(a) The optometrist or therapeutic optometrist shall, in the initial examination of the patient for whom ophthalmic lenses are prescribed:
  (1) Personally make and record, if possible, the following findings of the conditions of the patient as required by §351.353 of the Act:
    (A) biomicroscopy examination (lids, cornea, sclera, etc.), using a binocular microscope;
    (B) internal ophthalmoscopic examination (media, fundus, etc.), using an ophthalmoscope or biomicroscope with fundus condensing lenses; videos and photographs may be used only for documentation and consultation purposes but do not fulfill the internal ophthalmoscopic examination requirement; and
    (C) subjective findings, far point and near point.
  (2) Either personally make and record or authorize an assistant present in the same office with the optometrist or therapeutic optometrist to make and record the following findings required by §351.353 of the Act. The authorization for assistants to make and record the following findings does not relieve the optometrist or therapeutic optometrist of professional responsibility for the proper examination and recording of each finding required by §351.353 of the Act:
    (A) case history (ocular, physical, occupational, and other pertinent information);
    (B) visual acuity;
    (C) static retinoscopy O.D., O.S., or autorefractor;
    (D) assessment of binocular function;
    (E) amplitude or range of accommodation;
    (F) tonometry;
    (G) angle of vision, to right and to left.
  (3) Personally notate in the patient's record the reasons why it is not possible to make and record the findings required in this section.
(b) The willful or repeated failure or refusal of an optometrist or therapeutic optometrist to comply with any of the requirements in the Act, §351.353 and §351.359, shall be considered by the board to constitute prima facie evidence that the licensee is unfit or incompetent by reason of negligence within the meaning of the Act, §351.501(a)(2), and shall be sufficient ground for the filing of charges to cancel, revoke, or suspend the license. The charges shall state the specific instances in which it is alleged that the rule was not complied with. After the board has produced evidence of the omission of a finding required by §351.353, the burden shifts to the licensee to establish that the making and recording of the findings was not possible.

Source Note: The provisions of this §279.3 adopted to be effective September 9, 2001, 26 TexReg 6679