8–10%
of outpatient physiotherapy appointments were missed at two Metro South Health clinics in Brisbane, a rate the researchers called low compared with other studies.
Queensland hospital study, BMJ Open 2025
Practice analytics · South East Queensland
Stop losing clients between appointments.
CogniFlow Health turns your practice software export into a clear, visual plan: which appointments are likely to be missed, which clients have quietly stopped mid-treatment, and where demand is growing across SEQ.
- No logins to your software
- No names, DOBs or Medicare numbers
- Fixed prices
The problem
Empty slots and unfinished plans cost more than most clinics realise.
A$113
in staff time alone for a single missed appointment in the same study, before the lost fee. Projected cost for one clinic: up to A$114,827 a year.
Same study, 2023 dollars55%
of patients with knee or low back pain stopped coming before they finished their care plan, without being formally discharged.
Balinski et al., JOSPT Open 2024 (United States)As South East Queensland grows, waitlists grow with it. Every empty slot is a client who could have been seen, and every unfinished plan is care that didn't happen. Most of it is predictable from data your clinic already has.
What we analyse
Three questions your appointment book can answer.
Which appointments are most likely to be missed?
We score every upcoming appointment on how likely it is to be missed, using patterns in your own booking history: how far ahead it was booked, the day and time, appointment type, funding source and the client's attendance record.
- A short daily list of who reception should call to confirm
- Your riskiest days, time slots and booking lead times
- Which slots to offer to the waitlist first
SAMPLE FINDINGAppointments booked 22–30 days ahead were missed 16.4% of the time, almost three times the rate of those booked within two days.
Who started treatment and quietly stopped coming?
Some clients come two or three times, never rebook, and never cancel, so nothing in your software flags them. We call them ghost patients. We find every one, rank them by how recently they lapsed and how much of their plan is left, and hand your front desk a caring, non-pushy script to bring them back.
- A ranked recall list by client ID, ready for your team to action
- Lapse rates by discipline, appointment type and funding source
- Call and SMS scripts for a 90-day recall plan
SAMPLE FINDINGOne client with three appointments left on a six-session plan represents about $330 of care that hasn't happened yet.
Where are your services needed most?
Using client postcodes and public data on population growth, age and chronic disease, we map where your clients travel from, where demand is outgrowing local services, and whether a second site or a leased room would pay off.
- Postcode heat maps and drive-time catchments
- Growth and need overlays by local government area
- Second-site and room-lease viability
SAMPLE FINDINGClients travelling more than 25 minutes dropped out of treatment noticeably more often, pointing to an under-served corridor.
01 // MISSED APPOINTMENT RISK
Revenue leak calculator
How much is slipping through your appointment book?
Move the sliders to match your clinic. The defaults use published Queensland figures and a typical small multidisciplinary practice.
Missed appointments
Clients who stop treatment early
Estimated yearly revenue at risk
$102,960
Gross value of missed and unfinished appointments, before any slots are refilled from a waitlist.
Missed appointments$63,360
Clients who stopped early$39,600
Bringing back just 6 clients to finish their remaining appointments covers the $1,850 Retention & DNA Audit.
How we calculate this
Missed = appointments per week × missed rate × fee × 48 weeks
Stopped early = new clients per month × share who stop × appointments left × fee × 12
Default missed rate of 8% is the low end of the Queensland hospital study above. The default fee of $110 sits between the 2026 WorkSafe QLD ($108) and Comcare QLD ($104) physiotherapy follow-up rates and typical private fees. Your audit replaces every estimate with your real numbers.
Sample report
SAMPLE DATA FROM OUR MODEL · NOT A REAL CLINIC
Clear charts. Plain-English findings. A list of who to call.
Your audit arrives as a visual PDF report. Every chart comes with one sentence telling you what it means and what to do next.
Upcoming appointments scored2,500
High-risk appointments64
Value of high-risk appointments$3,366
High-risk clients confirmed by SMS37.5%
Missed appointment rate by how far ahead it was booked
ActualPredicted by model
Key finding: bookings made three or more weeks ahead are missed about twice as often. Confirm them by phone, not just SMS.
Upcoming appointments by risk level
Key finding: only 2.6% of appointments are high risk, so a few targeted calls cover most of the problem.
High-risk appointments by weekday
Key finding: Monday and Friday hold half of all high-risk appointments. Schedule confirmation calls for Thursday and Friday afternoons.
Clients who stopped before finishing their plan, by discipline
Key finding: psychology and dietetics lose the most clients mid-plan. A check-in call after the second appointment is the simplest fix.
Who to contact first
| Client ID | Discipline | Next appointment | Booked ahead | Risk | Value at risk | Action |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PT-211 | Physiotherapy | Mon 2:00 pm | 26 days | HIGH · 31% | $84.35 | Call Friday |
| PS-282 | Psychology | Mon 9:30 am | 34 days | HIGH · 28% | $80.54 | Call Friday |
| SP-364 | Speech pathology | Fri 3:00 pm | 22 days | HIGH · 26% | $75.05 | Call Thursday |
| OT-455 | Occupational therapy | Wed 11:00 am | 18 days | MED · 17% | $71.26 | SMS + call |
| DT-177 | Dietetics | Tue 4:30 pm | 29 days | MED · 15% | $69.39 | SMS + call |
Key finding: reception gets client IDs only. They look each one up in your own software, so no names ever leave the clinic.
How it works
Your export in. A clear plan out.
No integrations, no software to install, and no access to your system. You stay in control of your data the whole time.
