Sharing Your Practice Improvement Ideas (part 3 of an ongoing series)

In each of 2020’s quarterly newsletters, ABO is sharing ideas submitted by Diplomates for the Quality Improvement Activity (QIA) portion of their MOC. Thank you to all the Diplomates who have generously allowed us to share their innovative ideas for improvement, enabling all of the patients served by ABO Diplomates to potentially benefit from these activities.

In this newsletter, we are highlighting QIAs that were inspired by references from CAP assessments. The references featured in these assessments reflect recent research, advances in the profession, or new practice guidelines within a specific topic area and are excellent resources for evaluating whether your patient care is up-to-date.

Dr. Kathryn Gurney, an ABO Diplomate from Farmington, Maine, was inspired by one of the references in the Posterior Segment assessment – Eye Care of the Patient with Diabetes Mellitus, an AOA evidence-based clinical practice guideline that was published in 2019. Dr. Gurney created a “cheat sheet” listing the stages of diabetic retinopathy along with the criteria for each stage, the EDTRS reference photos, and the recommended follow-up schedules. She posted these sheets in various locations throughout their group practice and reports an improvement in the consistency of retinopathy grading and follow-up intervals among the ODs in the practice and from patient to patient.

Dr. Jane O’Hora, an ABO Diplomate from Sebring, Florida, was motivated by the executive summary of The International Workshop on Meibomian Gland Dysfunction, one of the references in the Anterior Segment 2 assessment. After completing a chart review of her 20 most recent patients with a diagnosis of MGD, Dr. O’Hora realized that she could make improvements. She changed her exam template and began to regularly assess meibomian gland expressibility and secretion quality in addition to the appearance of the glands. She conducted another chart review a week later and noted a marked improvement in her assessment and documentation for patients with MGD. Dr. O’Hora intends to continue to monitor her compliance with these changes, knowing that it will improve her ability to judge the severity of disease and analyze how well various treatments are working for individual patients.

Thank you to Dr. Gurney and Dr. O’Hora for allowing us to share these inspiring quality improvement activities. If you have a QIA that you’re willing to share with your colleagues, please let us know, and we’ll feature your ideas in an upcoming newsletter.