Define the Value of a Comprehensive Eye Exam

Define the Eye Exam

Play a Bigger Role in Health Care

Consumers Want to Know They Are Receiving Good Care

Susy Yu, OD, MBA, FAAO, calls on optometrists to better define the value and needed frequency of a comprehensive eye exam in this era of health care reform.

She notes the effectiveness with which dentists have taught us to visit twice a year for a cleaning. “Simpler messages are stronger and more powerful for the consumer,” Dr. Yu says of the example dentistry provides optometry in defining the value and needed frequency of visits.

The opportunities ODs have in the changing health environment are two-fold, notes Dr. Yu: to provide additional medical eyecare, connecting further to integrated care, and to provide greater care for the patient’s visual needs.

While most patients visit optometrists for visual needs, such as glasses and contact lenses, Dr. Yu says it is important to serve both the visual and medical eyecare needs of the patient.

“With the changing health care environment, we want the optometrist to be part of the overall health care system,” she says. “That can be done two ways: serving people who need glasses and serving people who have medical problems. We want to play in both arenas.”

Dr. Yu says the influx of people entering the health care system with health care reform provides optometrists with opportunities to increase the scope and quality of care provided.

She stresses that ODs need to continue addressing patients’ basic needs, along with increasing the quality of care and the value of the eye exam in the consumer’s mind.

Dr. Yu notes that health care professionals tend to be risk-averse and hesitant to embrace new technologies that often can free up the doctor’s time for more meaningful interactions with patients.

The primary value of the optometrist, says Dr. Yu, is in the critical decision-making skills ODs are trained in.

“We have the training and the skills to be able to make critical decisions about the health outcomes of people,” she says. “We don’t want to be spending our time collecting data and information that someone–or something else–can do for us. I would rather spend more valuable time having a meaningful conversation with a patient about their care.”

Consumer demand for transparency is a primary tenet of the new health care environment, Dr. Yu points out. Consumers want assurance that their doctors have objectively certified skills and qualifications.

Professional accreditation, such as COPE accreditation of continuing education, gives consumers assurance of the doctor’s qualifications.

“The quality of continuing education through COPE accreditation is increasing,” says Dr. Yu, who serves as president of the Board of Directors of  ARBO.

“We are working on changing the standards to mirror those of other health care professions–primarily nursing, pharmacy and medicine–and to bring optometry to the same playing fields as those other health care professions, and bring transparency to the consumer that the education quality that the doctor is receiving is good.”

The COPE logo attached to any CE meeting, whether large or small, gives consumers the assurance that certain accreditation criteria are met, she says.