Your department already exists. We find where you are losing the international patient, and how much it is worth.
For institutions that already receive international enquiries and convert less than they should. We quantify the leak in dollars per year, close it completely, and then work on acquisition, retention and margin.
Five criteria. If you meet three or more, your route is to grow.
- There is a person holding the title of international patient officer
- All international leads are in a single record
- Response, quotations and closes are measured weekly
- International prices are published or in a price list
- There were more than 10 international patients in the last 12 months
The patient is not lost in one place. They are lost drop by drop.
When an institution has a department and still does not convert, there is almost never a single big cause. There are five leaks, each losing a fraction, and the compound effect takes most of the volume.
The first figure we produce is not a qualitative diagnosis. It is a number.
International enquiries per month × the difference between your current conversion and the one achievable with architecture × your average ticket = what is being lost per month.
Annualised, it is the figure that opens the conversation with the board. And we do not estimate it with industry averages: we calculate it with your enquiries, your conversion and your ticket.
A leak is closed completely or it is not closed
It is the operating rule of the method. An institution with four half-closed leaks performs worse than one with a single leak fully closed, because the patient falls anyway, only one step further along. That is why the audit does not spread effort: it identifies the leak with the most breaches and closes it entirely before touching the next one.
- 01Demand
- 02ResponseSpeed
- 03ContactQualification
- 04Assessment
- 05Tele-guidance
- 06ProposalPrice
- 07Follow-upFollow-up
- 08Decision
- 09Care
- 10Post-care
Four leaks occur at a specific step. The fifth, the absence of an owner and of measurement, runs through the whole journey and is the one that sustains the other four.
Every international enquiry receives a human response in under 20 minutes, seven days a week, with name, role and a next step with a date, in the patient's language.
A script of six to eight questions covering procedure, urgency, medical history, dates, budget, companion, language and country. Each lead classified as viable, needs information or not viable. And tele-guidance offered to all viable cases.
An international price list in dollars per procedure, three to five packages with what they include and what they do not, and a formal quotation in a document sent in under 24 hours, in the patient's language and with a payment plan and change or cancellation conditions.
Scheduled follow-up at 3, 7 and 14 days after each quotation. A recorded reason when a lead does not advance. A reactivation message at 30 days. And post-care contact at 7 and 30 days, with a request for a testimonial.
A person with the title and responsibility for the international patient. All leads in a single record. Weekly measurement of enquiries, response time in minutes, quotations and closes. International revenue reported separately in the income statement.
Once the leak is closed, growth begins
Closing the leak recovers what was already coming in. These six gaps are the ones that make what comes in grow.
Which markets respond to you and which ignore your offer. What your ideal patient profile is and whether it is used to qualify. Which growth engine is switched on: one market per procedure per channel, with a measured indicator.
The complete funnel, step by step, with the drop-off rate of each. Enquiry, contact, assessment, tele-guidance, quotation, decision.
The fifteen trust assets: accreditations, specialist credentials, procedure volume, documented cases, own results, testimonials, reviews, videos, technology, complication protocols, infrastructure, partnerships, price transparency, bilingual team and backing. The question is not whether they exist: it is whether the patient sees them, where, and in their language.
A contact plan at 30 and 90 days. What the patient receives before arriving and what happens 30 days after discharge. Of the last 20 patients, how many returned or referred.
Identified referral sources and a rate measured every month. It is the lowest-cost source of international patients that exists and the one most institutions leave to chance.
We write as a patient to three competitors: one local, one from the country's large cities and one from the destination you compete with abroad. You see your performance beside theirs, measured the same way.
And the economics: ticket, margin per procedure, cost of acquisition and lifetime value calculated with your own data. Below a ratio of 3 between lifetime value and acquisition cost, the department is not a business: it is a service subsidised by the rest of the institution. It can be a valid strategic decision, but it must be a decision, not a discovery.
Four horizons. Twelve months.
Cycle and trust
Lead lifecycle configured in the CRM. Trust assets built into the quotation. A test enquiry to the competition made and recorded.
Leak closed
Main leak fully closed, at all four points. Cost of acquisition and lifetime value measured. A 30 and 90-day retention plan in execution.
Second engine
Second acquisition engine operating. Referral programme active. Competitive comparison reviewed.
Contribution
Positive contribution of the department in the income statement.
Would you rather try the method first? See the two-day workshop
What changes when we finish
| Before | After |
|---|---|
| "We believe we lose patients in follow-up" | You know at which of the 10 steps you lose them, and how much it is worth per year in dollars |
| "Conversion is a diffuse annual number" | It is measured step by step, by market and by procedure, every week |
| "Improvements are decided by intuition" | The leak with the most breaches is closed, completely, before touching another |
| "No one knows whether the department is profitable" | Cost of acquisition, lifetime value and contribution to the income statement, calculated |
| "The trust assets exist but no one sees them" | The three strongest ones, visible in the quotation and in tele-guidance |
| "Referrals arrive by chance" | Sources identified and a rate measured every month |
This route is not for your institution if
- Your department has been operating for less than six months. There is not enough data to audit and the build route serves you better.
- There is no record at all of the operation. The audit begins by reconstructing information and the timeline stretches. We will tell you before signing.
- You want us to increase your advertising spend. We correct the operation that receives the spend.
Frequently asked questions about this route
What is the investment?
The minimum is the equivalent of USD 10,000 per year. The scope is defined after the Assessment, according to sites and operating volume.
Do you need access to our data?
Yes. To the records of the international operation of the last 12 months, to the CRM if there is one, and to the entry channels. A confidentiality agreement is signed before any access.
Are you going to assess our team?
We do not assess people. We audit the system. In most cases the team was doing the right thing within a poorly designed process.
How long until results are seen?
First-response time moves within weeks. Conversion to procedure depends on the decision cycle of your specialty, and the first verifiable milestone is at 90 days.
First the number. Then the correction.
The International Readiness Assessment establishes the baseline: what happened with a real international enquiry sent to your institution, your score out of 40 on the eight-dimension radar, and your main leak quantified in dollars per year. In 10 business days.