1. (a) The optometrist or therapeutic optometrist shall, in the initial examination of the patient for whom ophthalmic lenses are prescribed, personally make and record, if possible, the following findings of the conditions of the patient:

   1. (1) biomicroscopy examination (lids, cornea, sclera, etc.), using a binocular microscope;
   2. (2) 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
   3. (3) subjective findings, far point and near point.
2. (b) When it is not possible to make and record the findings in subsection (a) of this section, the optometrist or therapeutic optometrist shall notate in the patient's record the reasons the findings are not possible.
3. (c) An assistant present in the same office with the optometrist or therapeutic optometrist may make and record other findings required by §5.12 of the Act, except those required by subsection (a) of this section. When it is not possible to make and record the findings in subsection (a) of this section, the optometrist or therapeutic optometrist shall notate in the patient's record the reasons the findings are not possible. The authorization for assistants to make and record certain §5.12 findings does not relieve the optometrist or therapeutic optometrist of professional responsibility for the proper examination and recording of each finding required by §5.12 of the Act.
4. (d) The willful or repeated failure or refusal of an optometrist or therapeutic optometrist to comply with any of the requirements in the Act, §5.12(a) and (b), 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, §4.04(a)(3), 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 §5.12, 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 §279.5 adopted to be effective August 11, 1983, 8 TexReg 2934; amended to be effective February 16, 1989, 14 TexReg 694; amended to be effective September 10, 1993, 18 TexReg 5745; amended to be effective May 10, 1994, 19 TexReg 3171; amended to be effective May 17, 1996, 21 TexReg 3942; amended to be effective August 2, 1998, 23 TexReg 7564.