Certification

PREPARING FOR YOUR CERTIFICATION

Examining the value and process of certifications for ophthalmic technical staff.

Sharon Brown, COT, COE, Boston

In preparing this article I reflected back to a talk I had given at a regional meeting in 2001 titled “The Benefits of Certification for your Ophthalmic Technical staff.” While many of the advantages have remained the same, there have recently been national policy changes that further increase the value of your certification.

Résumé benefits

Certification is a process that recognizes individuals who have met certain qualifications and demonstrated special knowledge and expertise. Several significant benefits to certification are listed on the JCAHPO website, for example:

■ Certification provides “opens the door” to greater career satisfaction, professional advancement and higher compensation.

■ Specialized training helps certified personnel to provide better patient care.

■ Trained personnel free up physicians to diagnose and treat patients to make their ophthalmic practices more productive.

“Certified personnel… are now recognized by CMS to enter medication or laboratory orders,” says William Ehlers, MD, JCAHPO past president and secretary of advocacy.

The three core certification levels include (in order of advancement):

■ The Certified Ophthalmic Assistant (COA)

■ The Certified Ophthalmic Technician (COT)

■ The Certified Ophthalmic Medical Technologist (COMT)

Additional opportunities for other certifications, including sub-specialties can be found on the JCAHPO website.

In-house testing

At Ophthalmic Consultants of Boston, we have three levels of technicians and scribes and a separate pay scale for each of those levels. To progress through each level, the employee must pass a written and practical test that goes along with a level-specific knowledge exam. These tests are very detailed and often contain a few hundred questions.

The technician is given the complete test to study from and then we randomly pick 50 questions for their exam. In this way, they don’t know exactly what they are going to be asked and need to be prepared by learning everything “by the book.” To advance to the next technician level, the technician needs to pass with a score of at least 75%.

Study guides

We geared these knowledge tests to mimic JCAHPO testing so our intermediate level skill evaluation is a good representation of what will be on the COA exam. In that way, it doubles as a useful study guide for the staff. For the more experienced technicians, the senior level test is an excellent study guide for the COT exam. We have also implemented weekly quizzes that we e-mail to all our technicians. Quarterly study groups are held to prepare technicians for the COA exam and have provided the added benefit of moral support during JCAHPO test preparation.

Providing incentives

In addition to paying for our employees to pursue certification, we also provide bonuses for passing the JCAHPO certification tests. As the tests get more difficult the bonuses go up. Having a specific continuing education policy provides motivation and direction for staff members to achieve and retain certification. OP

Sharon Brown, COT, COE is the director of operations at Ophthalmic Consultants of Boston.