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Eye surgery should be left to the experts - Virginia Mercury

I would say he is a low-life, lying, chicken-shit ophthalmologist and he could not tell the truth if his life depended on it!

That is how I would counter the comments.

Fools like Dr. Everline don't deserve the energy of my keystrokes...

Move on.

Only question I have is: Does this asshole ophthalmologist have any enabling optometrists working in his practice?

Oops, just looked up the website to this lying fool and of course, he has the obligatory enabling optometrist in his practice supporting this nonsense. How does this keep happening? How can an optometrist work for or even send patients to an anti-optometry knucklehead like this? When do we start teaching a 'self-esteem' class in optometry school instead of four years of vision science so optometrists can stop prostituting themselves for our sworn enemies!

When, indeed?
 
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Laurence Craig Thomas said:
I would say he is a low-life, lying, chicken-shit ophthalmologist and he could not tell the truth if his life depended on it!

That is how I would counter the comments.

Fools like Dr. Everline don't deserve the energy of my keystrokes...

Move on.

Only question I have is: Does this asshole ophthalmologist have any enabling optometrists working in his practice?

Oops, just looked up the website to this lying fool and of course, he has the obligatory enabling optometrist in his practice supporting this nonsense. How does this keep happening? How can an optometrist work for or even send patients to an anti-optometry knucklehead like this? When do we start teaching a 'self-esteem' class in optometry school instead of four years of vision science so optometrists can stop prostituting themselves for our sworn enemies!

When, indeed?
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You said it all. My wording would have been worse.
 
Some of the op-ed is questionable and some is wrong. I’m not a fan.

Some is correct.

Before I’m labeled as anti-optometry, which I am not, consider having an open mind or one just slightly ajar.

Every OD isn‘t great. Every OMD is not evil. It’s unreasonable to believe so.

Scope battles are ugly. Horrible things are said and written. People you believe are friendly are, in fact, not. Also, the same weirdness we see in some of our ODs and OD groups… they have it, too. Also, they’re not all good surgeons.

They have more training. We need to ramp it up. It’s well into the 21st century. The scope battle will be exactly the same. That won’t disappear. We need high amounts of advocacy membership. But, it’s still a duty to ramp it up. I don’t think we need 4 years of med school to perform a YAG. Nope.

But, we seldom perform gonio. People think UWFI substitutes for DFE. They place this on social media. A significant number of ODs do very little tx. We created a faux BC and the nat’l groups endorsed it. Watching procedures is not the same as doing. We have work to do.

When we’re clearly being trashed out and the full-out crazy is flowing, I’m no less annoyed than any other OD.

We just have some work to do.
 
Our work starts in the Optometry Schools.

Period.

The virus that infects our profession is contracted in optometry school.

Some of us shake it off, some of us don’t.

Always remember: Don’t be the last eye doctor the patient sees before going blind…
 
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That OMD has always hated optometry and would never work with any for comanagement etc. If you look at all of the local OMD offices in the Norfolk/Virginia Beach area, which have been historically anti OD, they all have at least 1 OD who works in their offices. I was speaking to one of these ODs a couple of weeks ago and was told that they've now been directed to comanage their dry eye patients, as well as all of their glaucoma and dry eye patients with one of the OMDs.
 
That's what they deserve.

Next, the oppressor ophthalmologists will have one of the COA technicians re-check the refractions and ophthalmoscopy examinations performed by the enabling optometrists to help ensure accuracy and patient safety.

I wonder if the non-professional staff at those offices call the enabling optometrists "optoms"?

As in, "Our optoms are so nice and friendly and docile..."

Why would any rational person go to college for 8 years so that they can "be directed" to do something that they already know how to do?

Stop the madness, work for yourself, support organized optometry (at the State level) and fight organized ophthalmology until your last breath and your last dollar.

Word.
 
