Pandemic Will Limit Access To Pediatric Eye Care

Pediatric ophthalmologists are a rarity in medicine. There are only about a thousand of them to serve America's 75 million children. And as other physicians fled private practice for hospitals or have been gobbled up by private equity firms, most pediatric ophthalmologists remain in private practice. Unfortunately, the factors that make the specialty uncommon have also made pediatric ophthalmologists and their patients uncommonly vulnerable to the ravages of the COVID-19 shutdown. A survey conducted by the American Association for Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus (AAPOS) shows that pediatric specialists are struggling to keep their practices viable in the wake of the shutdown. As a result, children in America may suffer medical outcomes not anticipated in first-world countries. AAPOS conducted the survey of its members in April, one month after the shutdown, to assess the effects of the pandemic on private and institutional pediatric ophthalmology practices. The results are sobering and portend access-of-care issues for children with blinding conditions and life-threatening diseases.

While all sectors of pediatric ophthalmology were affected by the reduction in patient volume, private practices were the hardest hit. Among the survey's findings:

•  Practice revenue was only 13 percent of usual, across all practice types.
•  10 percent were considering bankruptcy, nearly all of whom are in private practice.
•  More private practice physicians than employed hospital and academic physicians (27 percent vs. 7 percent) expressed plans to limit Medicaid patients.
•  9 percent said they planned to retire earlier.

Full source: https://www.news-medical.net/news/20200901/Survey-shows-pandemic-will-limit-access-to-pediatric-eye-care.aspx

The Ophthalmologist: Clinical and Therapeutic Journal is an open access, peer-reviewed, academic journal which has a wide range of fields which creates a platform for the authors to publish a relatively reliable source of information on recent technology, review articles, original articles etc. and provides free online access to the researchers worldwide. The journal invites different types of articles including original research article, review articles, short note communications, case reports, Editorials, letters to the Editors and expert opinions & commentaries from different regions for publication. A standard editorial manager system is utilized for manuscript submission, review, editorial processing and tracking which can be securely accessed by the authors, reviewers and editors for monitoring and tracking the article processing.

Manuscripts can be uploaded directly through mail id: ophthalmologist@eclinicalsci.com

Online Submission: https://www.pulsus.com/submissions/ophthalmologist-clinical-therapeutic-journal.html

Media Contact
Sarah Rose
Journal Manager
The Ophthalmologist: Clinical and Therapeutic Journal
Email: ophthalmologist@eclinicalsci.com