“The Board unanimously chose CE Broker because it brought all stakeholders together in one platform, increased operational efficiencies and immediately reduced the workload for staff.” – Mario Guiterrez, O.D.F.A.A.O., Texas Optometry Board Chairman
Industry
Optometry
Location
Texas
Number of Licensees
5,500* as of 2022
Challenge: Meeting Increased Demand
A core duty of the Texas Optometry Board (Board) is to oversee licensure and continuing education. Annually, Board staff were manually reviewing and entering into a database each CE certificate for license renewal for each license. The agency had a very small staff, and only one individual was responsible for the renewal paperwork, which was sent to the board via email, fax, and physical mail. This caused a backlog of work and extremely long wait times for license renewal certificate processing. Because of the increased workload during renewal season and small staff, data entry errors and renewal delays were common. Staff had trouble keeping up during the renewal periods, and customer service suffered.
During the 2020 renewal cycle, the Covid-19 pandemic contributed to severe delays in the renewal process that negatively impacted providers’ abilities. Due to the staff’s inability to keep up with the renewal process during the new environment brought on by the pandemic, the Board was forced to pass an emergency rule that extended license expiration dates.
Solution: Adopt and implement a modern, automated system
Since the manual, paper-based solution was not providing adequate results and the difficult 2020 renewal season created additional problems, the Board decided to search for an automated digital solution. The Board evaluated several solutions, including a national association tracking system. In the end, the Board chose CE Broker as their solution to modernize and streamline renewal processes for staff, licensees, and CE providers.
The Board stated the following reasons for choosing CE Broker over the other evaluated systems:
True data ownership
The CE Broker contract ensured that the Board owned the data. This was in line with regulatory board standards.
Responsive customer service
CE Broker’s customer service availability was superior to the competitors.
Built-in approval system
Paper education providers and course applications were effortlessly converted to CE Broker’s digital approval system.
Alignment with current practices
CE Broker customized the Board’s digital platform to their laws, rules, and renewal process.
Feature-rich platform
CE Broker’s easy-to-use digital platform enabled optometrists to fulfill licensing requirements through online courses and immediately report course completions to the Board through the platform.
No cost to licensed professionals, education providers, or the Board
CE Broker operated without any cost to the Board and instead relied on voluntary subscriptions.
Easy integration with existing platforms
CE Broker can function as a standalone or integrate with other systems. The Board elected to integrate CE Broker with its licensing system through CE Broker’s API, which made the renewal process even quicker for licensees.
Results: Improved Internal Processes, Customer Service, Regulatory Compliance, and Public Safety
Migration to CE Broker was effortless. The Board staff had regular meetings with the CE Broker implementation team and had input throughout the entire process. The time from signing the contract to delivering the solution was less than four months.
The new solution transformed the previous challenges the Board regularly faced providing exceptional customer service with a small staff and cumbersome, slow, paper-based processes.
“After a thorough Board evaluation process, which included evaluating other CE trackers, the Board unanimously chose CE Broker because it brought all stakeholders together in one platform, increased operational efficiencies, and immediately reduced the workload for staff. Mandating the use of the CE Broker platform not only proved to be beneficial to the agency but also empowered our licensees and provided an exceptional opportunity to track their CE compared to our previous manual method and any of the other methods we evaluated.
CE Broker is a tool that helps our agency issue renewal licenses in a more timely manner without cutting any corners related to our statutory obligations.“
Mario Guiterrez, O.D.F.A.A.O.
Texas Optometry Board Chairman
About the Texas Optometry Board
The mission of the Texas Optometry Board is to promote, preserve, and protect the health, safety, and welfare of the people of Texas by fostering the provision of optometric care to the citizens of Texas through the regulation of the practice of optometry. The regulatory agency is charged with licensing, regulating, and enforcing the Texas Optometry Act and related regulations.
About CE Broker
CE Broker is a continuing education tracking and auditing system. It is best-in-class software that connects licensing boards, education providers, and licensed professionals in one easy-to-use platform designed to increase compliance rates, streamline administrative complexity and encourage professional development.