What does an ophthalmic assistant do?
An ophthalmic assistant works with an ophthalmologist and assists with recording patient information, updating patient records, and obtaining medical records. You may also be required to book and follow up on patient appointments. Ophthalmic assistants counsel patients about treatment and care and may be required to take ocular measurements of patients or administer medication. Ophthalmic assistants do a lot of customer service work giving patients information regarding eye care and explaining to patients procedures and medications.
Ophthalmic assistant responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real ophthalmic assistant resumes:
- Experience with IOP, using Tonopen, knowledge of eye drops, emails prescription and refills to pharmacy, for patients.
- Obtain patient history to include chief complaint, past ocular history medication and allergies.
- Check intraocular pressure by application and tonopen.
- Perform OCT, HVF, FA/FP tests.
- Order labs, MRI, ect as necessary.
- Perform OCT scans, and Fluorescein Angiograms.
- Position advancement are based upon leadership skills and technical knowledge in the field of ophthalmology.
- Initial vital signs and triage, chart preparation, automatic refraction, surgical assisting and post op care.
- Consult patients about Lasik and premium IOL's as well as giving advance work up to determine best options.
- Preform vision testing on patients according to physicians requests including visual field, HRT, Pachyemetry, Fundus photography and b-scans.
- Obtain and calculate pachymetry measurements.
- Perform ophthalmic diagnostic testing in a general ophthalmology setting
- Coordinate patients preliminary examination procedures, obtaining vital signs, ophthalmic history, and overall health screening information.
- Assist physicians with complex testing during various exams and diagnostic testing -Direct patients during various exams and coordinate follow-up care
- Provide clinical and administrative assistance when need and perform basic triage per specific office protocol procedures.
Ophthalmic assistant skills and personality traits
We calculated that 20% of Ophthalmic Assistants are proficient in Patients, Patient Care, and Ophthalmology. They’re also known for soft skills such as Analytical skills, Detail oriented, and Interpersonal skills.
We break down the percentage of Ophthalmic Assistants that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- Patients, 20%
Assist physicians with complex testing during various exams and diagnostic testing -Direct patients during various exams and coordinated follow-up care
- Patient Care, 7%
Direct patient care including performing visual field tests, corneal topographies, vision testing, and assisted in minor surgery room.
- Ophthalmology, 6%
Traveled with Doctor to nursing and rehabilitation facilities to provide ophthalmology services.
- Customer Service, 5%
Devised and implemented organization to department, management of equipment, liaison between customer service associates, faculty and students
- Color Vision, 5%
Performed visual acuity, color vision and stereo examinations.
- Triage, 4%
Provide clinical and administrative assistance when needed and perform basic triage per specific office protocol procedures.
Common skills that an ophthalmic assistant uses to do their job include "patients," "patient care," and "ophthalmology." You can find details on the most important ophthalmic assistant responsibilities below.
Analytical skills. To carry out their duties, the most important skill for an ophthalmic assistant to have is analytical skills. Their role and responsibilities require that "medical assistants must be able to understand and follow medical charts and diagnoses." Ophthalmic assistants often use analytical skills in their day-to-day job, as shown by this real resume: "file patient charts; scan new documents to database; fax documents to other medical offices. "
Detail oriented. Another soft skill that's essential for fulfilling ophthalmic assistant duties is detail oriented. The role rewards competence in this skill because "medical assistants need to be precise when taking vital signs or recording patient information." According to an ophthalmic assistant resume, here's how ophthalmic assistants can utilize detail oriented in their job responsibilities: "assist ophthalmologists and optometrists with daily patient care documented detail patient information for doctors reports. "
Interpersonal skills. This is an important skill for ophthalmic assistants to perform their duties. For an example of how ophthalmic assistant responsibilities depend on this skill, consider that "medical assistants need to be able to discuss patient information with other medical personnel, such as physicians." This excerpt from a resume also shows how vital it is to everyday roles and responsibilities of an ophthalmic assistant: "leveraged consultative selling and interpersonal skills to increase sales of laser vision corrective surgery. ".
Technical skills. A big part of what ophthalmic assistants do relies on "technical skills." You can see how essential it is to ophthalmic assistant responsibilities because "medical assistants should be able to use basic clinical instruments so they can take a patient’s vital signs, such as heart rate and blood pressure." Here's an example of how this skill is used from a resume that represents typical ophthalmic assistant tasks: "position advancement was based upon leadership skills and technical knowledge in the field of ophthalmology. "
The three companies that hire the most ophthalmic assistants are:
- Emory Healthcare9 ophthalmic assistants jobs
- Cleveland Clinic9 ophthalmic assistants jobs
- eyecarecenter7 ophthalmic assistants jobs
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Compare different ophthalmic assistants
Ophthalmic assistant vs. Certified retinal angiographer
These skill sets are where the common ground ends though. The responsibilities of an ophthalmic assistant are more likely to require skills like "patients," "ophthalmology," "customer service," and "color vision." On the other hand, a job as a certified retinal angiographer requires skills like "fundus photography," "iv," "fa," and "blood pressure." As you can see, what employees do in each career varies considerably.
Certified retinal angiographers tend to reach higher levels of education than ophthalmic assistants. In fact, certified retinal angiographers are 9.2% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 1.0% less likely to have a Doctoral Degree.Ophthalmic assistant vs. Paraoptometric
Each career also uses different skills, according to real ophthalmic assistant resumes. While ophthalmic assistant responsibilities can utilize skills like "patient care," "ophthalmology," "customer service," and "triage," paraoptometrics use skills like "scheduling appointments," "blood pressure," "oct," and "dr."
Average education levels between the two professions vary. Paraoptometrics tend to reach similar levels of education than ophthalmic assistants. In fact, they're 0.5% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 1.0% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Ophthalmic assistant vs. Ocular care technician
The required skills of the two careers differ considerably. For example, ophthalmic assistants are more likely to have skills like "patients," "ophthalmology," "customer service," and "triage." But a ocular care technician is more likely to have skills like "scheduling appointments," "medical charts," "fundus photography," and "physical assessments."
Ocular care technicians typically earn higher educational levels compared to ophthalmic assistants. Specifically, they're 8.7% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree, and 1.0% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Ophthalmic assistant vs. Eye technician
Even though a few skill sets overlap between ophthalmic assistants and eye technicians, there are some differences that are important to note. For one, an ophthalmic assistant might have more use for skills like "ophthalmology," "customer service," "triage," and "allergies." Meanwhile, some responsibilities of eye technicians require skills like "schedule appointments," "fda," "patient customer service," and "test results. "
The average resume of eye technicians showed that they earn similar levels of education compared to ophthalmic assistants. So much so that theyacirc;euro;trade;re 0.6% less likely to earn a Master's Degree and more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree by 0.2%.Types of ophthalmic assistant
Updated January 8, 2025
