Optometry Practice Data Analytics: How To Pull Business Insights

As an optometry practice owner, your operational efficiency is just as important as patient care. A successful practice with efficient electronic medical record (EMR) software, streamlined medical billing processes, and convenient scheduling access can provide comprehensive vision care to more prospective patients. The only way to achieve such success is by pulling critical improvement insights from targeted optometry practice analytics. 

Data analytics involves examining practice statistics over time to locate key trends and improvement areas. Practice analysis is critical in efficient practice management. By analyzing data and developing insights, you can increase revenue, improve patient outcomes, attract new patients, increase patient engagement, and more, (schedule a free demo with Weave today to see how your practice can start today).

Collecting data and using it to improve is a must for any modern optometric practice. Below, we discuss what you should measure and how to use your findings to make real improvements. 

The Importance of Utilizing Practice Data

Using practice data to boost efficiency and healthcare outcomes is no myth. In 2011, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services created the Medicare and Medicaid Electronic Health Records Incentive Programs (now called the Promoting Interoperability programs) to encourage medical practices and healthcare professionals to use EHR systems for improved patient access to health information via medical records. This motion displays a nationwide movement toward using data to improve public health. 

A research study from 2020 sought to measure the outcomes of practice management efficiency strategies. One organization implemented protocols to reduce costs, improve patient health, enhance the patient experience, and boost productivity, while another similar organization continued its typical operations. The organization implementing the new strategies saw 48% more patient slots, showing improvements in practice efficiency, revenue, and public health.  

But what exactly can data do for your practice ownership? You can discover the following insights:

• Pain points: When you have a large staff with thousands of patients coming in and out, it’s easy for simple mistakes to go unnoticed. With comprehensive data, you can locate even the smallest errors to improve eye care results and organizational efficiency.

• Lost revenue: Data helps you locate wasted spending, billing issues, and savings opportunities to improve your revenue flow.

• Productivity: As a healthcare provider, productivity directly impacts patient care. You can use data to streamline how your practice runs.

Optometry Metrics and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) To Measure

Key performance indicators (KPIs) are specific, actionable, and measurable insights you can use to transform data into business improvements. You should list the KPIs most important to your business, measure initial starting points, and continue tracking the data over time to see what does and doesn’t work. Any optometrist or private practice owner should track the following metrics:

• Active patients: How many patients actively schedule visits

• Scheduled production vs. unscheduled patients: The number of recurring patients versus existing patients that do not return

• Cancellations: How many patients do not show up or cancel their appointment

• New patient appointments and reappointments: How many potential patients are scheduled and rescheduled to return

• Practice sales and revenue: The total sale figures over set periods versus actual revenue (you can break this down by where the profits and losses come from)

You can also use Google Analytics software data to measure optometry website engagement, digital marketing success, search engine rankings, site traffic, campaign ROIs, and more. A few additional KPIs you may want to consider include the following:

• Total number of patient visits

• Referral tracking (i.e., friends or family, social media, website, etc.)

• Drugs dispensed history

• Insurance analysis

• Productivity and income reports

• A/R aging reports (the time it takes to receive outstanding balances)

• Claim acceptance or denial rates

• Billing to payment received time

Insights You Can Pull From Optometry Analytics

By tracking the above data, you can generate the following insights:

• See which patients haven’t started treatment: After locating stagnant patient histories, you can send appointment scheduling reminders to improve patient health and incoming cash flow.

• Better predict revenue: When you view long-term cash flow trends, you can create more realistic practice management budgets with revenue predictions.

• See which patients purchase glasses: Understanding which eye care concerns lead to sales helps you improve ordering rates. You can also use this insight to follow up on patients needing more eye health support.

• Set growth and efficiency goals: By tracking your current metrics, you can define your organization’s short- and long-term growth and efficiency objectives.

• Improve wait times: Data can reveal helpful insights surrounding critical aspects of the patient experience, like office wait times, phone call holds, communication issues, and more.

• Discover career opportunities: Data can uncover operational holes you may fill with new roles.

• Improve diagnostic accuracy: You can improve eye care diagnoses with comprehensive patient history data and reduce inefficiency.

• Reduce treatment costs: By locating wasted spending areas and determining what your patients need most, you can reduce organizational and treatment costs.

Streamline Your Practice Today

Efficiency is critical in managing a successful optometry practice that helps patients while generating revenue. Measuring the above KPIs to pull insights can feel overwhelming if you don’t know where to start. While you could use multiple data platforms for your medical billing services, scheduling insights, revenue flow, and so forth, the data would become fragmented, and it would be hard to look at the bigger picture. 

At Weave, we offer a solution for optometry practices that combines all of your needs into a single, intuitive platform. With Weave, you can streamline your phone system, payment collections, text reminders, patient reviews, scheduling, digital forms, and EHR system for comprehensive analytics and optimal efficiency. Practices using Weave save an average of $7000 in staffing costs, with 50% fewer missed calls. 

You can use Weave to take control of all internal and external practice operations, improving the patient experience while helping your business succeed. With our platform, you can easily view all critical practice data in one place to track KPIs, measure improvements, and develop insights.  

Streamline your optometry practice analytics with Weave today by scheduling a free demo to see the product in action or calling our team at 833-572-2139 for more information.