Scott Duncan — PwC CX Strategy, Québec Market Lead. 25 years in strategy and advisory. Based in Montreal.
More about how I work →
More about how I work →
Most physio and allied health practices don't have a referral problem. They have a follow-through problem. Patients start treatment and don't finish it. Slots go unfilled. The economics leak quietly. I look at your numbers, your online presence, and how patients move through your practice — then help you put the fixes in place, starting with the changes that move the needle fastest.
Most allied health revenue isn't lost to competition — it's lost to incomplete episodes of care. Patients start a treatment plan and quietly stop before it's finished.
Cancellations, late rebooking, and poor slot fill mean practitioners are available but rooms aren't generating. The constraint is flow, not headcount.
Intake friction, referral management, and insurance admin eat into appointment capacity. Reducing that load has immediate and measurable effects on throughput.
Most physio and allied health practices focus on new referrals. Experience Economics starts with a different question: how much value is already in your active patient base that isn't being fully realised?
We map the full patient journey — from referral to first appointment, first appointment to completed episode, completed episode to maintenance return — and measure where drop-offs are costing you revenue. Then we quantify each gap in comparable units.
The result is a ranked list of improvements, sorted by economic impact, that your team can implement in sequence — without adding headcount or disrupting what's already working.
How quickly and reliably a referral converts to a kept initial assessment. Response time, booking friction, and intake experience all affect this — and most practices don't measure it.
The share of patients who complete their recommended episode of care. Drop-out before completion is the single largest revenue leak in most allied health practices — and it's almost entirely preventable.
Where practitioner time is being underused — unfilled slots, short sessions, poor appointment mix — and how to systematically improve fill rate without creating team pressure or burnout.
How reliably patients return after completing an episode — for maintenance, reassessment, or a new complaint. Most practices don't have a system for this; most patients who leave intending to return never book.
A physiotherapy practice with consistent referral flow and high clinical quality, but persistent schedule gaps and lower-than-expected revenue per patient. The economics didn't reflect the demand.
Referrals were arriving consistently, but too many patients were dropping out after 2–3 sessions of a planned 6–8 session episode. The revenue was there in principle — it just wasn't being collected.
A meaningful share of referrals weren't converting to a first appointment within 5 days. Improving intake responsiveness and booking clarity recovered a significant portion of this lost volume.
Patients weren't being given a clear picture of their treatment plan and expected outcomes at the start. Adding a simple plan-setting conversation in session one improved completion rates noticeably within six weeks.
Discharged patients with maintenance needs weren't being re-engaged. A light follow-up sequence — timed to when maintenance needs would typically arise — brought a meaningful share back within 90 days.
Referral → booked rate · completion rate · sessions per episode · no-show & cancellation rate · post-discharge return rate · utilisation % · revenue per patient
Book a Clarity Call to map your patient flow across the key levers and see where revenue is being lost — ranked by impact.