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Tom Cheezum said:
That OMD has always hated optometry and would never work with any for comanagement etc. If you look at all of the local OMD offices in the Norfolk/Virginia Beach area, which have been historically anti OD, they all have at least 1 OD who works in their offices. I was speaking to one of these ODs a couple of weeks ago and was told that they've now been directed to comanage their dry eye patients, as well as all of their glaucoma and dry eye patients with one of the OMDs.
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Ugh.
 
Laurence Craig Thomas said:
That's what they deserve.

Next, the oppressor ophthalmologists will have one of the COA technicians re-check the refractions and ophthalmoscopy examinations performed by the enabling optometrists to help ensure accuracy and patient safety.

I wonder if the non-professional staff at those offices call the enabling optometrists "optoms"?

As in, "Our optoms are so nice and friendly and docile..."

Why would any rational person go to college for 8 years so that they can "be directed" to do something that they already know how to do?

Stop the madness, work for yourself, support organized optometry (at the State level) and fight organized ophthalmology until your last breath and your last dollar.

Word.
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Yes to almost all of this. Not quite all. All-or-none statements can be problematic. Organized ophthalmology: not our friends, no.

“…docile…” cracked me up. Sorta.

I‘ve come to realize, slowly and dimly (I’m not bright), that many, many ODs have no desire to dx and tx much more than ametropia. I think this begins with why they seek out optometry, the supervised clinical training not rec’d, and their experiences right out of college. It would not take long to feel poorly prepared, out of practice, or just thinking about the optical.

I concur with fighting org ophthalmol. I can’t stand the idea of being told to not treat glaucoma, etc. Dry eye? Dear God.

But, we have our own work to do. I think we deny that as being too painful.
 
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Unfortunately this statement of his may be true and I don't know why:

But even in those states where laser surgery is allowed for optometrists, few provide it,
 
I'd like to request information on OD's use of lasers. Once approved, what happens next? The state of Louisiana allows those of us who are qualified to do so. New grads flock to our state for the privilege, but I can't find anywhere to send my many, many glaucoma patients.
 
Scott Blahnik said:
I'd like to request information on OD's use of lasers. Once approved, what happens next? The state of Louisiana allows those of us who are qualified to do so. New grads flock to our state for the privilege, but I can't find anywhere to send my many, many glaucoma patients.
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Why will Tulane University not accept them?
 
Tulane does not support Optometry and has organized against us in the past.

What I would like is a referral center that is run by OD's (Years ago we had something similar called Omni, a corporation which
included both Ophthalmology and Optometry). The center could include a laser which OD's could share?
 
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Laurence Craig Thomas said:
I would say he is a low-life, lying, chicken-shit ophthalmologist and he could not tell the truth if his life depended on it!

That is how I would counter the comments.

Fools like Dr. Everline don't deserve the energy of my keystrokes...

Move on.

Only question I have is: Does this asshole ophthalmologist have any enabling optometrists working in his practice?

Oops, just looked up the website to this lying fool and of course, he has the obligatory enabling optometrist in his practice supporting this nonsense. How does this keep happening? How can an optometrist work for or even send patients to an anti-optometry knucklehead like this? When do we start teaching a 'self-esteem' class in optometry school instead of four years of vision science so optometrists can stop prostituting themselves for our sworn enemies!

When, indeed?
Click to expand...
Is that Everline or Everlying ??
 
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Scott Blahnik said:
Tulane does not support Optometry and has organized against us in the past.

What I would like is a referral center that is run by OD's (Years ago we had something similar called Omni, a corporation which
included both Ophthalmology and Optometry). The center could include a laser which OD's could share?
Click to expand...
While it may seem like a good option to get SLT in a local center for all interested OD's to use, MC reimburses only $251 for the 90 day global procedure. If you aren't doing quite a few in a session, the time away from the office - transit to and from your practice, pre and post-op evals and IOP checks - it just won't pay.

Too bad about OMNI. Do you know why it is no longer in existence? Many around the country failed or were bought out by the previously employed OMD and OD.

