Current through Reg. 49, No. 38; September 20, 2024
(a) The
optometrist or therapeutic optometrist shall, in the initial examination of the
patient for whom ophthalmic lenses are prescribed:
(1) Personally make and record, if possible,
the following findings of the conditions of the patient as required by §
351.353 of the Act:
(A) biomicroscopy
examination (lids, cornea, sclera, etc.), using a binocular
microscope;
(B) internal
ophthalmoscopic examination (media, fundus, etc.), using an ophthalmoscope or
biomicroscope with fundus condensing lenses; videos and photographs may be used
only for documentation and consultation purposes but do not fulfill the
internal ophthalmoscopic examination requirement; and
(C) subjective findings, far point and near
point.
(2) Either
personally make and record or authorize an assistant present in the same office
with the optometrist or therapeutic optometrist to make and record the
following findings required by § 351.353 of the Act. The authorization for
assistants to make and record the following findings does not relieve the
optometrist or therapeutic optometrist of professional responsibility for the
proper examination and recording of each finding required by § 351.353 of
the Act:
(A) case history (ocular, physical,
occupational, and other pertinent information);
(B) visual acuity;
(C) static retinoscopy O.D., O.S., or
autorefractor;
(D) assessment of
binocular function;
(E) amplitude
or range of accommodation;
(F)
tonometry;
(G) angle of vision, to
right and to left.
(3)
Personally notate in the patient's record the reasons why it is not possible to
make and record the findings required in this section.
(b) The willful or repeated failure or
refusal of an optometrist or therapeutic optometrist to comply with any of the
requirements in the Act, § 351.353 and § 351.359, shall be considered
by the board to constitute prima facie evidence that the licensee is unfit or
incompetent by reason of negligence within the meaning of the Act, §
351.501(a)(2), and shall be sufficient ground for the filing of charges to
cancel, revoke, or suspend the license. The charges shall state the specific
instances in which it is alleged that the rule was not complied with. After the
board has produced evidence of the omission of a finding required by §
351.353, the burden shifts to the licensee to establish that the making and
recording of the findings was not possible.
