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 at risk of being 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 shows up in data your clinic already has.
What we analyse
Three questions your appointment book can answer.
Which appointments are at risk of being missed?
We score every upcoming appointment with simple, published rules: past no-shows, past late cancellations and how far ahead it was booked. Every score shows its working. Then we test the rules against your own past appointments, so you can see whether they hold up at your clinic.
- 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 more than six weeks ahead were missed 21.3% of the time, seven 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 · 6 MONTHS · 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.
Appointments analysed5,000
Lost to no-shows$39,710
Unfinished treatment$79,310
Clients to call back258
Missed appointment rate by how far ahead it was booked
Missed (no-show) rate
Key finding: bookings made more than six weeks ahead were missed seven times as often as those made within two days. Confirm them by phone, not just SMS.
Next week's appointments by risk level
Key finding: 44 of 207 bookings scored High: that's reception's phone list. Medium gets an SMS that asks for a reply.
High-risk appointments by weekday
Key finding: Monday holds almost half of next week's high-risk bookings (21 of 44). Make confirmation calls on Friday afternoon.
Clients who stopped before finishing treatment, by funding type
Key finding: NDIS clients stall most often, usually around their plan review. A check-in call before visit 8 is the simplest fix.
Who to contact first
| Client ID | Funding | Next appointment | Booked ahead | Risk score | Why | Action |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PT500156 | Medicare EPC | Mon | 4 days | HIGH · 100 | 2 no-shows, 2 late cancels | Call Friday |
| PT821590 | NDIS | Tue | 48 days | HIGH · 100 | 3 no-shows, 1 late cancel, booked 48 days ago | Call Monday |
| PT599948 | Medicare EPC | Mon | 22 days | HIGH · 85 | 2 no-shows, booked 22 days ago | Call Friday |
| PT158655 | NDIS | Mon | 9 days | MED · 40 | 2 late cancels | SMS, ask for a reply |
| PT514850 | NDIS | Mon | 62 days | MED · 35 | 1 late cancel, booked 62 days ago | SMS, ask for a reply |
Key finding: every score shows its working, so reception knows why they're calling. They get 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, apply our published scoring rules and test them against your own past appointments, so you can see how well they work for your clinic.
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 scores, tested on your own history
- 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: spot 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 risk scores?
We use simple, published scoring rules, not a black box: points for past no-shows, past late cancellations and bookings made far in advance. Before we hand anything over, we test the rules against your past appointments and show you how often high-risk bookings were actually missed.
If the scores don't separate risk well at your clinic, we tell you plainly and the list works as a reminder list instead. Your lapsed-client list and revenue figures don't rely on predictions at all: they come straight from your appointment history.
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