Optometric Record Keeping in a Comprehensive Health Care Environment

Abstract

ABSTRACT

Optometric records which have evolved in private practice must be reconsidered when included in a comprehensive care environment. These hospital, health maintenance organization (HMO), preferred provider organization, and similarly linked systems require a higher degree of communication among specialties than do self-standing practices. Furthermore, the administrative requirements of such a system require more standardization, cost sensitivity, medicolegal compliance, and other elements peculiar to a comprehensive facility. The expanded scope of care provided by optometrists within a hospital requires familiarity with a new range of procedures, languages, and reports. Information from laboratories, radiology, and other areas must be incorporated into the optometric record. Continuity of care is more complex. Opportunities for strong interprofessional synergies within the organization arise directly from proactivity in optometric record keeping. New legal hot spots arise from questions of records ownership, access, and privacy. Billing procedures are becoming extremely important, with significant effects on quality assurance audits, coding, doctor “profiling” against fraud, and abuse; these priorities can interfere with clinical priorities. Driven primarily by the concerns and resources of large third-party payers, technology is making rapid changes in the form of optometric record keeping in comprehensive systems. Electronic data management will change the face of medical records, although administrative data will be digitized much more quickly than clinical notes. Comprehensive care environments will be the “test beds” for these technologies. Optometry is in a good position to show its contribution to the health care team through leadership in the implementation of new record keeping models.