3 Metrics to Measure Doctor Performance in a Multiple Doctor Practice

• Introduction
• Accountability
• 3 Metrics to Measure Doctor Performance in a Multiple Doctor Practice
• Spreadsheet

Introduction

After using my: MBA Key Metrics Spreadsheet several times, I have come to realize two things:

1.  It does NOT prioritize Recommended Actions in terms of highest opportunity.   Because of this, I am working on an auto-prioritization algorithm in my next FREE version, to highlight those of greatest impact to your practice.

2.  “Comparing the usage of PAL, AR, high-index and photochromic lenses to industry norms” will almost always populate as a recommended action.  The MBA recommends that most practices review this, regardless of how well your practice is doing.

Accountability

If all areas of a practice management software is filled in properly as structured data, then accountability is established.  This accountability is what is used for fine-tuning your practice, for
example: determining responsibility in lab errors for glasses orders; improper charting/coding during an exam.  Don’t finger-point!  Establishing accountability will reveal areas of improvement- it is a team effort.  You succeed as a team, you fail as a team.

Your practice should be monitoring your dispensary production.  There are great articles that give you tips on how to tweak your performance in the dispensary:

• How to Increase Your Frame Sales by Richard Kattouf, O.D., D.O.S. via Optometric Management
• Increase Your Capture Rate by Dave Ziegler, O.D. via Optometric Management
• Steps to Increasing Capture Rate via VSP Global

Complete pair and/or secondary pair capture rates are certainly tied to team effort.  An optician must provide excellent customer service and process a patient’s order accurately, and in a timely manner.  It is equally important for a doctor to “prescribe at the chair”.  This synergy is the perfect combination to optimize your key metrics.

3 Metrics to Measure Doctor Performance in a Multiple Doctor Practice

Aside from the dispensary and optician metrics, there is a way to quantify and visually depict a doctor’s ability to “prescribe at the chair”.  This measurement is an advanced metric, and should only be implemented after a fine-tuned dispensary workflow is established.

Here are the three metrics that I suggest tracking:

1. Gross Receipts per Complete Exam per Doctor
2. Complete Pair Capture Rate per Doctor
3. Screening Capture Rate (i.e. Optos, OCT Screening) per Doctor

1. Gross Receipts per Complete Exam per Doctor

Management & Business Academy Key Metrics: Assessing Optometric Practice Performance states that this practice metric is the “single most useful measure of practice productivity”.  You can take this a level further and break it down by doctor.  

This will give you a feel of what product each doctor is prescribing.  Is one doctor prescribing Varilux Comfort while another is prescribing Custom Free-form Progressives?  Is one doctor prescribing “Anti-Reflective Coating” while another is prescribing “Crizal Prevencia”?

Review of Optometric Business has several resources on prescribing from the chair, here are a couple:

• Prescribing From the Chair by Mark Wright, OD
• A quick video on the Importance of Prescribing from the Exam Chair

2. Complete Pair Capture Rate per Doctor

Tracking capture rate should not solely be tied to the optician or the dispensary.  If you want to monitor how effective a doctor is prescribing, this is another metric to track.  

Capture rates above 100% shows that a doctor is well-versed in prescribing second pairs or sunglasses.   Check out Dr. Justin Bazan’s article Prescribe Sunwear from Your Chair via Review of Optometry

3. Screening Capture Rate (i.e. Optos, OCT Screening) per Doctor

If you have a screening device in your practice, that device is typically of mutual benefit to both the patient’s care and the practice’s interest.

A major retailer sets their Optos capture rate at 70%.  You can use this benchmark to monitor your doctor’s ability to prescribe a screening service.

Spreadsheet

I have created a simple spreadsheet that makes data entry simple. It will auto-calculate these metrics and also automatically generate these charts.  This spreadsheet is available for FREE.  I am offering this spreadsheet free of charge without any guarantee or support.

Interested?

If you are interested in the FREE Doctor Metrics Template, click HERE to request access to the Google Spreadsheet file. Please click on File and Make a Copy to edit your own spreadsheet.

How to use the spreadsheet

Areas in Blue:  Only needs to be filled in once

Areas in Green:  Fill in on a monthly basis

If you would like to report an issue/glitch/error/fix, please highlight the field(s) in question and click on Comment, on the upper right hand corner of the Doctor Metrics Template.

Conclusion

You can use this spreadsheet to monitor:

• What products each doctor is prescribing
• How effective each doctor is prescribing to a patient
• The doctor’s ability to prescribe a screening service

I want to mention, again, that the most successful practices look at tweaking multiple areas of the practice to achieve favorable results, not just one.  Please don’t just take a look at the numbers, take into account all the other possible areas of improvement with your staff: lens knowledge, customer service skills, practice management software skills, personalities, educational approach, etc…  By focusing and controlling what occurs in the exam room and what occurs in the dispensary, you can decide and create your practice’s own unique footprint and approach to effective patient care.