Degree of Compliance with Clinical Guidelines on Refractive Errors by Optometrists in Optometry Outpatient Consultation at an IPS, First Half of 2012

Abstract

<em><strong>Objective</strong><em> to evaluate the degree of compliance with clinical guidelines on refractive errors by optometrists in optometry outpatient consultation during the first half of 2012. <em><strong>Materials and methods</strong><em> A retrospective descriptive study was conducted using dichotomous questions (meets or does not meet). The population universe was made up of 4180 medical records. As a representative sample, 648 of those medical records were calculated; this number was divided by methodological decision into the three venues that make up the Health Providing Institution (IPS, for its initials in Spanish) under study. The ranges by which adherence was evaluated were: from 0 to 20% of questions answered correctly it was considered that adherence was “very poor”; from 21 to 40%, “poor”; from 41 to 60%, “ordinary”; from 61 to 80%, “good”, and from 81 to 100%, “excellent”. <em><strong>Results</strong><em> It was evidenced that in no case 20% or less of the total number of questions was filled out per medical record, while 3.9% of all the records placed in the “poor” rank. 21.2% of the total number of records placed in the “ordinary” rank. The highest assessment values were obtained by ranks “good” and “excellent”, with a total of 35.4 and 39.5 %, respectively. <em><strong>Conclusions</strong><em> The research showed poor adherence to the care guidelines, since none of the records were filled out in all fields.