Ophthalmic Assistant - Ophthalmology; Medical Center

Come lead with us at Houston Methodist Specialty Physician Group. At Houston Methodists, the Ophthalmic Assistant (OA) is responsible for providing the highest quality customer service in assisting the physician and other technical support personnel with patient examination and treatment. Other duties for this position include patient history, office and inpatient diagnostic tests, in‑office procedures as well as some clerical duties.

The OA position independently and expertly performs the duties and responsibilities of a clinical resource to other OAs, training and orienting others as appropriate. This position delivers exceptional patient care per guidelines established by the department to ensure optimal patient safety and customer service and practices Patient and Family‑Centered Care.

Non‑exempt

• High School diploma or equivalent education (examples include: GED, verification of homeschool equivalency, partial or full completion of post‑secondary education, etc.)

• Two years as an Ophthalmic Assistant

• Must have ophthalmic cert: COA or COT

• Demonstrates the skills and competencies necessary to safely perform the assigned job, determined through on‑going skills, competency assessments, and performance evaluations.
• Sufficient proficiency in speaking, reading, and writing the English language necessary to perform the essential functions of this job, especially with regard to activities impacting patient or employee safety or security.
• Ability to effectively communicate with patients, physicians, family members and co‑workers in a manner consistent with a customer service focus and application of positive language principles.
• Demonstrate a learning attitude toward solving problems, using good reasoning and judgment.

• Utilizes courteous and professional interpersonal skills to establish and maintain rapport with patients, physicians/office personnel and various hospital personnel, while maintaining patient confidentiality. Facilitates open, professional communication to achieve mutual understanding, role modeling by example.
• Functions as a team member, responding willingly and positively to colleagues’ needs for assistance and partnership and promotes a positive work environment that actively assists interprofessional care team to achieve optimal department results. Makes contributions to the work effort, by initiating problem resolution within the work unit.
• Provides contributions towards improvement of department scores for turnover/retention/employee engagement, i.e. peer‑to‑peer accountability.

• Screens walk‑in patients, emergency patients and triages telephone calls from patients and referring physicians to determine appropriate physician and priority of appointments.
• Directs the flow of patients examined by the physician; obtains medical and personal data for patient charts; alleviates patient and family concerns by explaining diagnostic procedures and method of treatment.
• Performs preliminary screening examinations, excluding ocular, for physician review including, but not limited to, central and peripheral visual field tests; ocular motility tests; color vision tests; pharmacological pupil tests; tonometry, tonography and tensilon tonography tests to determine intraocular pressure and pupil testing for size, equality and reaction prior to dilation.
• Screens patients for conditions by examining the cornea, lens and anterior chamber of the eye using a slit lamp and notes variations from normal for physician review.
• Arranges for laboratory and other tests, ophthalmic photography, inpatient and outpatient studies and patient admissions and surgery as requested by physician.

• Measures acuity of patient, with and without glasses, for distance and near vision; obtains optical and lensometry measurements to determine lens prescription and correct acuity problems; records findings on patient chart.
• Reports observations, conditions and problems of patients to the physician and/or nurse. Provides for the privacy of…