New patient
A person coming to the clinic for the first time for a consultation or treatment. New patients show how well advertising and the front desk work, and future clinician workload depends on them.
≈ new patients · first-time patient · first-time patients · first-visit patient
Why new patients are counted separately
A new patient does not yet know the clinicians, does not trust the clinic and is comparing it with others. They are most often lost at the early stages: could not get through, got no reply, booked and did not turn up, heard a price with no explanation. If new and returning patients are counted together, overall occupancy hides acquisition problems: the diary is full, but fewer new people are coming in. This tends to show up too late, when existing patients finish their treatment.
How to count them and what to do
Every visit in your CRM or practice management software needs a ‘new’ or ‘returning’ flag. Then follow the chain: how many enquiries came in, how many booked a first consultation, how many attended and how many accepted a treatment plan. It is worth looking at the same chain for each clinician and each receptionist.
- The front desk uses the same script for new and long-standing patients.
- The first consultation ends with no next step, and the patient leaves ‘to think about it’.
- Nobody calls new patients who missed their appointment.
- Results with new patients are mixed with sales to existing patients.
What matters to a new patient is a fast reply, a clear conversation with reception, appointment confirmation and a definite next step after the consultation. I test the first steps of this path in a free express front-desk check: I call and message the clinic as a new patient and watch where they could be lost.