Abstract
Purpose :
The University of South Florida (USF) BRIDGE Healthcare Clinic is a student-run, free primary care clinic that sees a predominantly Hispanic, uninsured population. Previous literature has characterized findings in free student-run ophthalmology clinics with uninsured populations. Whereas their findings used screening tools such as IOP and Visual Field Testing in their patient population, BRIDGE uses an institutional referral system based on clinical history. Due to a high number of eye-related referrals made by BRIDGE, we are interested in characterizing the diagnoses from these referrals, especially considering our patient population’s social risk factors and high rate of co-morbidities. We hypothesize that there will be a higher rate of eye disease in our population when compared to national data by the CDC due to increased difficulty for uninsured patients to obtain healthcare.
Methods :
A retrospective chart review identifying 63 patients over the age of 40 seen at USF BRIDGE Clinic from January 1, 2015 – September 30, 2022, yielded 122 ophthalmology referrals. Data on demographics, co-morbidities, reason for referral, and final diagnoses were collected and analyzed.
Results :
63 patients from USF BRIDGE Healthcare Clinic received 122 referrals to USF Ophthalmology resulting in 191 diagnoses. 100% of these patients were uninsured. The median age of patients was 52. Regarding reasons for referral, 42% were for Diabetic Eye Exam, 19% for Visual Disturbance, 8% for Dry Eye, and 32% for Other. Based on data from the CDC we observed higher rates of diagnosis for AMD (12%), Cataract (56.6%), Hyperopia (21.3%), and Retinopathy (9.8%). Myopia was diagnosed less frequently in BRIDGE patients (22.1%) than in the general population (23.9%), values are shown in Figure 1 with demographics in Table 1.
Conclusions :
Our results support our hypothesis in all eye diseases except for Myopia. These findings suggest that a primary care clinic for an indigent population may see a higher incidence of eye pathology. The patient population seen at BRIDGE clinic may benefit from routine eye screening such as tonometry and visual field testing. By implementing simple screening measures, we can further elucidate the utility of screening in the prevention of progressive pathophysiologies such as diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma, and macular degeneration.
This abstract was presented at the 2023 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in New Orleans, LA, April 23-27, 2023.