Costs of shared care.

The glaucoma referral refinement scheme reported from Manchester (Eye (2003) 17: 21-26) has potential benefits for hospital glaucoma clinics that are struggling to keep abreast of the tide of new suspect glaucoma referrals. But the alleged cost savings are doubtful. For example, the savings to the GP of pound 11700 are presumably based on an estimate of GP time and expenses in passing the referral on to the hospital: is this a realistic figure?Hospital-based screening clinics may be a cheaper alternative. For 7 years, I have run a Nurse-led Glaucoma screening clinic to assess the urgency of referrals from optometrists. Patients attend the clinic and records are taken of the history (including details of family history and medications), visual acuity, visual field (Humphrey 24-2 threshold strategy), intraocular pressures by applanation tonometry (Perkins), and nonmydriatic optic disc photographs (Topcon). The records are examined and I write to the patient, general practitioner, and optometrist recommending follow-up by the optometrist or in the glaucoma clinic according to the findings. The clinic is audited annually.

作 者：

Sarkies,N

刊 名：

Eye 

年，卷(期)：

2005vol.19(no.4) 

分类号：

 

关键词：

Glaucoma  Health Care Costs  Vision Screening  青光眼  卫生保健费用  视力普查

正文语种：

eng 

基金项目：