Employment of Optometric Staff

Optometric staff include allied health professionals who assist optometrists in providing vision care to patients. Non-optometrist staff extend the optometrist's capabilities by assuming routine and technical aspects associated with operating the optometry practice and providing vision care services. Depending upon experience, optometric staff may perform a variety of duties such as front desk procedures, billing and coding of insurance claims and patient scheduling. Under the supervision of the employing optometrist, optometric staff may also perform more clinical duties such as pre-testing, taking detailed patient histories, measuring visual acuity, contact lens procedures and instructions, and dispensing of eyewear.

This report provides descriptive statistics on the employment of optometric staff in optometry practices within the United States for the year 2011. Contents of the 2012 Employment of Optometric Staff reports include:

• Percentage of optometry practices employing optometric staff
• Average weekly/hourly salary of optometric staff, by type
• Percentage of optometric staff per practice, by type
• AOA Paraoptometric Section and Commission on Paraoptometric Certification 

This report provides information on the non-optometrist positions in optometry practices only. Information on professionally active optometrists may be found in the Income from Optometry report or the Practicing Optometrists and their Patients report from the 2012 Survey of Optometric Practice.

Reports available from the 2012 Employment of Optometric Staff include: