MEI unveils expanded optical showroom

Marianas Eye Institute held a grand opening for its expanded optical showroom yesterday at its Garapan location, with company CEO Russ Quinn and founder Dr. David Khorram taking turns explaining how the renovation will ultimately benefit its clientele and the community.

Quinn said the company began the renovation, which cost $75,000, in August 2013 and that it took about eight weeks to be completed.

“We basically took two exam rooms out of play and extended and doubled the size of our showroom. We went from displaying about 400 frames to now we’re up to 1,200 frames. We’re just hoping to get more choices for people and update and modernize our facility.”

Khorram said that increasing the size of their showroom two-fold and tripling the number of frames in its inventory now gives MEI the title of having the “widest selection of frames in the whole region.”

“We work hard to have a price range for everyone. We have the high-end designer frames like Ferragamo, Fendi, and Calvin Klein and we also have budget frames for people who are not looking for that level of cost but they’re still high quality. We also still provide one-year warranty on all of them,” said Khorram.

MEI also continues to offer the ultimate budget-saver: an eye examination, a frame, and lenses for just $77.

“A few years ago we tried to meet the challenge a lot of people were having, which is to get affordable glasses. We found a vendor to help us with the $77 pair—lenses, frames, and everything. So we still continue to have that and we found that there’s been a positive response to that. We’re happy to be able to do that.”

Khorram said the other thing that is a big emphasis for MEI is diabetic eye care because it remains the leading cause of blindness in the CNMI.

“A few years ago we opened the Center for Advance Diabetic Eye Care, which brought over several key piece of equipment that allow us to provide the most advance level of service for eye care available. This is a big challenge since a lot of people just don’t know that when they have diabetes they need to have their eye examined every year to prevent the loss of vision that comes with it. There are some new drugs that we’re using that help reverse some of the visual loss. So that’s something that is only offered here.”

A couple of years back, MEI joined the Diabetic Clinical Research Network, which is under the National Institute of Health. The network is made up of some 200 clinics, academics, and private practice clinics in the U.S. and a few centers abroad that work together to do controlled-trials for diabetic eye research.

A ribbon-cutting ceremony officially unveiled the expanded showroom yesterday, followed by lunch of healthy dishes.

The event was attended by several lawmakers, among them Reps. Antonio Agulto (Ind-Saipan), Christopher Deleon Guerrero (Cov-Saipan), Lorenzo Deleon Guerrero (Ind-Saipan), John Paul Sablan (Cov-Saipan), Roman Benavente (Ind-Saipan), and Ramon Tebuteb (Ind-Saipan).

Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. acting CEO Esther Muña, CNMI Medicaid Program administrator Helen Sablan, and Office of Vocational Rehabilitation director Arlene Kay A. Yamagata also graced the ribbon-cutting rites.