Omega, a similar company from Memphis with offices throughout the South went down in flames in the early 90's due to attempted avoidance of federal employment taxes - defining all of their OD and MD employees as "contract labor". I was one of them.
 
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Dwight Thibodeaux said:
While it may seem like a good option to get SLT in a local center for all interested OD's to use, MC reimburses only $251 for the 90 day global procedure. If you aren't doing quite a few in a session, the time away from the office - transit to and from your practice, pre and post-op evals and IOP checks - it just won't pay.

Too bad about OMNI. Do you know why it is no longer in existence? Many around the country failed or were bought out by the previously employed OMD and OD.

Omega, a similar company from Memphis with offices throughout the South went down in flames in the early 90's due to attempted avoidance of federal employment taxes - defining all of their OD and MD employees as "contract labor". I was one of them.
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Hmm, Santa Fe, that sounds familiar. Is it on the map?
 
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Ultimately, all the clamor for Laser seems to fall short without a plan to facilitate actual treatment of patients by OD's.
 
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I thought it was odd for a name like Thibodeaux to be coming from Sante Fe. Hello Dwight, you were a class ahead of me at SCO.
I forgot that you relocated! @Skip Geldert who posts here once in a while is another Louisianian to head west. Why in the world would anybody leave God's country?
 
Scott Blahnik said:
I thought it was odd for a name like Thibodeaux to be coming from Sante Fe. Hello Dwight, you were a class ahead of me at SCO.
I forgot that you relocated! @Skip Geldert who posts here once in a while is another Louisianian to head west. Why in the world would anybody leave God's country?
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The lack of tornados, hurricanes, mosquitos, roaches brought me here - and my hair is straight in the low humidity!
I cook my own gumbos, etouffees and jambalayas and get boudin and smoked sausage shipped in from Ville Platte.
Going to New Orleans next month for an IV of Drago's smoked oysters.
 
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Ville Platte, had to look it up! Here's what I found:
1644451832752.png
 
Why would laser licensed OD's not be performing these procedures? Is it something other than low reimbursement?
 
The new grad OD's I talked to at our last meeting are mostly working at MyEyeDr. I guess private equity firms don't see a lot of profit with Laser. The sharp, business-minded OD to whom I send Sclerals and LLLT has his hands full.

Not many want Chalazion treatment referrals from me either, come to think of it.
 
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Ahhh….MyEyeDr. Seems like it’s going to be Optometric Walgreen’s. Optometry = Pharmacy, or is it vice versa. There’s a reason I didn’t go to Pharmacy school.
 
Some more digging...

One of the reasons more OD's aren't performing laser treatment here is accessibility. Our latest bill being presented to the state legislature is for hospital privileges. It would be smart of Virginia's efforts to include this, but maybe it's a step-by-step process?

When our bill was first approved, a large Ophthalmology group in Baton Rouge which employs many OD's in their satellite clinics sent out legal paperwork to allow the use of their laser. I don't know how many OD's took them up on the offer.

There's an enterprising and knowledgeable Ophthalmic technician who travels to offices around the state and rents out a laser.
His laser may not be state of the art, however, and the most expensive, high-tech instruments are usually shared in an established ambulatory center.
 
A YAG combo unit is 55K
Average 300.00 reimbursement between SLT and YAG Cap.
60 month payout at 4% is 1100.00 a month.
What medically oriented OD practice doesn't refer out 4 procedures a month??
This is what I don't understand about the mentality of OD's that are capable of performing these procedures in house needing a surgery center or OMD "allowing" them to use their laser or renting an old one?
Not to mention moving our profession forward by stepping up our level of surgical care as a huge reason to do these!
As a whole, OD's seem to be content with any OMD's table scraps and getting paid 50$ for an exam.
 
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used even better prices...
1644514979918.png
$15,000 Lumenis
 
you should be able to find something for under 20k. portable also . could possibly share it amongst colleagues etc
 
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