Guiding Principles of Benchmark Reporting

Benchmark reporting for optometrists has played a pivotal role in the Transforming Eye Health strategy, keeping optometrists abreast of their activity through presentation of simple, patient centric metrics. The key differentiator of benchmark reporting is that it provides context to the recipient of how their clinical activity compares to their peers and evidenced based statistics on eye disease prevalence.

Several elements combine to create an effective benchmark report for optometrists:

A carefully considered selection of relevant measures

Raw data needs to be transformed into meaningful metrics; metrics need to accurately describe clinical practices that drive outcomes; and all measures need to relate back to the daily clinical activity of an optometrist.

Benchmarks derived from large-scale data

1. The current average performance nationally for optometrists;

2. Industry-recognised statistics on disease prevalence;

3. The measured impact of current or new initiatives on elements of practice.

Consideration should be given to how benchmarks are presented. In some instances, it will be most meaningful and relevant to benchmark peers operating in a similar environment, whether this be a geographic region, across peers of similar experience, or those who utilise the same technology and processes. Derivation of benchmarks like this does require large-scale and often longitudinal data collection however, benchmarks can evolve as the data sources become richer.

Visualisation and presentation

The report should be presented in a way that allows the recipient to directly compare their own activity to the full spectrum of performance. Trends in performance over time should be clearly visible and the report design needs to be consistent across multiple metrics for ease and speed of interpretation.

Engagement

Data should be captured and distributed at an appropriate frequency and in the appropriate format to impact behaviour. Consideration should be given to how optometrists might interact with their data, when and how the data is provided to them and measurement of their engagement with reporting to drive future enhancements.

At Specsavers these guiding principles are used to continuously refine individual, practice, regional and national level benchmark reports designed to create awareness amongst optometrists and demonstrate the impact of behavioural and practice changes on detection of eye disease.