Can ophthalmic technicians be used to deliver glaucoma care?

The presentation will describe the development of a technician-delivered glaucoma screening and monitoring service introduced to help improve capacity and the patient experience within glaucoma outpatient clinics in a London hospital. The service involves the use of ophthalmic technicians to collect clinical data from patients, with a specialist reviewing these data remotely; thus, it removes the face-to-face doctor consultation. The nature of glaucoma detection and monitoring lends itself to a ‘remote review’ care model. The patient journey time in this clinic averages at around 50 minutes, compared with 163 minutes in the glaucoma outpatients department. The overall first visit discharge rate for the new patient screening service is 58%; the proportion of patients attending the Stable Monitoring Service who have been rebooked into the service is now 83%. Patient satisfaction with the new service is high. Early analysis suggests that there exists a discrepancy between consultant reviewer management decisions for stable patients, suggesting some may be more risk-averse than others when managing patients seen within this model.