Practitioners need 29 minutes for eye exam

Optometrist Christian Dutton is calling for evidence-based research to determine an updated industry standard for eye examination duration after his online survey Testing Times (News 28 May) indicated that practitioners need around 29 minutes to conduct a test.

Some 92 per cent of the 555 practitioners who completed the online survey indicated that the current 'industry standard' 20-minute eye examination is not sufficient and might result in missed pathology and inaccurate spectacle prescribing.

Survey results also suggested that an additional 36 minutes was required each day to undertake essential non-eye examination and administrative tasks.

Optometrists indicated that they could safely perform a maximum of 15.8 eye examinations in an eight-hour day, equating to a mean requirement of 30 minutes per eye examination.