Editor’s note: Welcome to Eversight Orbit! A new blog series featuring the remarkable people who comprise Eversight’s vast network. Get to know the dedicated team members and partners who play a critical role in making vision a reality.
By Caroline Miller, Marketing & Communications Specialist
Eversight’s Donation Support Center (DSC) is the first interaction potential donor families have with Eversight. When DSC team members are notified of a potential donor, they reach out to their family to discuss eye donation. When Eversight hires new team members into the DSC, the first person they work with is Rachel Beeler, Clinical Education & Training Specialist for Eversight.
For anywhere from four to six weeks, new hires in the DSC are trained by Rachel in the three primary functions of the department: screening cases, approaching the family and dispatching recovery. Screening is the process by which the DSC obtains an initial referral from partner organ procurement organizations (OPOs) and does a preliminary case screening with hospital staff.
“When someone is newer to Eversight or eye banking in general, there is a lot of foundational medical knowledge that they need to know, including all of the safety reasons for case rule outs, contraindications for donation, things like that,” Rachel said. “Our screening curriculum is probably the most robust of all our DSC training.”
New hires in the DSC learn two different functions as a screener. The first is case intake, which is accepting the OPO referrals Eversight gets from its partners. The second is learning how to screen an eye-only case versus data-only cases. A data-only case happens when Eversight partners like Donor Network of Arizona (DNA) or New England Donor Services (NEDS) complete donor case paperwork on Eversight’s behalf because they're also following that case to determine if organs and/or tissues could be recovered as well for even more life-changing transplants.
Approaching is when DSC team members reach out to and speak with the donor’s family, or legal next–of–kin, to obtain consent for their loved one to become a donor. While many states have first-person authorized donor registries, Eversight works to honor both the donor and their family’s wishes.
Lastly, dispatching is when DSC staff send Eversight recovery technicians into the field to recover cornea tissue from donors. Eversight and partner technicians recover eye tissue in Arizona, Connecticut, Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey and northeast Ohio for transplantation across the United States and around the world.
Outside of training, Rachel also educates DSC staff during their onboarding process and maintains the current curriculum, making sure all procedural changes that happen within and outside of Eversight are reflected in the coursework.
With a background in education, Rachel’s favorite part about her role at Eversight is the people she works with.
“Getting to interact with all the new people as they come in, kind of being their first point of contact, I get to build those strong relationships,” she said.
Rachel enjoys building educational content and structuring her curriculum in a way that is inclusive, accessible and stimulating for everyone to learn, all while trying to gamify it in a way that is engaging and fresh.
Rachel started her career with Eversight in the DSC where she was a screener, approacher and dispatcher for one year. She was promoted to supervisor for her last four years in the DSC before joining the Clinical Education & Training team.
“I was looking for something nonprofit and I really liked the statement and the vision of the company,” she said. “I've stayed because I really enjoy the people I work with and what I get to do every day.”
With her experience in the DSC and in the role she has now, Rachel gets to see the impact Eversight has on others.
“There’s a positive impact on donor families I get to see through training new hires and ensuring they're following the policies, procedures and standards of practice we have in order to make every donation, if possible, go through,” Rachel said.
Rachel is one person on a team of four that educates and trains many different departments across Eversight, including people working in the DSC, Donor Eligibility, Tissue Processing and Tissue Recovery. The Clinical Education & Training team builds content that empowers these team members to help facilitate the gift of sight. Their education and instruction have a lasting impact on Eversight staff who use that knowledge to serve others from donor families to industry partners to transplant recipients and more.
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