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Successful collaborations valuable for optometry, other specialties, patients
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PHILADELPHIA -- In a poster presented at Optometry's Meeting, Melissa Vitek, OD, and colleagues found that health care delivery, patient outcomes, education and interprofessional respect increased with a collaborative initiative.
After launching a collaboration between the Eye Institute at Salus University’s Pennsylvania College of Optometry and the Chestnut Hill Hospital Family Practice, the authors evaluated the effect that it had on both institutions.
As detailed in the poster, 14 family medical residents and 30 optometry students participated in the program, which included 140 patient care encounters.
"The family medical residents have been so pleased with their experience during the primary eye and vision care sessions that they requested an additional weekly session with the optometrist who specializes in pediatric optometry," the authors noted. "The residents indicate that this additional session has added tremendous value to their ophthalmology clinical rotation."
Additionally, the authors disclosed that, as a direct result of the successful collaboration, another program was initiated between La Salle University School of Nursing and the Eye Institute -- Oak Lane.
"While the profession of optometry is very well established in the health care arena, efforts and opportunities to share with other health care providers first-hand information and experience about who we are and what we do are always well-placed,” the authors reported. “On a direct level, this successful collaborative initiative has allowed practitioners from both family practice medicine and the profession of optometry to gain further respect for each profession's contribution to the delivery of effective patient care.
"On a larger scale, the collaboration represents a synergistic model of interprofessional health care and education," they concluded. "Most importantly, this collaborative approach to patient care and clinical education promises more effective health care delivery, ultimately leading to improved patient outcomes. Salus University and the colleges and programs that comprise it remain committed to exploring, developing and implementing interprofessional educational and clinical initiatives, both on- and off-campus." – by Chelsea Frajerman