70% of your patients
never finish their
care plan.
An analysis of patient retention patterns across Australian chiropractic practices - and the system that brings them back.
Routiq - Australian Chiropractic Report 2026Chiropractic is one of Australia's fastest-growing allied health professions.
Chiropractic care is designed
to be ongoing. Patient behaviour
says otherwise.
Corrective care plans typically span 12-24 sessions. Maintenance protocols call for adjustments every 4-6 weeks. These are long-term treatment plans being abandoned after a handful of visits.
WebPT, SPRY PT, TrackStatThe economics of ignoring retention.
Most practices spend 80% of their marketing budget chasing new patients while existing patients silently disappear.
A consistent pattern across every chiropractic practice we analyse.
Across the practices we reviewed, a consistent pattern emerged - regardless of size, location, or specialty mix. The vast majority of patients in every database were lapsed, reachable by SMS, and had never received a single recall message.
What follows is representative of what we typically see in chiropractic practice databases.
In a typical chiropractic practice database, around seven in ten patients haven't been seen in over 90 days. Many haven't visited in years.
Typical patient recency distribution
Most chiropractic practices have no automated system for identifying patients who've dropped out of their care plan, understanding where they are in their treatment, or sending clinically-relevant recall messages at scale.
Practice management software manages bookings. It was never designed to bring patients back.
Four reengagement segments hiding in every chiropractic database.
What reengagement looks like for a typical chiropractic practice.
Based on a practice with 3,000 patients, ~70% lapsed, at standard Australian private chiropractic rates.
| Segment | Estimated Pool | Reengagement Rate | Recovered | Avg Value | Revenue |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Care Plan Dropouts | ~735 | 10% | 74 | $525 | $38,850 |
| Maintenance Lapsed | ~420 | 12% | 50 | $75 | $3,750 |
| Initial Contact Only | ~525 | 8% | 42 | $975 | $40,950 |
| No-Show Recovery | ~105 | 25% | 26 | $75 | $1,950 |
| Total - First Pass | 192 | $85,500 |
And maintenance patients don't come once - they come every 4-6 weeks. Those 50 recovered patients generate $3,750 every 4-6 weeks = $40,000+/year in recurring revenue.
Modelled on Australian private chiropractic rates. Conservative reengagement assumptions.These numbers aren't optimistic. They're conservative.
“Can't I just get my CA
to send some texts?”
Sending messages is easy. Getting lapsed patients to act is the hard part.
82 cognitive principles from Nobel Prize-winning research. Applied to every message, automatically.
Routiq's messaging engine is built on behavioral science frameworks from 20 seminal works in psychology and economics - not marketing copywriting.
Commitment & Consistency + Goal Gradient
The first asks for action. The second activates commitment & consistency (you started this plan), goal gradient (you're halfway there), and loss aversion (don't lose the progress you've made). Loss-framed messages outperform gain-framed messages by 2-3x in healthcare settings.
Loss aversion (prevent issues from building up), anchoring (10 weeks vs. 4-6 week norm), pratfall effect (zero guilt for no-shows), and planning prompts (specific options, not open-ended).
The 3-touch behavioural escalation sequence.
Every campaign follows the same evidence-based structure. Three messages. Three psychological mechanisms. Automated and personalised.
Commitment & Consistency
“You started a corrective plan and made great progress through 8 sessions. Most patients start feeling real improvement around sessions 10-12. We'd love to help you finish what you started.”
Default Effect
“We've found a time for you on Wednesday at 2pm with Dr M - reply YES to confirm, or CHANGE for other options.”
Social Proof + Scarcity
“Most of our patients on maintenance plans find that regular adjustments keep them feeling their best. We have a couple of spots left this week if you'd like to get back on track.”
Three layers no one else has.
Routiq doesn't know a patient is “overdue.” It knows they're 8 sessions into a 16-session corrective plan, their last adjustment was 10 weeks ago vs. a 4-6 week protocol, which practitioner they see, and which location they attend.
82 principles from 20 seminal works in psychology and behavioral economics. Not copywriting tips - systematic frameworks applied automatically. Each segment gets the right lever at the right time.
Every patient monitored daily. Messages sent at the exact overdue moment. Replies handled instantly with AI-powered clinical context. Works nights, weekends, holidays. Sends from your own clinic number.
Where Routiq sits.
| Capability | Front Desk / CA | PMS / Cliniko | Routiq |
|---|---|---|---|
| Messages per day | ~20 (manual) | Basic reminders | Unlimited, daily |
| Knows care plan progress | If they check | Stores data, doesn't act on it | Yes - protocol-based |
| Triggers at exact overdue moment | No | No | Yes - chiropractic protocols |
| Segments by priority | No | No | Yes - 4 segments |
| Behavioral science messaging | No | No | 82 principles, systematic |
| Multi-touch campaign escalation | No | No | 3-touch, automated |
| AI-powered reply handling | During office hours | No | Instant, 24/7 |
| Works after hours | No | No | Yes - always on |
Your PMS holds the data. Routiq turns that data into revenue.
Reengagement isn't a campaign. It's a system that compounds.
Maintenance patients don't come once - they come every 4-6 weeks. Each reactivated patient becomes recurring revenue. Based on recovering 30 patients per month at $75/visit.
By month 6: 180 reactivated patients. Care plan completions worth $500-$1,800 per patient in additional treatment value.
What this means for your practice.
The pattern is universal. The opportunity scales with your database size.
| Your Database Size | Estimated Lapsed (~70%) | Conservative Recovery | Moderate Recovery |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1,000 patients | 700 | $15,750 | $31,500 |
| 2,000 patients | 1,400 | $31,500 | $63,000 |
| 3,000 patients | 2,100 | $47,250 | $94,500 |
| 5,000 patients | 3,500 | $78,750 | $157,500 |
| 10,000 patients | 7,000 | $157,500 | $315,000 |
Based on blended average treatment value of $450 per patient and industry-standard 70% lapse rate across chiropractic practices. Excludes recurring revenue multiplier from maintenance patients.
Industry benchmark: 15-25% of lapsed patients can be successfully re-engaged via recall campaignsWithout Routiq
No automated recall system
Revenue dependent on new patient acquisition
CA doing manual follow-ups (when they remember)
No care plan visibility on who dropped out or when
80% of marketing budget on acquisition
With Routiq
Chiropractic treatment protocols running daily
Revenue from patients you've already acquired
Automated campaigns with behavioral escalation
Care plan progress tracked for every patient
Fraction of the cost, 10x the ROI
You already did the hard part - building a patient base, earning their trust, helping them move without pain.
Those patients didn't leave because they were unhappy. They left because life got busy and nobody reminded them.
Their spine hasn't stopped needing care. They just need the right nudge.
How much of your dormant revenue do you want to leave on the table?
routiq.
Clinical Intelligence Meets Behavioral Science
routiq.ai
AHPRA Annual Report 2024/25
National Health Workforce Dataset (NHWDS)
AHPRA Workforce Registrant Aggregated Profile (WRAP)
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW)
Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA)
Medicare Benefits Schedule Data
Bain & Company / Harvard Business Review
WebPT / SPRY PT / TrackStat
Dialog Health / LionShare
PMC Systematic Reviews
Practice analysis data from Routiq platform analysis. All data anonymised and presented as industry patterns. February 2026.