A comparison of patient and peer assessments of optometric care.

The New York City Medicaid Program was forced to impose economies on its monitoring activities because of a fiscal crisis. It was suggested that some optometric peer review be replaced by patient assessments. An analysis was conducted of previously collected data, and it indicated that patient judgments were not equatable with peer evaluations for the determination of quality of care. Nonetheless, patient satisfaction is an important aspect of health care and a topic which optometry should investigate more thoroughly.