Other people’s records - are they letting us down?

Optometrists came into the firing line this summer.  I, along with the majority of Optometrists felt that the Which? report made sweeping and unjustified statements. However, did it make us sit up and question a few things about our procedures?

This is the can of worms that I would like to open and it comes from a previous comment I made on how the report should make some optometrists brush up on some tests that they were ‘opting’ not to do.

How many times have you started history and symptoms and the patient mentions a problem that they had at the previous sight test? You pick up the previous record and there in front of you is the answer a blank record or a few scribbles. Or in some cases a note saying ‘same as before’.

What seems to be an increasing trend among some Optometrists is a lack of written on records or is it that some tests are not being done?  Perhaps it is that some tests are being done but we are rushing through our eye test? In general practice most of us are testing at 20-25minutes.  Surely that is more than enough time to perform a simple cover test or do Ophthalmoscopy?

Retinoscopy is something that seems to be missed out on the majority of records that I have seen.  Even on the records of new patients.  Does this mean we are not doing it? Or that we don’t have enough time to record it?  I would like to give these optometrists the benefit of doubt and prefer to think that it is being done.

Does anyone else feel that sometimes we are seeing records and beginning to question the credibility of some of these?  I am still learning in this working world of optics however surely record keeping cannot have evolved so much? Since the pre-registration yeas, our record keeping should surely improve as we learn to abbreviate and do more relevant tests; when I look at records from my own pre-reg year I certainly believe they have changed and I would like to think for the better.

Yet there are examples of records that make me question some of the results or lack of results that are on others records. Surely I shouldn’t be feeling like that?

 

Share This