What Ophthalmology Can Teach Healthcare Leaders About Managing Private Sector Capacity

Healthcare capacity across both the public and private health sectors are experiencing capacity issues. Amongst a climate of growing NHS waiting lists, there has been a significant increase in the number of people using the private section to speed up treatment.

A recent survey concluded that 16% of 2,600 people in England surveyed had used the private sector, a 7% increase from two years previously. Capacity pressures are showing no signs of easing and healthcare leaders are now being tasked with identifying more efficient ways to reduce patient demand.

A healthcare area that has often led the way in driving operational efficiency is ophthalmology, particularly for elective care. With a growing ageing population in the UK, eye health services have been under increasing pressure from higher volumes of patients. Life expectancy in the UK has increased from 77.17 years in 2000 to 80 years for males and close to 84 years for females.

The growth in the ageing population means that more people need healthcare for longer. The older age groups are also more likely to develop eye diseases, so ophthalmology services are in higher use.  

Health leaders can use insights from the continual innovation applied across ophthalmology to address some of today’s current issues. Ophthalmology services and systems have been adapted to manage increasing caseloads.

Early Adoption of New Technology 

Eye care specialists have frequently been at the forefront of technology adoption, with laser technology being one of the biggest healthcare revolutions in modern time. Patients can now easily book into a range of eye treatments using services such as a glaucoma treatment clinic based in Scotlandor wherever is local to them for a quick, effective procedure.

Retinal imaging has also been an important progression in eye health care, with optimal coherence tomography providing higher quality scans to quickly identify conditions such as glaucoma, macular degeneration and retinal disorders.

Ophthalmology has also been a leader in adopting AI assistance in diagnosis processes, reducing the timeline from initial consultation to receiving treatment. AI systems can now be used to scan huge datasets of images, reducing the workload on optometrists.

Standardised Procedures

Across all areas of healthcare, ophthalmology is considered to be a specialty that has developed the most consistency over procedures. Cataract surgery is an example of one of the processes that most successfully adopt standardised procedures. Advanced technology is at the core of treatment efficiency but the established pathways for cataract surgery patients is essential in delivering faster patient turnover. These pathways include repeatable workflows from referral to post-operative monitoring.

Utilisation Of Multidisciplinary Teams

They also use a staffing model that helps to elevate pressure on optometrists with technicians often taking responsibility for scans and ophthalmic nurses play important roles such as administering eye medication and providing post-operative care. Having a wider set of disciplines means that the pressure from increased volumes does not fall directly onto one specialism.

It also means that highly trained surgeons are not unnecessarily taken away from high-risk cases to work on other areas of treatment such as routine testing and administrative tasks.

Advanced Performance Measurement

Healthcare leaders can also review the approach ophthalmology has taken to measuring performance. Advanced methods include AI analysis to identify issues that can lead to bottlenecks so that they can be prevented. They track data such as clinic productivity and visual outcomes to assess whether improvements are required.

Routine tracking of complications is also common, allowing leaders to make informed decisions regarding adapting procedures.

While eye care services are not immune to growing capacity issues, how they have adapted to higher volumes of patients in the past offers useful insights that can be incorporated into solutions across other areas of healthcare to manage private sector capacity. 

Adopting the latest technology solutions, including AI-enhanced workflows and setting up staffing models that efficiently balance workloads have proven to be highly effective in ophthalmology. AI can also be used to allocate healthcare resources more efficiently, instead of requiring staff to spend time on administration tasks.

Healthcare leaders who are looking for ways to introduce more efficient processes across other services can study the approaches used in ophthalmology to identify best practices that can be carried over into their own field.