Portz & Wade Optometrists under new ownership

Portz & Wade Optometrists in Red Oak has had a few changes recently.
Dr. Michael Portz, OD, PC has announced that Travis Jones, OD is now a part of the practice following the retirement of Dr. Janet Wade. Portz said that Jones is taking steps to take over the practice.
“Dr. Jones is buying the practice there, and then I work for him now, basically, and we’ll eventually transition out then,” ortz said.
As for when he’s transitioning out, Portz said that’s still very much up in the air at the present time.
“My wife retires from her job in February, and that happens to be the month that I turn 70, so it seems like a nice round number to go out on, so possibly then, but Dr. Jones is leaving the door open for me to come back and work part-time if I want to,” commented Portz.
Portz has been practicing optomentry for 45 years, and for 43 years has practiced in Red Oak. Portz grew up in Atlantic, and then his folks moved down to Red Oak around a year after he was out of high school, so Red Oak has very much been his home. Portz said he was pleased to find Dr. Jones and bring him into the practice.
“I’m very pleased that they decided to move back to this area, and I’m certainly pleased that the practice will continue on here for the benefit of our patients and our staff, both,” Portz said.
Portz reflected on what drew him to the field of optometry and how it became his long-time career.
“I had a good role model, you know, I got my first glasses in junior high, and then contact lenses after that, and the optometrist that I went to was a good role model, It seemed like a good profession to me,” advised Portz. “When I went to college, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to go into. I thought it would be some sort of health care field there, so I ended up applying and got accepted, and the rest is history.”
Jones also reflected on what drew him to optometry, saying he worked out the things that he didn’t want to go into first.
“I had a talent for biology and chemistry and the sciences a little bit, so when I first went into college, I went on that type of path with an open mind, and first wanted to maybe work for an oil company in some capacity there. I worked as an intern over the summer between my freshman and sophomore year, and then had an experience overseas in the Republic of Georgia that kind of shifted everything for me. It guided me into wanting to help people,” explained Jones. “I kind of started thinking more about health care, but I wasn’t quite sold, so I worked for a software company as an internship my summer sophomore year, and then junior year, finally shadowed an optometrist, my sister-in-law, in Dallas, and so I went down that path at that point, and have been doing optometry for almost 10 years.”
Jones said he was recruited to work as an optometrist at a hospital in northwest Louisiana, and also worked as a retinal specialist.
“It was a bit of an all-hands-on-deck type of situation, so I stepped in to fill in the shoes of ophthalmology in a lot of cases. I was seeing highly challenging cases and managing those cases in outpatient clinics, as well as inpatient cases in the hospital. As a retinal specialist, I was managing macular degeneration and a lot of ocular disease there, so I have a very strong background in that, and I’m happy to be able to bring that here,” Jones said.
Jones said in Louisiana, they were away from family and didn’t have a lot of support, prompting them to move back to Iowa.
“We need some help, so we started looking up here. My wife is from Stanton, so we were looking in this area specifically, and so  we found a place after quite a bit of searching north of Griswold, and so we moved up here. I’ve worked in Council Bluffs,  Atlantic, and Red Oak for a little bit, kind of getting my feet wet in the area, and then met with Dr. Portz in early 2023, and kind of got the ball rolling on that. I was excited that the opportunity was kind of coming up for us,” stated Jones.
Portz said he was aware that Dr. Janet Wade was considering retiring, and with Jones, was attempting to plan ahead.
“She had told me probably six months ahead of the time she was going to retire, so I needed to find somebody. It’s fortunate the way it worked out, and Dr. Jones’s wife is also an optometrist,” advised Portz.
Jones said he met his wife at an optometry school in Houston, Texas, and she is concentrating on family at the moment.
“We had two kids down there, and we had another one up here, so she’s doing the hardest, best job ever, and that’s staying home, raising the kids, and helping out there, but once our youngest is ambulatory, she’ll come in here too, so that’ll be nice,” Jones explained. “I have more of that medical background and medical knowledge, and she has a subset of knowledge that I don’t have, more of low vision, which is a specialty in and of its own in optometry, and so she worked with a low vision clinic in Louisiana, and we have a bit of a one-two punch, if you were, we can kind of cover everything optometrically, so I think we’re going to do pretty well.”
Portz said the clinic will remain a locally owned and locally operated full-time optometric practice, which he felt was very important and that he’s pleased that the clinic can continue the tradition that has been established here over the years. Jones said with that legacy in mind, he wasn’t in favor of Portz completely retiring any time soon.
“It would be foolish of me to rush him out the door because he’s got such a good reputation, and patients love him. The community knows him and loves him as well, so we’re definitely, keeping the door open. If he wants to work two half days a week, one full day a week, or whatever he wants to do, we can we can make it happen,” Jones said.
Since stepping into his new role, Jones said he’s been very pleased with how welcoming the community has been.
“Since I’ve come up here to Iowa, that term Iowa nice is real. I’ve really felt it, and southwest Iowa is a blessing. The kindness that I have felt in Iowa here is unlike anywhere else,” commented Jones.
Now that retirement may be approaching, Portz reflected on what he;s found most rewarding about his tenure.
“Just being able to help people. I think most people, if we ask them which special sense they least like to lose, if you compare touch, taste, smell, sight, or hearing, I think most people would say vision, so it’s tremendously rewarding to be able to help people see their best and maintain their best vision for their lifetime,” Portz stated.
Jones said vision was also important from a neurological perspective as well.
“Vision is an important stimulus for keeping your brain active, and so we’ve seen patients who, if they can’t get vision services, and get their vision corrected, they have increase in neurological decline as a result of that. That’s one example, but there’s also people who have certain eye conditions and diseases that you can correct with a special contact lens, otherwise they’d be legally blind. The neural connection between the eyes and the brain is fascinating and really important to preserve,” Jones said.
Jones said the staffing will remain the same with the clinic, and Jones is considering adding more faces if needed.
“Dr. Portz was working two schedules with Dr. Wade retiring, he assumed her patients and his own, and so things backed up there a little bit, and so I’m happy to be able to take some of that load off, as well as decrease the patient wait times. That’s something we’re also going to keep an eye on, make sure we can be as accessible as possible,” Jones stated.
Portz shared a final message to the citizens of Red Oak that he’s helped over the years through his practice.
“I know the community and the surrounding area will support Dr. Jones, as they have me, for the past 43 years there, and they can be assured that they’re going to get good eye care here locally. You don’t have to go to the city or someplace to get it. You’ve heard that Dr. Jones has some great experience behind him,” said Portz.
Call 623-5551 to learn more about the practice or schedule an appointment. You can also follow the Facebook page at facebook.com/profile.php?id=100077771144882.