Welcome to Optometry Simplified.
In this weekly newsletter, I've curated the best resources to help you grow personally and professionally.
My mission is to find what's best for my patients and my practice.
Here's what I've found...
Links I Liked
Old mindsets and habits around coding are hard to change.
We at Practice Performance Partners see many of these "blunders" show up again and again, even in otherwise well-run practices. This article by Tonya Reynoldson, OD, is a helpful reminder that tightening up small details can meaningfully reduce risk and improve your practice's health. Optometric Management
A must-listen new podcast for private practice docs and owners.
I've recommended several of Adam's 20/20 Money podcast episodes in the past. Now, I'm predicting there will be more to come with his new podcast, The Optometry Success Podcast, with Chad Fleming, OD. These two are some of the best communicators and teachers of business principles in the optometric industry.
Research I'm Reading
Does extended antiviral therapy reduce the recurrence of HZO?
We know that long-term, daily oral antivirals reduce recurrence in patients with HSV keratitis. But does that same logic apply after herpes zoster ophthalmicus? This study addresses that exact question by examining whether ongoing oral antivirals after HZO reduce recurrence or worsening of disease. A good reminder that evidence matters, especially when we’re extrapolating treatment strategies from one disease to another. American Journal of Ophthalmology
Deep Thoughts
The American Academy of Ophthalmology recently updated its Preferred Practice Pattern for adult eye exams.
The AOA released its updated comprehensive exam guideline in 2023.
If you read the Review of Optometry summary comparing the updates, you’ll notice differences in tone and emphasis.
The AAO leans medical. Risk stratification. Systemic disease integration. Documentation tied to medical decision-making.
The AOA preserves breadth. Refraction. Binocular vision. Functional performance. Prevention. Quality of life.
Both are thoughtful. Both are evidence-based.
But neither document answers the deeper question most private practice optometrists are wrestling with:
What is a comprehensive exam supposed to be?
I believe optometrists are the best-trained and best-positioned providers of primary eye care. Primary eye care means taking responsibility for a patient’s entire eyes and vision over time.
Not just clarity.
Not just pathology.
Not just a niche.
Everything.
A comprehensive exam is a structured clinical encounter where we:
- Assess refractive and functional vision needs
- Identify and manage ocular disease
- Stratify systemic and ocular risk
- Educate and guide patients longitudinally
- Integrate prevention with treatment
It is demanding work because it is integrative work.
Some optometrists respond to the challenges posed by this demand by reducing the exam to a refractive transaction. Others narrow their identity to one or two focused services and call the rest “specialty.”
Comprehensive Optometry does not choose between models.
We risk stratify like physicians.
We evaluate visual function like optometrists.
We manage chronic disease confidently.
We use diagnostic testing when findings, symptoms, and risk justify it.
We document in a way that reflects real medical complexity.
The comprehensive eye exam should then just be an expression of the responsibility we feel towards the totality of our patients' visual system.
Not to check boxes because a third-party payor said to.
But to perform an intentional and structured first-pass through the patient’s visual and ocular systems. Like reviewing a complex case file, you orient yourself to the whole before identifying which findings warrant further testing, closer monitoring, or deeper intervention.
From that first pass, we determine what deserves deeper analysis, what requires longitudinal management, and what simply needs reassurance.
That is not checklist medicine. That is primary eye care.
If we define the comprehensive exam as a responsibility before reimbursement, the tension between the guidelines fades.
Because the goal is not to complete an exam. It is to own the care of the whole visual system, over time.
Practice Performance Partners Pick
Aaron Werner, OD, recently interviewed Dave Kading, OD, about his new book, The Invisible Team, which focuses on utilizing virtual staff to optimize medical practices.
Kading explains how private healthcare providers can combat administrative burnout and hiring shortages by integrating remote professionals into their daily operations.
The conversation highlights that, while these team members are physically absent, they remain essential to creating a sustainable work-life balance for practice owners.
Can you do me a favor? If you found any of these resources helpful, share this newsletter with one of our colleagues!
See you next week!
--Kyle Klute, OD, FAAO