AOA: Balancing care, combatting viral spread critical during COVID-19
The AOA announced its support of an interim guidance released by the CDC March 17, which detailed strategies for health care facilities to prepare for and respond to community spread of COVID-19.
The association said that immediate efforts to assure continued access to essential health care including urgent and emergent care provided by optometric doctors is as critically important as taking measures to combat further community spread.
“Doctors of optometry are frontline physician providers of essential care,” the AOA wrote in a press release. “Based on the immediate health needs of a patient, doctors of optometry can and should use their professional judgment to determine the timing and course of care, including assessing patient expressed urgency, necessary preventive care, and the monitoring and refilling of prescriptions.”
Recently, the AOA also issued immediate patient care guidance, secured full recognition for doctors of optometry in federal crisis relief legislation, and updated a billing and coding briefing to thousands of doctors seeking to continue to provide care, according to the release.
“Together with our state associations, the AOA is fighting harder than ever for our doctors and we will not stop,” AOA President Barbara L. Horn, OD, told Primary Care Optometry News. “Although it’s an uncertain time for each of us and for our patients, member doctors can and should count on the AOA to deliver critical practice support and ensure optometry's full recognition in crisis relief and the recovery that will follow.”
Additionally, American Academy of Optometry President Barbara Caffery, OD, PhD, FAAO, stated in a letter to academy members: “Fulfilling our role as a vital part of the health care system requires recognizing our responsibility to understand the science, accept the unknown, practice disciplined hygiene and social distancing, and educate our patients.”