a pt of mine needs an emergency pair of glasses to get by for now. he has an exam set up for next week. im requesting is last rx (which is expired) from another office. are they required to send it to me if the pt. fills out a medical release form?
a pt of mine needs an emergency pair of glasses to get by for now. he has an exam set up for next week. im requesting is last rx (which is expired) from another office. are they required to send it to me if the pt. fills out a medical release form?
In Texas you can either lens duplicate or get the last Dr. to extend the expiration. You can not fill an Rx with an experation date noted.
It is the patient's right to possess his own copy of his exam chart. The examiner is allowed to supply it within a reasonable amount of time and may charge for the service. A month may be considered a reasonable amount of time but could disappoint many. An examiner with a sense of public relations would provide the chart within a day to a week.
I don't know if the examiner is required to deliver it to just any third party. Certainly if the third party were another doctor's office it would not be a problem, but to a non-professional it might be reasonable for the examiner to request that it be delivered to only the patient.
If the chart becomes the property of the patient and a third party reviews the information to determine what the last given Rx was, the third party takes responsibility for filling it if it is expired.
Auto Accident = Potential Liability
If the prior examiner will release a copy with limitations, that's a safer way to go. Maybe a 1-week expiration that allows the patient to fill it for an emergency. The examiner is also allowed to charge for that second copy. An original copy should have been delivered to the patient at the exam.
It would be a good idea to inform the patient now about how smart it would have been to own a second pair.
What potential liability for an auto accident? The patient will be seeing as well as he would have been had he not broken his glasses and whole lot better than he would be without them. Perhaps the previous examiner would be liable for same for not releasing the Rx. No one has ever been held liable for wearing glasses with a expired Rx, and no one filling same has ever caused a problem except perhaps with the optometry board.
Chip
In many practices the patient can't get an appointment for new exam in less than 3 months. Patient should be allowed to see even if it's only 20/30 or so untlil new exam can be perfomed.
Potential = Potential. It's not a given. But, lawyers LOVE when anything is out of order and a vehicular incident is involved. It's good to be on the 'clean' side of care delivery.
So, all we need is an OD to qualify the VA and we're good? Sounds like an exam to me.
Enjoy the weekend! :)
man that other office was a bunch of jerks....but i got the Rx....i felt like i had to con my way just to get it...o well my pt. is happy and i landed a new pt. for good!:cheers:
thanks for all the help!
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