TL;DR
Reconcile the agency's counted events with the practice's initial-visit records before arguing about results. Establish definitions, time boundaries and duplicate rules, then let authorized practice staff match records inside approved systems. Report matched visits, excluded contacts and unresolved events separately. A discrepancy is a question to investigate, not automatic evidence of fraud or office failure.
Begin with what the word lead means
Ask the agency to name every action included in its lead total: submitted forms, telephone interactions, appointment requests or other events. Ask whether those are added together and whether a repeat contact can count again. Request the reporting window, time zone, conversion definition and any changes in the setup.
The practice should independently define its comparison: people new to the practice who scheduled an initial examination, those who attended, or collections received for those visits. These are different outcomes. A call about moving an adjustment appointment should not become a newly acquired patient simply because the call passed through a tracked number.
Google Ads allows a conversion action to count every conversion after an interaction or only a single conversion after an interaction. Its settings operate at the conversion-action level, so a counting choice does not establish a unique person across forms, calls and appointments. Google's conversion counting documentation.
Treat that as a reason to inspect the configuration, not a recommendation to change tracking or transmit patient information. A platform total can be correct under its settings and still answer a different question from the office's attendance total.
Freeze the comparison before matching
Keep a dated copy of the report definition and the practice's approved summary. Record when each was produced. Decide whether you are grouping by inquiry date, scheduled visit date or attendance date. A person who asks at the end of a reporting period and attends later can appear in different periods without any missing record.
Use separate fields for inquiry origin and appointment outcome. If the agency's event date reflects an advertising interaction while the office records a later appointment, document that difference. Do not move records between periods simply to make totals agree.
Keep cancelled, rescheduled and missed initial examinations visible. An appointment rescheduled to another day should retain its relationship to the original request. Avoid counting each calendar movement as fresh acquisition.
Use a duplicate-aware reconciliation sheet
Have authorized practice staff perform any person-level matching within the practice's approved systems and permissions. An agency does not need a patient list or clinical details to receive an approved explanation of the discrepancy. Have the responsible privacy reviewer assess the actual summary and recipient before sharing it; aggregation alone does not establish permission.
| Working field | What belongs here | How it resolves the dispute |
|---|---|---|
| Agency event reference | Approved internal reference and event type | Identifies the event being examined |
| Event date and reporting basis | Recorded date, time zone and grouping rule | Exposes period differences |
| Practice match status | Confirmed match, possible match or unresolved | Avoids pretending an ambiguous match is certain |
| Relationship category | New to practice, returning, existing administrative or unknown | Separates acquisition from other contacts |
| Duplicate relationship | Same person's repeat request, distinct contact or uncertain | Prevents adding repeat forms and calls blindly |
| Initial-visit outcome | Requested, scheduled, attended, cancelled, missed or unknown | Locates the actual stage reached |
| Exception reason | Routing gap, time mismatch, excluded contact or missing evidence | Gives the next investigation a specific purpose |
| Resolution owner | Staff role, next action and review point | Stops unresolved records disappearing |
Use the sheet as a controlled working document. Remove unnecessary details and restrict access. Do not use a name match alone as proof when the evidence is ambiguous, and do not send contact identifiers to an advertising platform as a shortcut.
Explain the exceptions before calculating a cost
A repeat form followed by a telephone call can produce several contact events while representing the same inquiry. A returning patient may respond to an ad and schedule a re-examination. A genuine new inquiry may arrive but remain unbooked. Each requires a different explanation.
Prepare a summary with mutually exclusive resolution categories: matched new-patient inquiries; returning or existing contacts; duplicates under the agreed rule; nonpatient contacts; and unresolved records. Then report initial-exam outcomes for the matched cohort separately. Preserve the original agency total alongside the reconciliation so a revised definition does not erase the starting point.
Cost per attended initial examination needs an attended initial-exam denominator from the defined cohort and a clearly identified cost scope. Cost per submitted form answers a different question. Neither alone demonstrates profit or incremental acquisition. Use the measurement dictionary when someone proposes combining unrelated dashboard totals.
If the agency provides a reconciliation showing the work but cannot establish a particular outcome, keep that outcome unresolved. If the office cannot determine whether it received requests, assign an intake investigation. Do not accept “the staff must have lost them” or “the agency made them up” without evidence.
Agree what the next report will change
Finish the meeting with a written definition of a reported lead, a practice outcome, duplicate treatment, reporting dates and the person responsible for exceptions. Ask the agency to show each included conversion action and label any stages it cannot observe.
Use the reporting specification to separate platform activity from operational findings. GetPatients has a commercial interest in healthcare visibility services; apply this evidence standard equally to its reporting and to other providers. No dashboard should receive special credit because its presentation is persuasive.
Frequently asked questions
Should we demand a perfect record match?
Ask for the strongest appropriate reconciliation the available systems and permissions allow. Keep possible matches and gaps visible. A forced match creates confidence without improving the evidence.
Can an agency charge for a lead that does not attend?
That depends on the written commercial definition and agreement. Review the actual terms separately from whether the event became an attended initial examination. This worksheet does not determine a contract dispute.
Should we give the agency full scheduling access to settle the issue?
Start by identifying the minimum evidence needed. Have the practice's authorized people assess access and disclosure. A controlled internal match and an approved summary may answer the question without broader system access.