Cataract surgery task delegation to medical assistants inconsistently permitted across US
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Engaging medical assistants to perform common tasks integral to cataract surgery could reduce personnel costs and optimize efficiency.
In a poster presented at Real World Ophthalmology, Mary-Grace Reeves, MD, MBA, and co-authors examined the extent to which medical assistants in U.S. ophthalmic surgical practices are allowed to perform specific tasks according to the regulations governing their profession in individual states.
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Seven central tasks in cataract surgery care were defined, including collecting preliminary medical information, taking patients’ vital signs, administering eye drops, measuring glucose levels with point-of-care testing, inserting IVs, counseling patients and monitoring patients after surgery.
Significant interstate variations were found. Forty-three states address some or all the investigated tasks, while seven do not address them at all. New York and Washington allow the greatest number of tasks to be performed by medical assistants. Commonly permitted tasks were IV insertion (72%) and taking vital signs (44%). Eye drops administration is prohibited in 6% of states and allowed in 22%, while some states have no regulations either in favor of or against this practice.
The long-standing experience of international eye hospitals in India and Nepal has shown that deskilling of personnel responsibilities is a core strategy for efficiency and cost savings in high-volume cataract surgery practices, the authors noted. And medical assistants in the U.S. are even better and more broadly trained than elsewhere.
“Engaging medical assistants to the full extent of their scope of practice could reduce personnel costs by optimizing for skill mix and efficiency,” the authors wrote in the study abstract.
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Reeves MG, et al. State-level differences in duties permitted to be performed by medical assistants in cataract surgery. Presented at: Real World Ophthalmology; Nov. 5, 2022 (virtual meeting).
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