TL;DR
Use a responsibility-based dictionary that separates referral receipt, inquiry handling, consultation, clinical decisions, facility coordination and completed procedures. Assign each measure a source and authority. Report what the agency controlled and what the practice verified. Do not label a received request a procedure opportunity with assumed value or make treatment selection a marketing performance target.
Ask what changed hands at each reported milestone
An orthopedic dashboard may combine forms, referral documents and procedure bookings under “conversions.” The owner cannot assess acquisition or operations from that label until the events are defined. Ask the report's author to show what each event establishes and who can confirm it.
A referral transmission may be resent. An inquiry may concern an existing relationship. A consultation may lead to different next steps after assessment. Those distinctions should be resolved using the practice's actual records and qualified decisions, rather than inferred from an agency tag.
The dictionary below is an original management specification. It is not a coding guide, a referral eligibility determination or a clinical pathway. Adapt the terms to the group's real services and systems, retaining unknown states where the records cannot support a stronger label.
Adopt the responsibility-based measurement dictionary
| Measure | What it establishes | Source and authority to designate | What it must not imply |
|---|---|---|---|
| Referral receipt | Transmission reached the intended receiving system | Referral intake and actual receipt record | Distinct person, complete prerequisites or appointment |
| Reconciled request | Practice linked repeat or corrected transmissions appropriately | Authorized records/intake owner | That the agency made a clinical suitability decision |
| Self-inquiry received | An actual request reached the practice | Receiving system and intake owner | Appointment confirmation or a new relationship |
| Administrative route resolved | Correct service, office and next process established | Scheduling and billing owners as applicable | Diagnosis, coverage approval or treatment selection |
| Consultation confirmed | Actual appointment state in the scheduling system | Scheduling owner | Attendance or procedure decision |
| Consultation attended | Attendance verified for the defined consultation | Practice operations | A procedure was needed, chosen or completed |
| Clinical next-step decision | Qualified process established the actual next step | Responsible clinical team and patient process | Agency-controlled success or failure |
| Procedure coordination | Defined administrative planning state | Practice and facility owners as applicable | Procedure completion or collected revenue |
| Procedure completed | Actual completed clinical event | Authorized practice/facility record process | That marketing caused it or that every consultation should reach it |
Add source field ___; reporting period ___; cohort anchor ___; cutoff ___; duplicate rule ___; unknown-state treatment ___; permitted report recipient ___. Keep the report relevant without copying referral letters, health histories or procedure details into an agency worksheet.
Keep imaging orders out of the acquisition label
For Medicare Part B diagnostic non-laboratory tests, Medicare describes coverage when the provider orders them to find or treat a medical problem. Medicare diagnostic-test guidance. That does not make an imaging order evidence that a marketing campaign produced a procedure candidate. It also does not establish individual coverage or every plan's administrative requirements.
Have the practice decide whether a limited administrative imaging state belongs in the report at all. If it helps explain consultation logistics, state exactly what it records. Keep clinical indications, interpretation and personal conclusions with qualified staff. A marketer should not ask for more tests to improve a funnel or derive a presumed treatment path from an order.
Choose cohorts that answer the actual question
For inquiry handling, a receipt cohort can show what happened to requests received during a defined period. For consultation attendance, use a clearly defined scheduled population and observation cutoff. For financial review, have finance establish compatible collected-revenue and cost records. Do not splice unrelated period totals together.
Keep new-to-group relationships separate from existing people using another service, repeat visits and unclear history. A group can value returning demand without calling it newly acquired. Preserve changes to status after cancellation or rescheduling rather than counting every scheduling transaction again.
If calculating a proportion, name its numerator and denominator in words first. Use only compatible populations and show unavailable when a valid denominator is absent. The general event dictionary explains the broader issue; this dictionary adds the clinical and facility boundaries needed for orthopedic reporting.
Review agency accountability at the boundary it controls
Ask the agency to document work completed, the approved audience and offer, public destinations, observed inquiry evidence and unresolved handoffs. Ask the practice to verify its own scheduling and attendance states. Assess each participant's work within its authority and evidence.
A low consultation-to-procedure ratio alone does not establish poor marketing or poor clinical performance. The owner needs the actual service mix, populations, timing and qualified context before interpreting it. Do not set a target that pressures clinical choices to justify acquisition spending.
Use the reporting specification to bind each conclusion to evidence and a next decision. If the only reliable event is inquiry receipt, label that finding honestly and identify the later observation gap. An incomplete but accurate report is usable for a narrower decision.
GetPatients has a commercial interest in healthcare visibility services. Apply this responsibility standard to its work. No agency should claim treatment decisions as delivered marketing outputs.
Frequently asked questions
Can completed procedures appear in a marketing review?
They can be relevant business context when appropriately authorized and accurately defined. Keep their clinical determination, time lag and attribution limits visible. Their presence does not make them agency-controlled events.
Is every referral document a new lead?
Reconcile repeat transmissions, corrections, relationship history and actual request identity inside approved practice systems. Raw document counts do not answer that question.
What should we do when a vendor changes its conversion definition?
Document the change, preserve the earlier definition and separate incompatible comparisons. Require the revised source, scope and cutoff before using the new total for renewal.