There seems to be a push in many states to expand the scope of practice for optometrists, including allowing optometrists to do surgery on your eyes.
Optometrists go to optometry school. They don't go to medical school or do residencies that train them in surgical interventions on the eye. The American Optometry Association says:
Interesting, I think I've seen this before, somewhere else. I just can't seem to pin it down. Perhaps ophthalmologists should all abandon medical school and four year residencies in favor of the four year optometry model. Cheaper. Quicker. More access. Why do you need all that extra education anyway? It seems like it does nothing but increase costs and decrease access to care.
There is a portion of America that lets street artists give eyeball tattoos. I wonder if that's a type of bloodless surgery.
Hell no! Many are great at prescribing corrective lenses. They are as qualified as I am to perform surgery -not at all. The clueless wonders that run Lasik mills and claim to be ophthalmologists need to be cracked down on, though.
ReplyDeleteI am a physician (resident in Anesthesiology) and my wife is an optometrist. She is opposed to optometrist's performing surgery and states that if she had wanted that she would've attended medical school.
ReplyDeleteWhat this is is another play by mid-level providers to expand their scope by legislation, although they didn't earn it by education. Similar to what my field faces with CRNAs, a vocal, militant minority is seeking to use backdoors to practice medicine.
Some time ago I listened to a radio show about specialties and the feast or famine surrounding them. An example was ophthalmology and how it used to be an easy buck, but now that Medicare has cut back on reimbursement, very few students choose that track. So, another door opens...
ReplyDelete-Second career nursing student
Went to an O.D. a few months ago... my Buddy Holly/Serial Killer frames were fine, but the lenses were a little scratched, cause I didn't purchase the rip-off anti-scratch undercoating...
ReplyDeleteDude asked what I did for a living...told him I put women to sleep with gas, then give them highly addictive narcotics...
Good thing he wasn't really listening