No-show
When a patient has a booked appointment but neither turns up nor lets the clinic know. For the clinic it means wasted clinician time and an empty chair, and often a lost patient as well.
≈ no-shows · missed appointment · missed appointments · did not attend · no-show rate
What a no-show means for a private clinic
A no-show is more than an empty slot in the diary. The clinician and assistant are in, the room is ready, and the time can't be resold at the last minute. When the missed visit is a first consultation, the clinic usually loses the patient altogether: they booked, but never got as far as a treatment plan.
The calculation is simple: the number of patients who didn't attend and didn't let you know, divided by all appointments in the period. Track it separately for new and returning patients, by clinician and by day of the week. Cancellations and reschedules are counted separately.
Why patients don't turn up and what to do about it
The cause is more often the process than the patient. Typical front-desk mistakes:
- the appointment is booked far ahead and nobody reminds the patient;
- nobody explained what happens at the visit or what it costs;
- appointment confirmation is skipped or done as a formality;
- the CRM has no "did not attend" status, so no-shows stay invisible.
What works: confirming the appointment the day before and on the day, a clear message with the address, the time and what to bring, and a follow-up call to every patient who didn't come. The point of that call is not to reproach but to rebook. Freed-up slots are filled from the waiting list.
In a front-desk audit I check how the clinic records no-shows and what happens next. You can estimate what they cost you with the loss calculator.