Implementing pharmacist-led diabetic digital retina scan services at a federally qualified health center

Due to low national and local rates for annual eye exams in patients with diabetes, a pharmacist-led chronic care clinic creates a unique opportunity for pharmacists to provide digital retina scans in the primary care setting.

The primary objective is to assess the impact of a pharmacist-led digital retina scan service on rates of annual eye exams among patients with diabetes.

KC CARE Health Center, a federally qualified health center in Kansas City, Missouri, offers healthcare services to any member of the community regardless of insurance status. Pharmacists work in this setting to assist with management of chronic disease under a collaborative practice agreement.

A pharmacist developed a workflow process to provide digital retina scans in the primary care setting for patients with diabetes who had not had an eye exam in the past 12 months. Images of each eye are captured using a RetinaVue 700 Imager and these images are submitted to an ophthalmologist for review.

Rates of annual eye exams among patients with diabetes seen in the primary care clinic before and after retina scan service implementation were analyzed using a chi-squared test with an a-priori alpha of 0.05. Survey data of patient-reported barriers to follow-up were reported using descriptive statistics.

There was a 5% increase in the annual eye exam rate of patients with diabetes seen at the clinic during the study period. The increase in rate of annual eye exam from before the intervention to after was statistically significant (P < 0.001).

Implementing a pharmacist-led retina scan program in the primary care setting improved the rate of annual diabetic eye exams and demonstrated the benefit that pharmacists can have in enhancing accessibility to preventative care services.