Florida Optometrist License Verification

Look up Florida optometrist licenses in the Florida Department of Health (DOH) Medical Quality Assurance (MQA) public search portal. Enter practitioner surnames and get individual license numbers, names, professions, cities, current displayed statuses, and official license-verification URLs in a structured dataset. A healthcare credentialing team can rerun the same inputs to compare the latest public records with its own provider roster.

The public search says its results refresh nightly from the primary database. This Actor does not independently verify a person's identity or determine whether a practitioner is authorized to practice; consult the linked official license detail before making a decision.

Who is it for?

• Provider enrollment and credentialing teams checking Florida optometrists on a recurring schedule.
• Health network compliance analysts reconciling names and license numbers from an internal roster.
• Researchers compiling public optometry credential snapshots for Florida.

Why use this lookup?

One run accepts up to 20 surnames, follows the MQA result pages, deduplicates license numbers, and returns a direct official verification link per record. Unlike a generic provider directory, the result reports the status actually shown in the Florida regulator's public search. Names are not unique; use the license number and official detail page to distinguish people.

What data is returned?

Field	Meaning
licenseNumber	Number displayed by Florida MQA, including prefix
practitioner	Public holder name as shown in the search result
profession	Profession on the source row
city	Public city on the source row
status	Source's displayed license status, such as Clear/Active
verificationUrl	Individual official MQA verification detail link
searchedSurname	Surname input that matched this record
checkedAt	UTC retrieval timestamp, not a source issue date

Only optometrist profession code 1801 is searched. All statuses are included. The search results may include profession labels such as CERTIFIED OPTOM within that profession code.

How to get started

1. Enter at least one surname in Practitioner surnames; the prefilled Smith example is a real query with multiple records.
2. Choose Maximum license records to bound dataset size and runtime.
3. Run the Actor and open the License records dataset view.
4. Open each verificationUrl when making a credentialing decision. Save the dataset with the run timestamp for your audit trail.

Input parameters

Name	Required	Default	Description
lastNames	Yes	Smith prefill	1–20 surnames; letters, spaces, hyphens and apostrophes, 2–80 characters each
maxItems	No	50	Maximum unique records emitted across all surnames, 1–1,000

Example input:

{"lastNames":["Smith"],"maxItems":5}

Sample output

A sample from the public MQA search (values can change on later nightly refreshes):

{
  "licenseNumber": "OPC1445",
  "practitioner": "SMITH, ALAN J",
  "profession": "CERTIFIED OPTOM",
  "city": "WESLEY CHAPEL",
  "status": "Clear/Active",
  "verificationUrl": "https://mqa-internet.doh.state.fl.us/MQASearchServices/HealthCareProviders/LicenseVerification?LicInd=1076&ProCde=1801",
  "searchedSurname": "Smith",
  "checkedAt": "2026-09-25T12:00:00.000Z"
}

The checkedAt above illustrates the field shape; your run produces its own current UTC timestamp.

How much does it cost to verify Florida optometrist licenses?

The Actor uses pay-per-event pricing: a one-time $0.005 start event per run and one item event per emitted license row. The BRONZE item price is $0.005864 per record; FREE is $0.0067436, SILVER $0.0045739, and GOLD/PLATINUM/DIAMOND $0.0035184. At BRONZE, 1 row costs approximately $0.010864, 20 rows $0.12228, and 100 rows $0.5914 (including start). No item event is charged for an empty result. These are estimates; check the Apify pricing panel for your actual spend tier, allowances and billing rules. Refunds, fraud, disputes, taxes, corrections and clawbacks may change eventual payouts. Larger surname lists can return more records and cost more, up to your configured result limit.

Integration ideas

Schedule a run in Apify for your recurring roster checks and export its default dataset as CSV, JSON or Excel. Join on licenseNumber rather than a person's name; compare today's status with your previous stored snapshot in your own pipeline. Send only official verification URLs to the credentialing reviewer, not a guessed practitioner match. Apify webhooks can notify your system when a scheduled run finishes; this Actor itself does not send alerts or maintain historical diffs.

API example: cURL

curl -X POST 'https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/automation-lab~florida-optometrist-license-verification/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"lastNames":["Smith"],"maxItems":5}'

Use your own Apify token; do not put it in public tasks.

API example: JavaScript

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';
const client = new ApifyClient({ token: process.env.APIFY_TOKEN });
const run = await client.actor('automation-lab/florida-optometrist-license-verification').call({ lastNames: ['Smith'], maxItems: 5 });
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
console.log(items);

API example: Python

import os
from apify_client import ApifyClient
client = ApifyClient(os.environ['APIFY_TOKEN'])
run = client.actor('automation-lab/florida-optometrist-license-verification').call(run_input={'lastNames': ['Smith'], 'maxItems': 5})
items = client.dataset(run['defaultDatasetId']).list_items().items
print(items)

MCP usage

For Claude Code:

claude mcp add --transport http apify \
  'https://mcp.apify.com?tools=automation-lab/florida-optometrist-license-verification'

For Claude Desktop, Cursor, or VS Code with an HTTP MCP server configuration, configure:

{"mcpServers":{"apify":{"url":"https://mcp.apify.com?tools=automation-lab/florida-optometrist-license-verification"}}}

Example prompts for MCP usage:

• “Run the Florida optometrist license lookup for Smith, limit five, and include official verification links.”
• “Check the Florida DOH optometrist surname Jones and summarize the public license status for each returned license number.”

Review actual status on the regulator site.

Limits and accuracy

The source is Florida DOH MQA, not a national optometry registry. The search is surname-based; similarly named people may be returned. It does not provide disciplinary history, practice privileges, independent identity matching, or a permanent historical status record. It reads the public search's nightly-refreshed results, not the regulator's primary database in real time. A result limit can truncate the output; increase maxItems if the source has more results than requested. An upstream site redesign, challenge or outage causes a failed run instead of silently returning an apparently complete empty dataset.

Legality and responsible use

The data is publicly displayed by Florida DOH; this independent Actor is not affiliated with or endorsed by the agency. No AI is used. The Actor sends requested surnames to the Florida DOH public search and stores the returned public license rows in your Apify default dataset. It keeps no separate persistent cache; datasets and logs follow your Apify account retention settings, and you can delete them in the Apify Console. Follow applicable law, source conditions, privacy requirements and your organization's policies. Do not treat an Actor output snapshot as a certified primary-source verification letter. Open the official verification page and confirm the current record before consequential decisions.

Troubleshooting and FAQ

Why did my search return no records? Check the spelling and try fewer terms. A valid empty response is distinct from an upstream error. Search on the official portal if you expect a known license.

Why do I see several practitioners with the same surname? The source searches a surname, not a unique person. Compare license numbers and official details.

Does this monitor changes automatically? No. Schedule repeat runs in Apify, then compare the separate datasets in your own workflow.

Can I search other professions or states? No. This Actor restricts every query to Florida DOH's optometrist profession code.

Where can I report a problem? Use the Actor's Apify Store issue form with the run ID and a non-sensitive reproduction input; do not paste personal data or tokens.

Related automation-lab Actors

For other Florida professions governed by a different agency, see Florida DBPR License Records Search. It does not substitute for Florida DOH optometrist verification.