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Specsavers rolls out initiative to enhance practice consulting rooms

Initially a 12-month project, the scheme will focus on factors that affect the wellbeing and productivity of optometrists during eye examinations

optom in practice

Specsavers has begun a global project to assess and enhance its in-practice consulting rooms.

The project, which began in September 2022 and is expected to take 12 months initially, will seek to understand the main ergonomic factors that affect the wellbeing and productivity of optometrists, contact lens opticians and audiologists during consultations.

It will look at consulting room environment and equipment from a safety, wellbeing, and efficiency perspective, and will work with chartered ergonomists, Morgan Maxwell, to do so.

The project will collect data through in-practice observations and interviews, in order to understand what processes look like in the consulting room currently and what changes might be required.

Experts from Morgan Maxwell will visit Specsavers practices to observe clinicians and carry out the project work.

A survey is also being sent out to Specsavers clinicians in order to further understand the dynamics of working in consulting rooms.

Specsavers practices across all global markets, including the UK, will be involved in the project, which the company hopes will lead to a ‘high-level understanding of clinician needs.’

Following analysis of the data collected, digital human modelling software will be used to ensure that any proposed design for new audiology and optometry testing rooms will provide a comfortable and efficient working environment for clinicians with a wide range of anthropometric measurements, Specsavers said.

The project began in September 2022.

Paul Morris, director of professional advancement at Specsavers, told OT: “This is an exciting global project which seeks to make consulting rooms as effective and comfortable as possible for clinicians.”

He added: “This will also benefit patients as we continue to go the extra mile in our mission to change lives through better sight and hearing.”

Lead image: Jude Edwards, optometry director of the Northampton Group of Specsavers practices, and Stephen Bowden, chartered ergonomist and human factors specialist at Morgan Maxwell