Optometrists are capable of performing laser surgery. Idaho government should let them | Opinion
During the past several decades, healthcare education and training have advanced exponentially to the ultimate benefit of patients. Unfortunately, the laws dictating limitations on scope for certain practitioners have yet to move at the pace needed to keep up with the patient-driven demands in the healthcare marketplace today. There is no clearer example of this issue than the imbalanced optometric practice laws in Idaho.
Fortunately, there is a solution.
Senate Bill 1052 would expand critical patient access by bringing the outdated scope of practice up to contemporary practice and furthering advanced therapeutic laser procedures for doctors of optometry. Without it, rural Idahoans are denied full access to the routine, high-quality care optometrists deliver.
In 23 Idaho counties, optometrists are the only local eye care providers. Why should patients have to travel further or wait longer to schedule with a specialist while optometrists are a clear solution given our sweeping geographic accessibility?
Doctors of optometry are the leaders in primary eye health care. They examine, diagnose, treat, and manage diseases and disorders of the eye. Through comprehensive eye examinations, optometrists can detect 270+ serious health conditions, including high blood pressure, autoimmune diseases and cancers.
Becoming a licensed optometrist requires doctorate-level classroom study and clinical training through intensive, hands-on clinical experience and concentrated disease exposure. Education focuses on diagnosing and treating ocular disease conditions, including performing laser procedures and minor surgical procedures of the eyelids and ocular adnexa. All optometric colleges and universities teach these advanced procedures. A fact that has been assured through both signed legal affidavits from each program and a formal resolution from the Association of Schools and Colleges of Optometry.
A report from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services made clear recommendations to increase patient access to care and ensure new healthcare choices for the public. The report (“Reforming America’s Healthcare System Through Choice and Competition”) specifically outlined that optometrists can provide the same services as other physicians and emphasized that “states should consider changes to their scope of practice statutes to allow all health care providers to practice to the top of their license, utilizing their full skill set.”
Unfortunately, there are those who would undermine the advancement of optometry and its essential role in caring for the public. Spreading biased and unbalanced information regarding optometry’s vital role in our healthcare system fuels patient misunderstandings and fails to empower individuals to champion their eye health. Instead, we should work towards a future where collaborative care and patient needs come first. The tens of thousands of dollars organized ophthalmology spend annually seeking to maintain the status quo by fighting optometric practice laws could be used to help enhance patient care instead of suppressing it.
According to the 2019 Avalon Health Economics Report, Optometry’s Essential and Expanding Role in Health Care: Assured Quality and Greater Access for Healthier Communities, as scope of practice authority expands for doctors of optometry, patients can safely receive certain advanced procedures and services previously only authorized by ophthalmologists. Significantly, in the ten states where these advanced surgical procedures have been enacted, stretching as far back as 1998 in the case of Oklahoma, there have been no malpractice judgments against doctors of optometry related to these procedures. There has been only one reported incident in Oklahoma to the state board in over 20 years, with no other reports to the state boards in those states having performed them long enough to have a track record (Kentucky, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Alaska and Arkansas).
Despite opposition, optometry and the Idaho Optometric Physicians will continue to stand firmly with our patients and the highest standard of care, a fact recognized by voters, legislators, and the public health community and so clearly reflected by our rapidly expanding role in today’s health care system.
Dr. Rod White grew up in Nampa and studied at the College of Idaho and Pacific University College of Optometry. He has practiced optometry in Nampa for 27 years, emphasizing specialty contact lenses, low-vision aids and patient education.
