human could sleep 48 straight hours, but apparently that’s a thing. Ava is a senior and finalizing her college choices. She continues to dance her away across the USA in a slew of competitions and exhibitions and the LSU Tiger Girls are interested in her being on the dance team. Then there’s Gia, our 13-year-old who wants to befriend the entire world. She still tells me she loves me every single night before bed. My wife insists she does no wrong in my eyes, but I don’t know where she got that from.

We are dog people. Otis and Chooch the Labs, and Lola the Cavadoodle, now have Raisin as their “sister.” Raisin is a most gorgeous 18-month-old field dog out of DeCoverly Kennels (there are a few photos posted to this page). I had been on a waiting list when I got the call this September. Staci was in California when she became available, and due to demand I had to move very swiftly. I’ll tell you what, she acted darn surprised coming home to a fourth dog! Something about “WHAT WAITING LIST!!!??” Nothing tests a marriage like a Sacco, as my mother says. The house has been thrown into a state of entropy, but, as I knew would happen, Raisin stole our hearts. I believe dogs make us better people by osmosing their happiness to us. I’ve heard it said that if you pet a dog, their heart rate slows. I don’t know if that’s true and I don’t care to look it up, preferring to just believe it. As final proof that I know what I’m doing, I reference this old character test which you can try yourself. Lock your wife and your dog in a closet and see which one of them is happy to see you three hours later when you open the door. That’s the one you’ve got to accumulate!

We wish every one of our guests a joyous holiday season. Without you, we don’t fulfill our mission of giving you Beautiful Vision and without you we can’t feed our kids…or our dogs!

12/29/2021

Our newest family member "Raisin" out of DeCoverly Kennels

05/19/2021

Do You Remember the Year 1 BC??

In the year 1 BC (One year Before COVID), fist bumps, social distancing and face masks were completely foreign to us. Boy, did that all come on fast! A year later, undoing these impositions is coming in a somewhat unpredictable fashion. If I were to have my way, I would be done with them this very second. However,

AS OF THIS WRITING, THE CDC GUIDANCE FOR HEALTH CARE OFFICES REMAINS UNCHANGED AND MASKS ARE STILL REQUIRED FOR YOUR VISIT

Looking forward, the future looks bright. Looking back, I have to be thankful for a few things. First, we not only survived the pandemic, but are growing at a pace unimaginable one year ago! I am grateful to our patients who had the faith to continue to come in for their care. Our staff has been stellar in their response, and they relish the opportunity to WORK to earn their living. Thank you to our team. I always wondered if we hired the best superstars, but now I know we do.

When our kids were told to stay home one year ago, I thought it was a wonderful opportunity to have family time. How naïve was I? It was the “Never Ending Summer of the Sacco Household.” My God when are they leaving? The deepest part of COVID Summer 2020 came, and the kids perfected the art of sleeping in. At some point I thought they were going to start growing moss from inactivity. Then school started in the fall and our son went away. Alas, there was some movement. Angelo went to the University of Scranton where he had IN PERSON classes from day one (great job U of Scranton)…and the girls continued to sleep in. If it was a “virtual learning” day, they complained about taking Zoom classes. If it was the rare day they “went to school in person,” they complained they had to get up and go to school. I said, “Well someday you WILL have to get up and go back to school for real then move out and find jobs and take care of us, you know that, right?” They looked at me with unblinking round owl eyes. Hoot hoot. No response. For a few weeks now they’ve been in class with butts in chairs every glorious wonderful day and all is becoming right with the world. Our son is coming home this weekend and hit me with this text message at 2am the other night, “By the way Dad, aren’t you due for a midlife crisis, I really want to drive a new Porsche.” Give that kid an A for effort.

So it seems there is some glacial movement back towards normalcy, at least in our home. From my heart, thank you for choosing us. Be on the lookout for further guidance regarding operating procedures in our office as we return to normal. In the meantime, you will see us peeping out from behind our masks. We ask you to wear yours because we have a vulnerable population coming in for care. In the examination room if you ask us to remove our mask, or hold out your hand to shake ours, we probably won’t fight you on it. You never know, maybe a salesperson will even be allowed to accompany me on a test drive should my midlife crisis suddenly arrive this summer.

