Use case · Patient recall

    Patient recall, handled automatically.

    Most private clinics have hundreds of patients overdue for their next appointment. Coherent finds them, reaches out at the right moment, and gets them rebooked — without your team running a single report.

    From solo practices to large groups, the clinics we support
    care for 563,000+ patients globally.

    What is patient recall?

    Patient recall is the process of identifying patients who are due — or overdue — for their next appointment and proactively bringing them back. In private healthcare it covers hygiene visits, treatment reviews, repeat treatments and annual check-ups. Done well, recall turns a clinic's existing patient database into predictable, recurring revenue.

    Why patient recall matters

    A patient who misses their recall window isn't just an empty slot — they're a relationship at risk of churning to a competitor. Manual recall depends on someone remembering to run a report and work through it by phone, which rarely happens consistently when the clinic is busy. The result is a quiet, compounding loss: the average clinic has hundreds of recallable patients sitting unworked in its database.

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    Why recall is the highest-return work in a clinic

    Recall is unusual among growth levers because the patients are already yours. They have visited, they trust the clinic, and many genuinely intend to come back — they simply haven't been prompted at the right moment. That makes recall far cheaper than acquisition: there's no ad spend, no cold outreach and no convincing required, just timely, relevant contact. Yet because it's nobody's full-time job, it's the work most likely to be skipped when the diary is full. The clinics that treat recall as a system rather than an afterthought consistently turn their back catalogue into their most reliable source of bookings.

    The hidden cost of inconsistent recall

    When recall depends on someone finding a spare hour, it happens in bursts — a flurry of calls one week, nothing for a month. Patients fall outside their ideal recall window, drift to a competitor, or simply forget they were due. The loss is invisible on any given day, which is exactly why it compounds: a clinic can lose a substantial share of its repeat revenue to lapsed patients without a single alarming moment. Systematising recall removes the dependency on memory and free time, so every patient is contacted at the right interval, every time.

    Recall is a system, not a campaign

    The clinics that get recall right stop treating it as an occasional campaign and start running it as an always-on system. That means clear rules for when each treatment type is due, a defined sequence of contact across the channels patients actually respond to, and a single owner accountable for the outcome rather than a task that floats between busy team members. It also means measuring recall as its own line of revenue, so its contribution is visible and protected rather than buried in the day-to-day. Coherent operationalises all of this: it watches the database continuously, knows each patient's ideal interval, and works every overdue patient through a persistent, personal sequence until they're either rebooked or genuinely no longer reachable — turning a sporadic effort into dependable, recurring income.

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    Signs your recall is leaking revenue

    • Hundreds of past patients have no future appointment booked
    • Recall only happens when someone finds a spare hour
    • No one can say how many patients are currently overdue
    • Recall goes out as a bulk reminder blast rather than personal outreach
    • Patients return saying “I meant to come back sooner”
    • Different team members chase the same patients, or no one does
    • Recall revenue isn't measured, so its real value stays invisible
    How Coherent helps

    Coherent continuously scans your patient management system and flags everyone past their recall window — by treatment type, last visit and expected interval. There are no reports to run, no spreadsheets to maintain and no manual review, so nobody is overlooked simply because no one had time to check.

    What good recall looks like
    Manual / in-houseWith Coherent
    Finding overdue patientsSomeone runs a report when there's timeEvery overdue patient surfaced continuously
    TimingWhenever the diary allowsAt each treatment's ideal recall window
    ChannelPhone calls in office hoursWhatsApp, SMS, email and phone
    Follow-throughOne attempt, then forgottenPersistent and personal until rebooked
    OwnershipFloats between busy staffA single accountable owner
    MeasurementRecall revenue untrackedReactivations and revenue reported
    07Proven in private clinics
    563,000+
    Patients cared for by clinics we support
    +18%
    Appointment uplift, no new headcount

    Coherent brought well over a hundred patients back into our clinic

    LouiseCEO, Nakedhealth

    See it for yourself

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    is leaving on the table.

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