See you in a week, and then nothing
A new patient comes in with a sore back. The physio assesses them, starts treatment, gives some exercises and says they would like to see them again in about a week, and probably a few times after that. The patient heads to reception, where two people are waiting and the phone is ringing. They say they will book online later because they need to check their work diary.
They do not book. Maybe the back feels better for a few days, maybe life gets busy. Three weeks later they are still in pain and book with a different clinic, or not at all. Your physio never finds out what happened. Multiply by every clinician's diary and a large share of treatment plans stop after one or two sessions.
Why the next session never gets booked
Most clinic systems, whether Cliniko, TM3, Jane or another, record appointments, not treatment plans. The physio's intention, 'about four more sessions over the next month', lives in the treatment note, not in anything reception can see or act on.
Rebooking happens at the worst moment: at a busy desk, or not at all when the physio works alone and has the next patient waiting. Online rebooking relies on the patient remembering. Nobody runs a list of patients who have an open plan but no future appointment, so drop-off is invisible until someone looks at quarterly numbers.
Insured patients add a twist. They may not know how many sessions their insurer has authorised, and assume they need to call their insurer first, which becomes a reason to delay.
What mid-plan drop-off costs
| Where it shows | What it means |
|---|---|
| Patients who stop after one visit | Treatment plans your physios made are left unfinished |
| Empty follow-up slots | Diary gaps that were expected to be filled |
| No discharge | Patients never formally finished, outcome unknown |
| Referrer relationships | GPs and consultants hear nothing back |
| Clinician morale | Physios never see the result of their work |
Whether a particular patient needs more sessions is your physio's clinical judgement. The admin problem is that the plan they made has no way of turning into bookings.
How we turn plans into booked sessions
- At the end of the session, the physio records the planned follow-up in a quick form or a field in your clinic system: roughly how many sessions and how often.
- Before the patient leaves, they are offered the next session, or the whole run, through a text link with suitable slots already filtered to their physio, which they can book standing at the desk or later that day.
- If nothing is booked within a set time, the patient gets a friendly reminder with the link, in your wording.
- A daily list shows active patients with no future appointment, for reception or the physio to call.
- For insured patients, the number of authorised sessions is shown alongside the plan, so the booking link only offers what is covered, or makes the self-pay terms clear.
- When a plan ends, the physio marks the patient as discharged, which closes the loop and feeds the reports.
The system never decides how many sessions a patient needs. It follows the plan the physio set and makes sure nobody quietly falls off it.
A week later, at reception
The follow-up is already booked for most patients, because it was easy to do before they left. The few who did not book got a reminder, and those who still did not are on a short call list. Physios can see which of their patients are mid-plan, booked or unbooked. The clinic owner can finally see how many plans reach discharge, and which clinicians or conditions see the most drop-off.
Is this your clinic?
- Patients often say they will book online later
- Nobody can list active patients without a future appointment
- Treatment plans live only in clinical notes
- Many patients stop after one or two sessions
- Physios rarely know why a patient did not come back