For UK MSK and private clinic owners
Appointment request forms are not online booking
Run the numbers and see what forms really cost once delay, reception chase, weaker attendance and agency fees are counted.
A form fill can make Google Ads look efficient. The clinic still has to respond quickly, reach the patient, and convert the enquiry into an attended appointment. This calculator shows the real cost per attended patient and compares it with a conservative online-booking CPA benchmark.
Your data stays in your browser. We never see or store individual clinic numbers.
Your form-fill CPA is not your patient acquisition cost.
The report says you generated form fills at a sensible cost. That is where most reporting stops.
The actual journey continues. Someone has to call, email, text or WhatsApp the patient. Some patients do not answer. Some booked appointments never attend. The form-fill CPA is only the start of the cost stack.
The calculator starts with the numbers a clinic owner usually has: how many form leads came in, what they cost, and how quickly the clinic responded. The useful metric is not cost per form fill. It is cost per attended new patient.
Counts the whole form journey
Reported lead count, ad cost, agency fee, response delay, staff chase and attendance rate.
Compares with online booking
Compare your real form CPA with a conservative online-booking CPA benchmark.
Shows the commercial gap
Show the extra cost per patient, per 10 attended patients, and at the current monthly volume.
Three steps. Three minutes.
Enter the report numbers
How many form leads were reported, and what did they cost in total?
Add clinic reality
Response time, who follows up, how many attempts are made, and how many attended patients result.
Compare the journeys
See cost per attended form patient and the gap versus a conservative online-booking CPA benchmark.
Why forms make reporting look better than reality
They optimise for the wrong action
Ad platforms can learn to find people who submit forms, not necessarily patients who commit to a slot and attend.
They create a response-time problem
In pain, injury and MSK, the patient often wants the quickest appointment. A callback queue loses that urgency.
They push cost into reception
The agency report does not show staff minutes, duplicate enquiries, voicemail loops or patient follow-up admin.
Your report includes
Real cost per attended patient
The headline number after lead cost, agency fee, delay, chase and attendance are included.
Form-fill cost waterfall
A visual breakdown from reported form CPA to the final attended-patient cost.
Response-time penalty
Model how slower follow-up reduces the form-to-booked rate before reception even starts chasing.
Reception time cost
Price the admin work that turns forms into bookings: calls, texts, emails and repeated contact attempts.
Online booking benchmark
Compare the real form CPA with a conservative online-booking CPA and show the extra cost per 10 patients.
Other HMDG planning engines
Use this with the other HMDG tools to understand the whole clinic economics picture: acquisition, pricing, capacity, retention and valuation.
FAQs
Why not just count cost per form fill?
Because the clinic has not acquired a patient yet. A form fill still needs contact, qualification, booking, confirmation and attendance. Cost per attended patient is the useful metric.
Are forms always wrong?
No. Forms can make sense for complex triage, insurance-heavy services, high-risk screening or services where suitability must be checked before booking. For standard MSK and private clinic appointments, forcing a form is usually unnecessary friction.
What if my reception team responds instantly?
Set the response time to 5 minutes and reduce the staff time if your team is genuinely fast. The model will show whether forms still compete with online booking when the operational process is very strong.
How is the online booking comparison calculated?
Conservatively. It does not assume online booking creates extra enquiries or extra bookings. It compares the same booked appointments with less staff chase and a stronger attendance assumption.
Does this include staff salary?
Yes. It prices staff time used for form follow-up and extra inbound calls. You can choose clinician, reception, dedicated admin or nobody chasing.
What do you do with my data?
Nothing. Your inputs stay in your browser. We never see or store individual clinic numbers.
Is it free?
Yes. No card, no email, no sign-up.
Who built this?
HMDG. We work with UK MSK and private clinics on marketing strategy, patient acquisition and clinic economics.