The Hidden $2k-$5k Monthly Revenue Leak in Sports PT Clinics

If you own a sports or ortho PT clinic doing $50k or more per month, you're probably losing $2,000 to $5,000 every single month. Not to competition. Not to bad marketing. To invisible leaks in your existing patient flow. Let me break down exactly where this money goes.

The No-Show Leak

Take a clinic with 200 scheduled visits per month. A 10% no-show rate means 20 missed appointments. At $150 per visit, that's $3,000 per month walking out the door. That's $36,000 per year from no-shows alone. But here's what most clinic owners miss: no-shows aren't random. Track your data and you'll find that 15 to 20 patients cause 80% of your missed appointments. These chronic no-showers have patterns. They book Monday mornings and never show. They cancel within 2 hours of their appointment. They've done it 3 times in the past 6 months. This isn't bad luck. It's a pattern you can predict and address.

The Early Drop-Off Leak

The average PT patient completes only 65 to 70% of their prescribed plan of care. For a clinic seeing 30 new patients per month, if 30% drop off after visit 6 instead of completing all 10 visits, that's 9 patients leaving early. Nine patients times 4 missed visits times $150 equals $5,400 per month in incomplete care. Why do patients drop off early? Three main reasons:

• They feel better (but aren't actually healed)

• Life gets busy and PT falls off their priority list

• Nobody explained why visits 7 through 10 actually matter

The "I'm feeling better" conversation at visit 5 or 6 determines your completion rate. Most front desk staff aren't trained to handle it well.

The Lapsed Patient Leak

How many patients in your EMR haven't visited in 6 months or more? Most clinics have 200 to 500 inactive patients sitting in their database. Nobody's reaching out to them. That's not a dead list. That's money you already earned the right to collect. A simple quarterly reactivation campaign to 300 lapsed patients, with even a 10% response rate, brings back 30 patients. At 5 visits each at $150 per visit, that's $22,500 in recovered revenue. From patients who already know you, already trust you, and already live in your service area.

The Math That Matters

Add it up:

• No-shows: $3,000/month

• Early drop-offs: $5,400/month

• Lapsed patients: Depends on list size, but easily $2,000 to $5,000/month in opportunity cost

Total leak: $8,000 to $10,000 per month. That's $100,000 per year. You don't have a marketing problem. You have a leak problem. Pouring more leads into a leaky bucket doesn't fill the bucket faster. It just wastes leads.

What Actually Fixes This

The solution isn't hiring more front desk staff or buying better software. It's implementing three specific systems: 1. Multi-touch reminder sequences with same-day follow-up for no-shows 2. Proactive check-ins around visits 4 and 5 when patients are most likely to drop off 3. Quarterly reactivation outreach to your inactive patient list None of this is complicated. It just has to actually get done consistently. This February, I'm running a free 30-day sprint for 3 sports/ortho PT clinics. We install the follow-up system (no-shows, drop-offs, reactivation). Your team approves messages, we handle the setup. No cost, no contract, no catch. DM me or visit wiebe-consulting.com if you want the details.