While fewer than half of the respondents to a recent Pop-up Poll provide low vision services, those who do are quite passionate about it. The poll was sent by Women In Optometry and Review of Optometric Business. Nearly 31% of the respondents said that they provide comprehensive low vision services, and 14% said that they provide some services. Nearly 56% said they do not provide low vision services.
About 44% of the respondents said that they are comfortable working with patients with low vision. Another 42% said that they prefer to refer these patients. Fourteen said that they wished they knew more about low vision so that they could help more patients.
The poll asked when practitioners refer to a low vision provider. The responses ranged widely with a plurality, 34%, saying when the patient’s visual acuity is 20/50 or greater. Another 23% said they refer when the visual acuity is 20/200 or greater. Ten percent said that they use the subjective measurement, when the patient says, “I can’t see.”
A number of respondents wrote in answers, with about 10% of these respondents saying that they are the low vision provider in their region. Several noted that they do not have a low vision provider to refer to. Many of the other responses focused on patients’ daily living skills and functional vision demands.
More than 66% of the respondents said that they would be interested in attending CE on low vision, with a few noting that they lecture on the topic. Another 26% said that they might be, and 7% said they were not interested in this subject.
The open-ended responses to the poll showed how emotional this topic can be to respondents.
Ana Jurcic, OD, a low vision specialist in Toronto, said, “It’s my area of passion for the last 28 years, and it’s a shame this area continues to be underserviced around the world.”
One doctor who would like to offer low vision expressed some frustration.
“Low vision services require more time, but pay will never match the care needed. Yet more patients need these services, but fewer doctors practice low vision because of opportunity and pay. I personally am very interested in low vision and vision function, but the patients themselves bring so much emotion and expectation and anger (depending on the stage of referral/grieving) that I haven’t dared try that clinically. There is no way to be efficient without having bad manners to try to stay on time.”
Another wrote: “I leave low vision to the experts, as they send me patients in my expertise.”
Another wrote, “We should have a list for ‘low vision docs in my area.’ I am the only one for miles, and I don’t know how many doctors actually know I exist.”
WO is following up: We will soon share articles on those optometrists who have successfully incorporated low vision services into their primary care practice or made it a specialty.
