Quality indicators in a community optometrist led cataract shared care scheme.

Purpose: Cataract shared care schemes involving community optometrists show wide variation in practice. We report on defined key performance indicators (KPIs) which improve accountability between stakeholders.

Methods: In this prospective study over nine months at a UK public hospital, we evaluated the outcomes of consecutive direct cataract referrals from community optometrists against two KPIs agreed under a service-level agreement between the Hospital Eye Service and community optometrists: (1) 85% of patients listed for cataract listing at first consultation; and (2) 90% postoperative feedback return rate on patients discharged to community optometrists.