Dr. Maria Sampalis, a practicing optometrist, begins with the idea that medical optometry is beyond refractive care. She mentions how optometrist can expand to medical optometry when the world is moving online for primary eye care.
She says how treating dry eyes, or other ocular diseases can boost your current practice. We learn the importance of communication with the patient to provide better services for them. The need to be connected with other healthcare providers is essential.
We learn how we can expand in the area of contact lenses and specialty contact lenses, and in dispensing.
Dr. Sampalis lists some of the action points that can help us start with the medical model in optometry. That includes:
- Staff training
- Invest in diagnostic equipment
- Reviewing pre-test protocols
- Schedule follow-up visits
- Perform same-day testing
- Monitor fees
- Perform a chart audit
Following these tips, we see some statistics and ways to expand in the dry eye, glaucoma, and cataract management. We learn all the steps to develop into the medical model of optometry for the above conditions.
Lastly, we review some cases in treating patients using this new model. This session is concluded with a Q and A session for the live audience.
References
Websites
Doctor/Patient-centered
Editorials
The Ins and Outs of OSD Coding. Available at: https://www.reviewofoptometry.com/article/the-ins-and-outs-of-osd-coding