Association of staffing with Incidence of delayed retinal break or detachment after posterior vitreous detachment in a resident urgent care clinic.

Purpose: To compare the incidence rate of delayed retinal break or detachment after diagnosis of acute, symptomatic posterior vitreous detachment (PVD) in a resident-run urgent care clinic (UCC) when staffed by a retina attending, non-retina ophthalmology attending, optometrist, or ophthalmology resident only.

Methods: Retrospective consecutive case series. Of the 594 patients with acute, symptomatic PVD evaluated in the UCC at Penn State Eye Center between 1/1/2016 and 10/10/2019, 454 were included in the study; 140 were excluded because they were diagnosed with a retinal break or detachment on presentation to the UCC, had media opacity precluding examination, or had no follow-up within one year. Demographics, presenting examination findings, and type of staffing were recorded; subsequent visits up to 1 year were analyzed for presence of delayed retinal break or detachment.

Results: Among 491 eyes of 454 patients with a mean follow-up of 147 days, ten delayed breaks (10/491, 2.0%) and three delayed detachments (3/491, 0.6%) were discovered. Incidence rates of delayed breaks and detachments were 1.8% (5/282) and 0.7% (2/282), respectively, in the retina attending group, 1.0% (1/105) and 1.0% (1/105) in the non-retina ophthalmology attending group, 4.7% (3/64) and 0% (0/64) in the optometrist group, and 2.5% (1/40) and 0% (0/40) in the ophthalmology resident only group. There was no statistically significant difference in the incidence of delayed break or detachment among the staffing groups (P = 0.7312), but this study was underpowered to detect a statistically significant difference among staffing groups. Patients with a delayed break or detachment were more likely to have lattice degeneration (P = 0.0265) or a history of retinal break in the contralateral eye (P = 0.0014), and most eyes (10 [76.9%]) with a delayed break or detachment were left eyes (P = 0.0466).

Conclusions: The overall rate of delayed retinal break or detachment in the current study is similar to previously published rates among retinal physician and retinal fellow examiners. Although no statistically significant difference among staffing groups in the incidence rates of delayed retinal tears or detachments was identified in the study, it is important to note that the optometry and ophthalmology resident only groups had higher incidence rates of delayed retinal breaks than did the retina and non-retina ophthalmology attending groups, and this may be clinically important. Larger cohort studies would be needed in order to have the power to detect statistically significant differences among staffing groups. Varied staffing for acute, symptomatic PVD may assist with resource allocation in similar settings.