Patient drop-off and revenue-leak calculator
This calculator shows where new patients drop out between first inquiry and program start, and what that costs your practice. Enter your monthly inquiries, the share who move past each step, and your program value. You get patients lost at each step, the biggest leak, and what a 10-point gain at your weakest step is worth.
The numbers below are examples to show how the tool works, not benchmarks. Replace them with your own. Use whole practice numbers only, never patient details.
Fixing your biggest leak, program start (50%), is worth about
$90,720 a year
Raising it by 10 points, to 60%, adds 3.6 program starts a month, worth $7,560 for each month of inquiries.
Today 18 of your 100 monthly inquiries start a program. Each month of new starts is worth $37,800 over 6 months.
Patients lost at each step, per month
- Intake form: 40 lost, worth $25,200
- Lab fee: 15 lost, worth $12,600
- Consult booking: 9 lost, worth $9,450
- Program start: 18 lost, worth $37,800
Upper limit: if no one dropped out at any step, one month of inquiries would bring in $85,050 more. No practice keeps everyone, so treat this as a ceiling, not a target.
How the numbers are worked out
Each step uses the share of patients who made it through the step before. Multiply them together to get the number who start a program.
- Program starts = inquiries × intake % × lab fee % × consult % × program %.
- Value of one program patient = program value per month × months retained.
- Patients lost at a step = patients who reached the step × (100% − that step's %).
- Revenue lost at a step = patients lost there × the share who would have started a program at your current rates for the later steps × value of one program patient.
- Revenue not captured = the revenue lost at all four steps added together. The yearly figure is the monthly figure × 12.
- 10-point gain = program starts with the weakest step raised by 10 points (capped at 100%), minus program starts today, × value of one program patient.
The weakest step is the one with the lowest percentage. In a chain like this, it is also the step where lost patients cost the most, because a small rate there holds back every step after it.
Worked example
A practice gets 100 inquiries a month. Of those, 60 finish intake, 45 pay the lab fee, 36 book the consult and 18 start a program. One program patient pays $350 a month for 6 months, so each is worth $2,100.
- The 40 patients lost at intake would have started a program at 75% × 80% × 50% = 30%. That is 12 patients, or $25,200.
- The 15 lost at the lab fee would have converted at 80% × 50% = 40%. That is 6 patients, or $12,600.
- The 9 lost at consult booking would have converted at 50%. That is 4.5 patients, or $9,450.
- The 18 who had a consult but did not start would each have been worth $2,100. That is $37,800.
Added together, $85,050 of program revenue is not captured from each month of inquiries. Program start is the weakest step at 50%. Raising it to 60% gives 21.6 starts instead of 18, which is 3.6 more patients and $7,560 a month.
These figures assume every lost patient would have behaved like your current patients at the later steps. Treat them as a ceiling for what better follow-up can recover, not a forecast.
Common questions
Where do these percentages come from?
Count one recent month. Take inquiries from your form tool or phone log, completed intakes from your EHR, paid lab fees from your payment processor and booked consults from your calendar. Rough counts are fine for a first pass.
Are the example numbers typical for a cash-pay practice?
No. They are round numbers that make the math easy to follow. Rates vary a lot by service, price and how quickly a practice replies, so use your own counts.
Why is the yearly figure so large?
Each month's lost patients are counted at their full program value over the months they would have stayed. Twelve months of that adds up fast. It assumes nothing else changes, so read it as the size of the gap rather than money you will get back.
Is anything you enter saved or sent?
No. The calculator runs in your browser and nothing you type leaves the page. It asks for practice totals only, so no patient information is involved.