Dr. Kate Piotrowski. All photos courtesy of Dr. Piotrowski.
Understand how to break down and monitor data to make positive changes
By Kate Piotrowski, OD
Oct. 8, 2025
I’m always interested in an opportunity to track data and learn from it in all aspects of my life. Personally, I’ve been known to wear a continuous glucose monitor not because I have to, but because I want to learn more about what’s going on in my body. This builds stronger connections and conversations with our patients with diabetes.
On the business side, there are so many important key performance indicators (KPIs) to examine on a regular basis, too. We have a specific plan we follow on a weekly, monthly and quarterly basis. It helps me keep a close eye on the vitals of our business along with my team leaders.
We monitor the finances of the practice and set our goals based on trends. Many of our office processes are based on guidance from the book Traction by Gino Wickman. This resource was recommended to me by business colleagues, and its methods have fit well for our practice.
I’ll break down our methods for weekly, monthly and quarterly analysis.
Monitoring the Data
There are many metrics to look at, so we use multiple color-coding systems for our different data groups. We hold weekly Level 10 meetings specifically to share the data where we discuss issues which lead to changes and resolutions and communications regarding those changes.
We use specific colors to alert items that need attention. For example, when we identify a metric as red or orange during our weekly meetings, we immediately move that item over to the agenda for discussion during our issues section of the meeting.
Our team leads help disperse information to our various departments. Getting staff involved with data for their area can help energize their efforts towards contributing to the practice’s overall success. We can succeed when we work together.
Weekly
Our weekly reporting meetings include our owners, clinic manager and a team lead from each department. Our head of technology reviews our scorecard with KPIs. The numbers are reported with historical data from the same time last year.
The whole purpose of this specific meeting is to have clear accountability. If we report a metric and then start speculating about why we had that result, it’s easy to make up excuses. In the absence of actual data, it’s natural to create meaning when there is none. We make note of areas for concern to take proper action later.
Our KPIs monitored on a weekly basis include:
- Number of weeks behind in recalls
- Number of OD exams
- Schedule fill rate as a percentage
- Percentage of new patients
- Exam revenue
- Contact lens revenue
- Optical revenue
- Product sales as a percentage of overall revenue
- Number of jobs in the lab
- Lab re-do rate
- Capture rate for glasses
- Staff cost as a percentage of total revenue
The doctors at Pacific Eye Doctors.
Monthly
We also look at several specific KPIs on a monthly basis. We analyze how the numbers compare to other times of the year, month to month as well as that same month during the previous year.
Our KPIs monitored on a monthly basis include:
- Revenue from services
- Revenue from products
- Total revenue
- Number of new patient exams
- Number of new patients
- Comprehensive vs. specialized exams
- Revenue per OD exam
- Revenue per comprehensive exam
- Product revenue as a percentage of total revenue
- Lab redo number percentage
- Number of jobs in lab
- Eyeglass capture rate as percentage
Quarterly
On a quarterly basis, we set goals and identify other metrics that we may want to examine on a weekly and monthly basis. We make predictions about what types of goals are attainable or not. During a recent quarterly meeting, we based the data on our number of OD shifts and what we can expect for the next quarter. It’s important to be prepared for as it dictates the amount of money coming into the clinic.
My Responsibility
My area to monitor and manage is our percentage of new patients. With a practice that is nearly 40 years old, most of our patients are established. We didn’t always have a lot of new patients coming through the door. Now, we aim for 12 percent new patients per year. We monitor the data on this every week.
One strategy we’ve found success with is making annual visits to our local health care providers. We meet with new doctors to the community as well as revisit with those who we already know to remind them of our services.
It’s important to cover all the bases each time—you never know who will learn something new. Last year, I encountered a general practitioner (GP) who was not aware that optometrists could prescribe eyedrops for glaucoma. While this has been the case for over a decade, this GP had not yet been informed. I saw it as my duty to educate about all that optometry can offer.
We’ve invited members of a local urgent care team to visit our clinic. We talked about our diagnostic abilities and the volume of patients we see. We outlined that our schedule allows us to absorb many emergency patients each day. They can see first-hand how they can trust to refer their ocular emergencies to our clinic to help ease their own patient flow.
Make these yearly interactions a tradition. It’s a strong reminder that you care and can provide a wide range of services to your mutual patients. These efforts have led to strong bonds with many local health care providers.
Room to Improve
One of our current focuses for improvement is our number of weeks behind in recalls. This data is shared with the front desk team and, more recently, also our optical staff. We are falling behind, and our front desk lead and team members are discussing ideas and ways to catch up.
For a personal touch, we’ve traditionally had staff make phone calls to patients. It’s something we’ve done for decades. Yet we are seriously reconsidering this method based on the number of hours of staff time it consumes. We are exploring automated options that may work best for our patient base, which includes a large volume of geriatric patients.
Read more Practice Management articles on ROB here.
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Kate Piotrowski, OD, is a partner at Pacific Eye Doctors in Maple Ridge, British Columbia. To contact her: integrator@pacificeyedoctors.ca |
