A patient is never "just a $150 visit." Enter four numbers to see what each patient is really worth to your clinic — including the referrals they send you.
Estimate only. Direct LTV = annual revenue × years. Referral value = referrals/year × years × first-year referred value.
When a patient is "worth $150," spending $40 to win them back looks expensive. When that same patient is worth $5,600 over the relationship, a recall campaign, a reminder sequence, or a better check-in experience is the cheapest money you'll ever spend.
Most clinics underinvest in retention because they price the visit, not the relationship. The two levers that move lifetime value most are retention (keeping patients coming back year after year) and referrals (happy patients who send friends). Both are systems problems, not luck — recall lists, follow-up after treatment plans, and reactivation campaigns for lapsed patients.
Multiply average annual revenue per patient by the average number of years a patient stays, then add the value of the referrals that patient sends you. This calculator computes both parts.
It varies widely by specialty. Published practice-management benchmarks often cite several thousand dollars per patient over a multi-year relationship, with referrals adding substantially more.
Because acquisition is expensive and retention is cheap. A patient worth thousands over their lifetime justifies far more spending on recall, follow-up and experience than a single visit suggests.
Each referral a patient sends has its own first-year value. Multiply referrals per year by that value and by the years the relationship lasts, and add it to the direct lifetime value.
Podo360's recall lists, follow-up tracking, and automated reminders make sure no patient — and no lifetime value — slips away.
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