12/18/2020

Good morning friends. The situation is this: we are OPEN but we ask your patience as it looks like we will have a skeleton crew. We are having telephone problems and that has been worked on since yesterday without a complete resolution. We know many folks are digging themselves out still (among them most of our staff). Safety first! We will be here for you and do our best to accommodate everyone who needs to be seen.

12/17/2020

As folks may have guessed we are CLOSED today. Patients with appointments this afternoon will be contacted as soon as possible to be rescheduled. I apologize personally for getting this notice out so late. I have been furiously digging myself out since 7am because five people and three dogs trapped in a house is not good for my health! Be SAFE, enjoy the beautiful snow and keep in touch. Dr Sacco

10/05/2020

COVID-19 (CORONAVIRUS) UPDATE10/5/2020

I’m afraid it’s time for another COVID19 update. You’re probably tired of hearing about this issue as much as I am, but I feel this is a necessity.
I hear opinions daily "from the chair." They span the gamut from paranoia to de facto refusal to believe this virus even exists. I stand on the side of science and believe this is a real thing to be dealt with. My thoughts about HOW to deal with it is “probably somewhere in the middle” of the argument. Everyone must choose which side they believe. As the owner of the practice however, I must do what is in the best interest of our patients, our staff, and by extension our families and friends. We have put safeguards into place so we can remain open and provide the services you need. A gentle reminder is therefore being provided here.

WE REQUIRE AN APPOINTMENT FOR YOU TO ENTER THE OFFICE If you have already driven here and need service please call us from your cell phone and we will do our best to accommodate you. We have restrictions on the number of people we can have in our office at one time.
ONLY THE PERSON WITH AN APPOINTMENT SHOULD ENTER THE OFFICE UNLESS THEY REQUIRE A CAREGIVER OR ADULT WITH THEM. We kindly ask that John Boy, Jim Bob, Mary Ellen, Erin, Jason and Elizabeth don’t enter with Gramma to pick out her new glasses. Understand that we have to sanitize every item touched in our office.
MASKS AND SOCIAL DISTANCING ARE REQUIRED We don’t want to state the overly obvious, but masks must be worn to cover both the nose and the mouth and we should remain as spaced out as we can be. We do (and we have) asked folks to leave who don’t follow this basic requirement.

An article from the New England Journal of Medicine titled “Universal Masking in Hospitals in the COVID-19 Era” addresses universal masking. In a nutshell, there is little benefit to wearing a mask outdoors when maintaining social distances. However, there may be a benefit to masks when people are in close proximity for extended periods of time, especially in a health care facility. It is not as protective if worn without a gown, face shield, gloves and hand washing, but it is at least something that can be of benefit with minimal bother. Many of our patients are elderly and/or have diabetes. Both of these groups are high risk populations for COVID19 morbidity. These two populations coincidentally need the most eye care, so we need to do our very best to protect them.

On a personal note, our staff and their families are doing well. The largest casualty seems to be our cracked skin from all the washing and a few employees having recurring nightmares involving Clorox bottles. Our son is in college at the University of Scranton where he’s finding physics to be less challenging than separating whites from dark clothing and doing his own laundry. The girls are partly out of the house (whoo hoo!) as they are in a mix of virtual and in person classes. We wish all of our guests health and prosperity during this extremely strange time. As always your patronage is greatly appreciated.

Dr. Sacco

06/04/2020

E S S E N T I A L

We continue to hear the word "essential" in the media, emails, correspondence...you name it. What is essential? Well, for this quick perspective I'll give you TWO things I think are essential.

The first thing is LEADERSHIP. Good leadership is essential.

The New York State Optometric Association (nysoa.org) is the advocacy, educational, public relations and political arm of New York States thousands of optometrists. In the not too distant past (OK it was distant...) I served as president of the association. It was a highlight of my professional career. Now we are proud to be one of a handful of practices in the state who can say they've had not one but TWO doctors become president of our great association. I would like everyone to recognize and congratulate Dr. Kirchheimer on becoming the most recent president of the NYSOA. During this unprecedented time we need good leadership in our profession and he certainly brings that to the table. I told him it was a shame he didn't have the normal ceremony and hand off that was originally slated for this month in Corning, NY, with a festive ceremony. He said, "I'm not doing it for the attention..." Enough said. We are proud, and reassured, that over the next year he will guide our profession during these tough times. Good leadership is essential. We wish him every success and know at the end of his term doctors of optometry in NY State will be stronger for his leadership.

