Run the Practice on Numbers, Not Feel
Most doctor-owners can tell you today felt busy. Few can tell you whether this month beat last month, or why. Ten KPIs, reviewed monthly, turn a vague sense into decisions.
The Ten
1. Patient footfall: total visits, split into new and returning. The trend matters more than any single month. 2. New-patient ratio: new patients as a share of total. Too low means weak acquisition; too high may mean poor retention. 3. Revenue per patient: total revenue divided by visits. Falling means discounting or service mix drift. 4. Revenue per hour of clinic time: exposes sessions that are busy but unprofitable. 5. Appointment fill rate: booked slots as a share of available slots, by doctor and day. 6. No-show rate: missed booked slots. Above ten per cent is a reminder-strategy problem. 7. Average wait time: registration to consultation. Rising wait times predict falling reviews. 8. Average consultation time: watch alongside throughput so efficiency gains do not become rushed care. 9. Collections: amount collected versus amount billed in the month. 10. Outstanding dues (ageing): receivables by how old they are, especially from panels and corporates.
Build a One-Page View
Put these on a single dashboard with this month, last month, and the same month last year. If your clinic software cannot produce it, that is a sign the software is under-serving you.
Act on Two, Not Ten
Each month, pick the two worst-trending KPIs and set one concrete action for each. Trying to move all ten at once moves none. Wait time and no-show rate are often the fastest to improve, and a transparent queue tool like ClinicQueue helps with both.