Resident Compliance With the American Academy of Ophthalmology Preferred Practice Patterns for Primary Open-Angle Glaucoma Suspect.

PURPOSE

To study resident compliance with the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO) Preferred Practice Patterns (PPPs) for primary open-angle glaucoma suspect (POAGS) in a resident ophthalmology clinic.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

Two hundred charts were selected for analysis of adult patients with the International Classification of Diseases diagnosis code for POAGS during their initial visit between November 2, 2010 and May 6, 2014 at the Kresge Eye Institute resident clinic. Electronic medical records of clinic visits for POAGS patients were evaluated for documentation and compliance with 17 elements of AAO PPPs.

RESULTS

The overall mean compliance was 73.8% for all charts (n=200), 74.4% for first-year residents (n=53), 74.5% for second-year residents (n=38), and 73.3% for third-year residents (n=109). Documentation rates were high (>90%) for 9 elements, which included most elements of physical examination and history. Documentation of ocular history, central corneal thickness, gonioscopy, optic nerve head and retinal nerve fiber layer analysis, and visual field ranged from 40% to 80%. Documentation was lowest for patient education elements which ranged from 0% to 10%. Compliance was not significantly different (P>0.05) between residents or between different resident years for any element.

CONCLUSIONS

Residents' compliance was high for most elements of the PPPs for POAGS. We identified elements with poor compliance especially regarding patient education. Adherence to AAO PPPs can be a helpful method of assessing resident performance.