The second thing I find ESSENTIAL is YOU, OUR PATIENTS. Sometimes we are humbled and proud, and other times we are simply touched. The response to our re-opening has been nothing short of amazing. Without our patients, our business would be non-existent. Our patients are ESSENTIAL to our mission and vision. From the deepest recesses of our working hearts we say thank you for coming back!

On a tangential note, YES, our three kids are still home zooming away. The oldest is an alpha male like me (not good), our youngest is a "tweener" and the middle one is a full blown teenage young woman. So now I understand in the animal world why some creatures eat their young. Please come tell us your stories, it really does brighten our day!

IF WE RECENTLY CANCELLED YOUR APPOINTMENT, you can expect a phone call BUT ASK FOR PATIENCE AT THIS TIME AS WE HAVE A SUBSTANTIAL NUMBER OF PATIENTS TO CONTACT. However, anyone who feels they need to be seen can call us at 798-1987, we will triage you over the phone. You may also email us at info@saccoeyegroup.com or reach us on our portal if you have registered (we encourage you to do so). Out of necessity we will be asking those with non-urgent needs or low risk individuals to allow us flexibility in moving your appointment into the future. For a limited time, we will be seeing patients SIX days a week, including Saturday. I look forward to rebuilding the future with you. In the meantime, we sure appreciate your business and we ask you to patronize your LOCALLY OWNED restaurant, hardware store and supplier of anything you need.

Dr. Sacco

05/13/2020

IMPORTANT: COVID19 UPDATE May 13, 2020

We are pleased to announce that our office will open on May 18th for eye care services beyond immediately urgent cases. Thank you to our wonderful guests who have been considerate of our challenges during this trying time. I am confident we will return to normal! We have FOUR Core Principles we will adhere to as we move forward. You can read more about these soon on our website www.saccoeyegroup.com but in brief they ARE AS FOLLOWS:

Core Principle 1: Patient and visitor screening. We will screen patients at risk for COVID-19 by a verbal interview prior to the appointment and, in many cases, upon entering the office by body temperature screening. IF YOU ARE ILL, OR HAVE UPPER RESPIRATORY SYMPTOMS, PLEASE DO NOT COME IN. CALL YOUR PRIMARY CARE PROVIDER
Core Principle 2: Physical Distancing Measures. We will have limited seating and a limited schedule to keep you as safe as possible. Please understand we have many elderly patients and our priority is to keep them safe as they need the most frequent care.
Core Principle 3: Infection Control and Disinfection Measures. We promise to do our absolute best to control your exposure in our office. Each room and testing area will be disinfected as best we can, as well as instrumentation, to assure your safety. We have the largest privately owned optometric office in the area so we can space you to keep you safe.
Core Principle 4: Protective Measures. We require all patients entering our facility to wear a face mask or covering. We have a LIMITED quantity available if you forget yours or do not have one. Our staff will be protected with face masks and, when appropriate, gloves and gowns.
We want you to feel safe when you visit us. But please do not put off your care out of fear. Vision loss is a very real thing. So, for those with macular degeneration, diabetes, and glaucoma, tell us if you need to be seen and if you are nervous. We will make it happen- safely.

IF WE RECENTLY CANCELLED YOUR APPOINTMENT, you can expect a phone call BUT ASK FOR PATIENCE AT THIS TIME AS WE HAVE A SUBSTANTIAL NUMBER OF PATIENTS TO CONTACT. However, anyone who feels they need to be seen can call us at 798-1987, we will triage you over the phone. You may also email us at info@saccoeyegroup.com or reach us on our portal if you have registered (we encourage you to do so). Out of necessity we will be asking those with non-urgent needs or low risk individuals to allow us flexibility in moving your appointment into the future. For a limited time, we will be seeing patients SIX days a week, including Saturday. I look forward to rebuilding the future with you. In the meantime, we sure appreciate your business and we ask you to patronize your LOCALLY OWNED restaurant, hardware store and supplier of anything you need. I want to give a heart felt thank you to those many patients who sent us kind words of encouragement, notes, cards, and emails wishing us a bright future. On a rather humorous note, it is abundantly clear that our wonderful children need to get the heck out of the house and that we are not built to be teachers!

Dr. Sacco

Eye examinations, eye care, eye disease treatment, eyeglasses and contact lenses for Vestal and Binghamton, New York