This content was created by Kelly Alhooie. This content was uploaded by Kelly Alhooie. This is a podcast episode titled "5 Reasons Patients Leave a Healthcare Practice" (PODCAST) created on 2026-03-28. It is a solo, spoken-piece by Kelly Alhooie in which she outlines five common reasons patients drop out of care—no clear path/expectations, slow or insufficient early results, life overwhelm (e.g., busy parents), failing to set expectations about temporary worsening before improvement, and poor practice responsiveness or staff interactions—and offers practical retention advice (set expectations, provide quick wins, offer virtual/self-paced options, audit schedules, follow up). She also directs listeners to @pelvibiz on Instagram and to book a call for more help.
Chapters
5 surprising reasons that patients leave your business, whether or not you're online or in person. Number 1: if you have not pointed out that there is a clear path to follow and set the expectation up front, the patient will not execute that path. Meaning, if you don't say up front, hey, it's going to be these 3 phases, we must complete these 3 phases to get you the actual result, The patient will not know to stay around that long. That's number one. Number two, you did not get them the results fast enough, meaning they are— I see this a lot in runners, they're very impatient. Okay, so those runners out there, sorry if you're that, but you're very impatient. You want it now. Okay, most of us want it now, by the way. Okay, and if they cannot get the result now, they're like, this is too long, it takes too much time, I, I can't do this, it's not worth time, effort, energy, money, all the different things, and they will drop off. So my question to you guys is, what are you doing each visit to give someone a quick win to show them this is worth it? You have to do that, otherwise they will just Go bye-bye. Another reason if they leave your practice is they are like a crazy busy mom. Maybe they came down with— like, the kids came down with an illness and she came down with an illness, and it's just like they're so overwhelmed they will leave. They'll just quit because they cannot take care of themselves and try to take care of their family as well. And feel confident in that because they don't have the skill set. And this is where we come in to provide them the skill set and offer them different solutions, whether or not that's they do virtual coaching, whether or not they do teletherapy, whether or not they do a self-paced home program that you can provide them and get clarity on, right? They all want this, by the way. Maybe there's an app that you have that you can develop that tells them, hey, Yeah, this is exactly what you're doing, good job, I'm right there with you. But it's on their terms. It's not scheduling something at 12 o'clock on a Friday where they gotta get a babysitter for their kids and they gotta take off work and they gotta— I mean, it's just, it's a lot, it's a hassle. It's a hassle. And so I'm seeing that trend come where they're trying to make it, make healthcare easy. Like, that's really kind of the trend. I just came up with that. But make healthcare easy. That's really like access easy. That's really the trend that people are going on. Um, what else? Let me think. What else makes the patient want to leave? Uh, again, not setting expectations. This is number 4, not setting expectations upfront, saying that you will have a down before you have an up. It's not just linear because they think the second that 'Oh my God, my abdominal pain increased,' they're gonna go bye-bye because then they don't think that you know what you're doing. And so you have to set that expectation immediately up front, saying, 'You know what, there are going to be worser days before you have better days, but those worser days are going to be shorter and they're not going to be as intense.' And when you set that expectation, then when that worst day happens, they're not like, 'Cancel, you suck,' you know what I'm saying? And I would say the, the fifth thing that I have seen is if the overall business or practice is not responsive, is not like on top of it, and they just don't like the vibe, or maybe, I don't know, one of the admins were not nice over the phone or something like that. Then they will just be like, I'm done, I'm not gonna be here. Like, let's say they had a question about a super bill or something and the, the practice didn't handle it well. Well, then they're like, you know what, I'm out. Like, I'm not doing this anymore. So I would say those are the top 5 things of why I see a patient leave the practice that might surprise you. And if you're like, wow, if you go back and audit your schedule and you're like, wow, we do have people just leave and they don't finish their full plan of care that you have specifically cultivated for them, then I would really look at these reasons that I just talked about and be like, hmm, are any of those true or could be true to be able to help get the patient the end result and get them to complete their full plan of care? So if you are wondering about like, hey, how can I do this better? Let me know. I'd be happy to help. But that is truly the top 5 things and reasons why people leave a practice. And when they leave, we make note of that because then I will go talk to the therapist. I will go, if it's just, if I'm solo, I will think about it myself and be like, hmm, how do I actually make this work better and be able to, you know, not have that happen again so that the patient can get the results and see that this is beneficial. And that's what you need to be auditing constantly so that, you know, you don't have, you know, so many people drop off and then you're like, crap, what's happening? Um, so that is something to audit, think on, and then process. And if you have questions, please let us know. You can us @pelvibiz. So it's P-E-L-V-I-B on Instagram. You can send us a message there. It is me answering. And I will shoot you something back. So hopefully you guys have a great rest of your day. Bye, guys. Want more information and want to learn how that you can keep bettering yourselves? Go ahead, click the link down below and make sure that you book a call. And we'd love to provide any clarity questions on any follow-ups. Bye, guys.
