<H4>BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE</H4>
<P>To determine whether house staff experience affects the quality of acute ophthalmic care delivered in an emergency room at one teaching hospital.</P>
<H4>PATIENTS AND METHODS</H4>
<P>The medical records
of 360 patients who were seen by first-year ophthalmology
residents in the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute emergency
department were retrospectively reviewed. Records
reviewed included 180 patients seen between July 15,
2002, and August 14, 2002 (the beginning of the training
year), and 180 patients seen between June 1, 2003,
and June 30, 2003 (the end of the training year).</P>
<H4>RESULTS</H4>
<P>The rate of unscheduled return visits to the emergency department at the beginning and end of the training year was 6.1% (11 of 180) and 5.0% (9 of 180), respectively (<I>P</I> = .82). Agreement between initial and final diagnoses occurred in 96% of patients (108 of 113) at the beginning of the training year and 98% of patients (84 of 86) at the end of the training year (<I>P</I> = .70).</P>
<H4>CONCLUSION</H4>
<P>There was no difference in the quality of medical care delivered by first-year ophthalmology residents at the beginning and end of the training year.</P> <P>[<CITE>Ophthalmic Surg Lasers Imaging</CITE> 2007;38:358-364.]</P>
<H4>AUTHORS</H4>
<P>From the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute, University of Miami, Miller School of Medicine, Miami, Florida.</P> <P>Accepted for publication June 12, 2007.</P> <P>Supported by NIH center grant P30-EY014801 and by an unrestricted grant to the University of Miami from Research to Prevent Blindness, Inc., New York, New York.</P> <P>Presented at the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology annual meeting, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, May 1-5, 2005.</P> <P>Address correspondence to Steven J. Gedde, MD, Bascom Palmer Eye Institute, 900 N.W. 17th Street, Miami, FL 33136.</P>