TL;DR
Create separate events for screening registration, event attendance, consultation request, office confirmation and attendance. Preserve whether the person was already known to the clinic and whether the office request was already underway. A screening response can be useful evidence without becoming a newly acquired consultation or a treatment candidate.
Decide which event the agency is paid to produce
A screening registration shows a response to an invitation under your defined process. It does not, by itself, show an attended screening or an office consultation. Before accepting a report called patients acquired, ask which source record establishes that label.
Have the event coordinator, office scheduling lead and reporting owner agree the definitions. They may operate different systems and record different events. Do not make the temporary event platform the authority for an office appointment merely because its dashboard is easier to export.
The dictionary below is an original management tool. It separates an event's attendance from the clinic's consultation milestone without defining clinical eligibility or the legal start of a patient relationship.
Adopt a screening-to-consultation dictionary
| Event label | Evidence under the proposed definition | Verification owner | Must remain distinct from |
|---|---|---|---|
| Screening registration received | Registration arrived for the identified event | Event operations | Attendance or an office consultation |
| Screening attendance recorded | Authorized event attendance record | Event coordinator | Diagnosis, suitability or later appointment |
| Office consultation requested | An actual request for the clinic's stated consultation route | Office intake | Interest in event updates alone |
| Office consultation confirmed | Appointment confirmed under the clinic's scheduling process | Scheduling | A request awaiting review |
| Office consultation attended | Attendance verified for that office appointment type | Authorized practice reporting owner | Treatment recommendation or purchase |
| Consultation not confirmed or outcome unknown | Actual pending state or unavailable evidence | Assigned practice owner | A presumed rejection or failed sale |
Add event identity ___; definition version ___; source system ___; reporting cutoff ___; duplicate rule ___; prior-practice relationship rule ___; permitted summary ___ beside the dictionary. The clinic must decide what new to the practice means in its own records. Marketing staff should not infer it from a new email address.
Keep any qualified medical findings inside the appropriate clinical process. A campaign report does not need screening results to establish that someone attended the advertised event. If a supplier asks for findings, require a task-specific explanation and responsible review before expanding access.
Preserve the event history when the next step changes
Suppose an attendee later requests an office consultation. Retain the screening attendance event and add the supported office request. Do not replace the earlier label with acquired patient or count each record as another person.
If the person reschedules the consultation, preserve that scheduling change without creating another acquisition. If an existing patient registers, record the event response under the proper relationship category. Existing patients may value the event without becoming new clinic relationships.
Someone may also have a referral or consultation request in progress before registration. Preserve that earlier initiation. The screening may assist an existing journey without establishing that the campaign originated it.
Reconcile overlaps inside approved practice systems using the authorized method. An agency should not receive identifiable appointment exports merely to tidy its dashboard. Have the designated practice reviewer assess the actual summary and recipient. An aggregate label alone does not approve disclosure.
Inspect what the advertising account calls a conversion
Ask the account owner to show the actual action names and campaign goals. A broad conversion column may include a registration action that is entirely appropriate for an event objective but unsuitable as proof of attended office consultations.
Google Ads distinguishes primary actions used in applicable bidding and reporting from secondary actions generally used for observation. Actions in custom goals are an exception and may be used for bidding regardless of that setting. Google Ads conversion-action guidance. Request the actual configuration rather than inferring the optimization target from a report heading.
This is a settings review, not an instruction to upload healthcare information or connect clinical records to an advertising platform. Have the practice's responsible reviewers assess any proposed tracking and data flow separately.
Request a report that can survive reconciliation
For the chosen event cohort, show the supported screening events and office milestones separately, with pending and unavailable evidence visible. Keep people, registrations and appointments as different units. Repeated contacts can create repeated activities without creating additional people.
If a rate is useful, state its numerator, denominator and shared cohort explicitly. For a consultation-request share among event attendees, count distinct verified attendees with a linked office request by the cutoff, then divide by all distinct verified attendees in that same cohort. Preserve the request's timing and any prior clinic relationship; the share does not establish newly created demand. Report it as unavailable if the attendee denominator is empty or the necessary linkage cannot be established. Dividing all office consultations by all registrations would not establish that share when the groups include unrelated people or different periods.
Do not replace a missing attended-consultation result with a confirmed appointment and retain the old label. Report the available milestone and explain the gap. The measurement dictionary addresses the wider distinction between discovery, traffic and appointments; this event dictionary adds temporary screening participation, prior clinic relationship and later office coordination.
Ask the vendor to restate historical totals only where source evidence supports the revised categories. Otherwise preserve the old vendor-defined measure with its limitation and begin a clearly labeled new series.
Use the dictionary to decide the next repair
Registrations without attendance suggest an event-process question to investigate. Attendance without a later request may reflect the event's purpose or attendee choice. Office requests without confirmation call for inspection of the office pathway. These patterns do not establish their own causes.
GetPatients has a commercial interest in healthcare visibility services. Apply the same definitions to its reporting proposals. Accept the work evidenced at the purchased stage, and ask for a specific investigation when a later stage remains unresolved.
Frequently asked questions
Is screening attendance a valid campaign result?
Yes, when attendance matches the campaign objective and is verified. Name it accurately. It does not automatically demonstrate new consultation acquisition.
Should we remove existing patients from every event report?
Keep the event activity visible while separating prior clinic relationships from new-to-practice categories. The correct inclusion depends on the report's stated question.
Can we count treatment revenue later?
Use the practice's separately approved financial and attribution method with matching records and explicit limits. Neither a registration nor an attended consultation predicts a treatment choice, collections or incremental revenue.