No-show cost calculator
Three numbers you already have, and the figure they add up to. Nothing is sent anywhere — the arithmetic runs in this page.
Your month
A full month rather than a bad week.
Nobody arrived and nobody cancelled in time to give the slot away. Count cancellations separately — they are a different problem.
Not the headline price — the price minus whatever you did not spend because they never came.
What it costs
Fill in the three boxes and the figures appear here. Nothing is sent anywhere — the arithmetic runs in this page.
Questions this raises
- What counts as a good no-show rate?
- There is no benchmark worth quoting. The figure swings with speciality, appointment length, how far ahead you book and who your patients are, so a borrowed average will mislead you in whichever direction it happens to sit. Your own rate last quarter is the only comparison that means anything, which is why this tool prints your number and no target next to it.
- Should cancellations be counted as no-shows?
- No, and mixing them hides the thing you most want to see. A cancellation two days out is a slot you can still sell; a no-show is one you cannot. Count them separately, and expect cancellations to rise as no-shows fall — that trade is usually the sign something is working.
- What should I put as the value of a slot?
- What you would have been paid, minus whatever you did not spend because the patient never arrived — consumables and lab work mostly. For a clinic with mixed appointment lengths, the average value of the slots that actually get missed is closer than an overall average.
- Is any of this sent to you?
- No. The arithmetic runs in your browser and there is no endpoint behind this page. Nothing is stored, nothing is emailed, and there is no address to enter before the result appears.
Where this comes from
The method here is set out in full, with what it does and does not account for, in How to reduce no-shows at your clinic. Nothing you type leaves your browser.
The number is the easy half.
Two-stage reminders, self-service rescheduling and an automatic waiting list are the four steps that post recommends, in the system that already holds the appointments. Free to start, no card.
Start freeFrom the blog
What to do about the number
The calculator is arithmetic. These are the changes that move it, in the order worth doing them.
- How to reduce no-shows at your clinicWhat an empty chair actually costs, why people miss appointments, and the four changes that move the number — in the order worth doing them.Read
- Appointment reminders: what to send, and whenTwo messages, written out in full, plus the rules about timing, channel and consent that decide whether they get read at all.Read
- The numbers worth watching in a clinicSix figures that change a decision, how to work each one out from data you already have, and the popular ones that only make you feel busy.Read