Why focus on recall response rates?
Diabetes is the leading cause of blindness in Australia, yet most vision loss can be prevented with regular eye checks and early treatment.
However, 50% of people living with diabetes aren’t having regular eye checks.
With this known barrier, it was important to identify opportunities to increase the number of patients living with diabetes having their eyes routinely tested. One such opportunity was to increase the recall response rate at which patients attend recommended appointments after receiving a recall message.
This opportunity led to the launch of KeepSight, led by Diabetes Australia and supported by Specsavers, Vision 2020 Australia, Oculo, as well as leading diabetes and eye health groups.
What the data is showing
Two years since launch, Specsavers data has started to highlight the comparison between the recall response rate for patients with diabetes versus standard patient recalls. While patients with diabetes have always responded to recall at a higher rate than standard recall response, the data demonstrates that since the launch of KeepSight, the percentage has further increased.
Using baseline data from September 2019, before the launch of KeepSight, Specsavers data showed 30% of patients with diabetes responded to recall reminders within the recommended timeframe, compared to 17% of patients who received a standard recall. In the time KeepSight has been implemented, this has increased to 34% of patients with diabetes responding to our recall reminders.
Specsavers’ Head of Professional Services Naomi Barber says, “It is estimated that people with diabetes face up to 180 diabetes-related decisions every day. That is more than 65,000 extra decisions a year. Combined with busy personal and professional lives, remembering and scheduling regular eye checks can be overlooked.
“The value in collaborating with KeepSight is in ensuring that those patients with diabetes who did not return following a Specsavers recall message now receive KeepSight reminders and don’t fall through the cracks when it comes to their eye health.
“Our data shows that the number of patients with diabetes seen across the Specsavers practice network has increased, from 5.2% of patients in January 2019 to 6.6% in January 2021. The data also shows more than 3,000 patients with diabetes were re-registered with KeepSight in January 2021 – making up more than 20% of KeepSight registrations for the month and showing that Specsavers and KeepSight reminders are helping to ensure patients with diabetes are receiving regular eye checks.
“In addition, our optometrists have already seen over 17,000 patients with diabetes registered with KeepSight return for an eye health check in the second half of last year, and we anticipate that trend to continue in the next 2-3 years in accordance with recall timeframes.”