Export
We send a one-page guide for your software. Exporting your appointment report takes a few minutes, and you upload it through a secure link.
Analyse
We clean the data, train the prediction model on your own history and test how well it would have predicted your past appointments.
Deliver
You receive a visual PDF report, a ranked recall list, call and SMS scripts, and a 30-minute walkthrough call with AJ.
What we use
- Client ID generated by your software
- Postcode
- Appointment date, time and type
- Discipline and appointment status (attended, missed, cancelled)
- When each appointment was booked
- Funding source (private, NDIS, Medicare plan, WorkCover, DVA) and fee
What we never ask for
- Names or dates of birth
- Street addresses, phone numbers or emails
- Medicare or health fund numbers
- Clinical notes or diagnoses
- Logins or access to your practice software
Works with exports fromClinikoNookalCoreplusPower Diary / ZandaHalaxySploseAny software with a CSV export
Fixed-price audits
One clear price. No retainers. No lock-in.
Retention & DNA Audit
$1,850AUD ex GST
For clinics losing appointments to no-shows and clients who stop mid-plan.
- Missed-appointment risk model trained on your data
- Ranked list of lapsed clients to contact
- Risky days, times, lead times and funding sources
- Drop-out rates by discipline and appointment type
- 90-day recall plan with call and SMS scripts
- Visual PDF report and 30-minute walkthrough
Complete Practice Intelligence
$5,000AUD ex GST
Both audits together. Save $700.
- Everything in the Retention & DNA Audit
- Everything in the SEQ Catchment & Growth Audit
- One combined action plan for the next 12 months
- Retention findings mapped by suburb
- Visual PDF report and 60-minute walkthrough
SEQ Catchment & Growth Audit
$3,850AUD ex GST
For clinics planning a second site, a room lease or new referral partners.
- Where your clients come from, by postcode
- Drive-time catchment maps
- Population growth, age and chronic disease by area
- Referral source analysis, where your export includes it
- Second-site and room-lease viability
- Visual PDF report and 30-minute walkthrough
Not sure which fits? Book a free 15-minute call and we'll tell you honestly.
Who you'll work with
AJ Gerber
Founder & Head Data Analyst
I've spent more than eight years in medical administration, working the front desk and running the systems behind it. Over and over I watched the same thing happen. A client starts treatment, misses an appointment, and quietly disappears. Meanwhile the waitlist grows and someone else waits weeks for a slot that ends up sitting empty.
As South East Queensland keeps growing, that gap gets harder to ignore. So I built CogniFlow Health to close it: predict who is likely to cancel or drop out, help them finish their treatment, and fill last-minute gaps before they cost you.
I also created the Catchment Audit, because the same data shows where care is needed most. It helps providers open their doors in the suburbs that need them, backed by evidence rather than guesswork.
8+ yearsin medical administration
SEQ basedBrisbane to the coasts
Privacy firstDe-identified data only
FAQ
Questions clinics ask us.
Something else on your mind? Ask it on a free call.
Do you need access to our practice software?
No. You run a standard report in your own software and upload the file through a secure link. We never log in to your system and never need your passwords.
What information do you need, and what don't you?
We use client IDs generated by your software, postcodes, appointment dates and times, appointment type, discipline, status, booking date, funding source and fee.
We never ask for names, dates of birth, addresses, phone numbers, emails, Medicare or health fund numbers, or clinical notes.
How do you protect our clients' privacy?
We follow the Australian Privacy Principles. We collect the minimum data needed, sign a data handling agreement with every clinic, keep files encrypted, never share them, and securely delete your data within 30 days of delivering your report.
Appointment history is still health information under the Privacy Act, even without names, so we treat it that way.
If you don't know client names, how does reception know who to call?
Your recall list uses the client IDs from your own software. Your team looks each ID up in your system, so names never leave the clinic.
Which practice software do you support?
Cliniko, Nookal, Coreplus, Power Diary (Zanda), Halaxy and Splose, plus any system that can export appointments to a spreadsheet or CSV file. We'll send you a step-by-step guide for yours.
Do you work with multidisciplinary and NDIS clinics?
Yes. We analyse each discipline separately, including physiotherapy, psychology, occupational therapy, speech pathology, dietetics, exercise physiology and podiatry, and compare funding sources such as NDIS, Medicare chronic disease plans, private, WorkCover and DVA.
How accurate are the predictions?
The model learns from your clinic's own history. Before we hand anything over, we test it against your past appointments and show you how often it was right, so you can judge it yourself. Predictions are likelihoods, not certainties. They tell reception where a phone call is most worth making.
How long does it take, and what do we receive?
The Retention & DNA Audit takes 5 business days from when we receive your export. The Catchment and Complete audits take 10. You get a visual PDF report, a ranked recall list, call and SMS scripts, and a walkthrough call to go through it together.
How does payment work?
Every audit is a fixed price, invoiced when you book. Prices are in Australian dollars and exclude GST. No retainers and no ongoing fees.
Do you work with clinics outside South East Queensland?
The Retention & DNA Audit works for clinics anywhere in Australia. The Catchment & Growth Audit is built around South East Queensland data, from the Sunshine Coast to the Gold Coast and west to Ipswich.
Book a free call
Find out what your appointment book is telling you.
Tell us a little about your clinic and AJ will be in touch within one business day to book a free 15-minute call.
- We'll talk through your no-shows, drop-outs and growth plans
- We'll check your software's export works for us
- You'll get an honest view of which audit fits, if any