Background: Recent developments in the education and licensure of optometrists have created new opportunities for more-efficient provision of eye care. This study was conducted to determine the extent to which optometrists provided various kinds of eye care independently in managed care organizations. We compared optometric practices in health plans located in states in which the legal authority of optometrists was limited, to optometric practices in plans situated in states in which optometric licensure permitted broader prescribing authority. The volume and nature of referrals to ophthalmologists were assessed in relation to state law and organizational protocols.
Methods: A 15-item patient encounter form was developed and completed for all patients examined by the optometrists at each site during a 4-week period in 1998. Specific conditions were selected and criteria developed to help determine whether referrals to ophthalmologists were appropriate, or if they could have been managed by the optometrist These referrals were assessed by an independent panel of four optometrists.
Results: This study documented that optometrists provide a substantial range of eye care, and their individual scope of practice is influenced not only by legal boundaries, but also by financial and organizational factors found within managed care organizations. The pattern of referrals to ophthalmologists helped indicate the extent to which optometrists were underutilized or used appropriately in various settings.
Conclusions: There is no single reliable predictor of whether optometrists will be used at the highest level of their abilities and scope of license. Although state licensure sets the overall parameters for care, optometric practice in managed care plans may be modified by internal protocols and organizational factors.
Download full-text PDF |
Source |
|---|
Publication Analysis
Top Keywords
Similar Publications
Challenges in Diagnosing Advanced Abdominal Ectopic Pregnancy in Low-Resource Settings: A Case from North Western Nigeria.
Niger Med J
January 2025
Department of Obstetrics and gynecology, Muhammad Abdullahi Wase Teaching Hospital, Kano, Nigeria.
Abdominal ectopic pregnancy is a rare type of ectopic pregnancy associated with high maternal and perinatal mortality. We present a case of a 28-year-old now primipara who was misdiagnosed to have abruptio placentae and ruptured uterus on two different occasions from a primary health care center but was found to have an advanced abdominal ectopic gestation at 21 weeks gestational age. The patient was managed by exploratory laparotomy and is currently doing well.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGestational Diabetes Mellitus and Feto-Maternal Outcomes in Federal Medical Centre, Yenagoa, Bayelsa State-A Comparative Study of Two Diagnostic Criteria.
Niger Med J
January 2025
Department of Internal Medicine, Federal Medical Centre, Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, Nigeria.
Background: The prevalence of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is dependent on the diagnostic criteria used and there is no consensus on screening methods and diagnostic criteria. The International Association for Diabetes in Pregnancy Study Group (IADPSG) recently put forward new diagnostic criteria and encourages its adoption worldwide. The aim of this study was to determine the incidence of GDM and to compare the foeto-maternal outcomes of women diagnosed with GDM in the Federal Medical Centre, Yenagoa using the WHO 1999 and IADPSG criteria.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF"When you're in the office, it means you managed to get somewhere": An interpretive descriptive study of the perceptions of adolescents accessing primary care for mental health services.
Health Care Transit
January 2025
School of Nursing, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada.
Objective: Primary care offers an entry point into the health care system for adolescents experiencing mental illnesses. This study explored the perceptions of adolescents with an anxiety or mood disorder accessing primary care for mental health services.
Methods: Qualitative interpretive descriptive design was employed.
Triangular Margin: Reliable Imaging Feature of Fibrous Dysplasia in Long Bones?
J Comput Assist Tomogr
January 2025
Department of Radiology, Division of Musculoskeletal Imaging and Intervention, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA.
Objective: To determine the utility of a triangular margin as an imaging diagnostic feature for fibrous dysplasia.
Materials And Methods: We retrospectively reviewed all surgically biopsied or managed benign and malignant bone tumors by a single orthopedic oncologist over 19 years (2003 to 2022). A musculoskeletal radiologist and an orthopedic oncologist, both with >10 years of experience, retrospectively evaluated all imaging in consensus.
Practical management of adverse events in patients receiving tarlatamab, a delta-like ligand 3-targeted bispecific T-cell engager immunotherapy, for previously treated small cell lung cancer.
Cancer
February 2025
University of Maryland Marlene and Stewart Greenebaum Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of Maryland Medical Center, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
Tarlatamab is a bispecific T-cell engager immunotherapy targeting delta-like ligand 3 (DLL3) and the cluster of differentiation 3 (CD3) molecule. In the phase 2 DeLLphi-301 trial of tarlatamab for patients with previously treated small cell lung cancer, tarlatamab 10 mg every 2 weeks achieved durable responses and encouraging survival outcomes. Analyses of updated safety data from the DeLLphi-301 trial demonstrated that the most common treatment-emergent adverse events were cytokine release syndrome (53%), pyrexia (38%), decreased appetite (36%), dysgeusia (32%), and an emia (30%).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWant AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?
Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!