The private practice terms nobody explained to you

DNA rate is the percentage of booked appointments where the patient did not attend and gave no notice.

DNA stands for "did not attend", and it is usually tracked separately from late cancellations. The UK Private Practice Barometer 2026 puts it at 7 to 8% without reminders and about 6% with them, so each point is a measurable slice of income.

Diary utilisation is the share of a practitioner's available appointment time that is actually booked, expressed as a percentage.

UK private practice averages around 72%. A full diary is not the goal: above roughly 80%, waiting times rise and patients who need to be seen this week start going elsewhere.

An episode of care is the full course of treatment for one presenting problem, from the first appointment to discharge.

Sessions per episode is one of the most useful numbers a practice can watch, because extra sessions from better discharge planning cost nothing to acquire. A returning patient with a new problem starts a new episode.

Rebooking rate is the percentage of patients who book a further appointment after being seen, rather than leaving without one.

It is the closest everyday measure of retention. A rebooked patient costs nothing to acquire, which is why small improvements here usually do more for income than new marketing.

Patient acquisition cost is the average amount spent to gain one new patient: total marketing and referral spend divided by the number of new patients it brought in.

Few practices track it, yet it is the number that tells you whether a directory listing, an advert or a referral arrangement is worth keeping. Compare it with what a typical patient spends over an episode of care.

Contribution is what a service earns after its own direct costs: the fee charged minus the variable costs of delivering it.

Contribution pays for fixed costs such as rent and insurance first, and only then becomes profit. It is the right figure for judging an add-on service or a new piece of equipment, because headline fees ignore what each session costs to deliver.

Payback period is how long an investment takes to earn back its cost from the extra contribution it generates.

For equipment it is total cost divided by weekly or monthly contribution. If the payback period is longer than the life of a consumable part, such as a handpiece, the real payback is worse than the simple sum suggests.

SOAP is a clinical note structure in four parts: Subjective, Objective, Assessment and Plan.

It suits professions with measurable physical findings, such as physiotherapy, osteopathy and podiatry. The Subjective section records what the patient reports, the Objective section what you observe and measure.

DAP is a three-part note format, Data, Assessment and Plan, that merges subjective and objective information into a single Data section.

It is common in counselling and other talking therapies, where what the client says is the observation and a Subjective/Objective split describes nothing real.

BIRP is a note format in four parts: Behaviour, Intervention, Response and Plan.

It suits work organised around what the practitioner did and how the client responded, which is why it is used in mental health and some behavioural settings.

ADIME stands for Assessment, Diagnosis, Intervention, Monitoring and Evaluation, the documentation format of the American Nutrition Care Process.

UK dietitians generally work to the British Dietetic Association's Model and Process for Nutrition and Dietetic Practice instead, so ADIME is better treated as a familiar structure than as a UK standard.

An outcome measure is a standardised tool, usually a questionnaire or scored test, used to track change in a patient's condition over time.

Examples include the NPRS pain scale, PSFS, NDI and KOOS. Recording one at the first and last visit shows whether treatment worked, and insurers increasingly ask for it.

Note locking makes a signed clinical note read-only, so any later change is recorded as a dated addition rather than an overwrite.

A locked note shows what you knew and wrote on the day. That matters if a record is ever examined in a complaint, a claim or a fitness to practise case, because a silently edited note carries much less weight.

An audit trail is a chronological record of who created, viewed, changed or exported a record, and when.

It is how you demonstrate that records were handled properly. A record with a reliable audit trail carries far more evidential weight than one that could have been changed by anyone at any time.

A visibility tier is a setting on a clinical note that controls who can see it, for example the patient, all clinic staff, or only the treating practitioner.

Atlacare uses three tiers: patient-visible, internal and confidential. Only patient-visible notes can ever appear in the patient portal, and confidential notes are limited to the treating practitioner and the practice owner.

Special category data is personal data that UK GDPR singles out for extra protection under Article 9, including data concerning health.

Every clinical record is special category data. Processing it needs both an ordinary lawful basis and an additional Article 9 condition, and it raises the bar for security, sharing and where the data is stored.

A controller is the person or organisation that decides why and how personal data is processed.

A private practice is the controller of its patient records, even when the records live in someone else's software. Responsibility for compliance stays with the controller.

A processor is an organisation that handles personal data on a controller's behalf and only on its instructions.

Practice software, cloud storage and email providers are typically processors. UK GDPR requires a written contract between controller and processor, usually called a data processing agreement.

A subject access request is a request from an individual for a copy of the personal data an organisation holds about them, made under Article 15 of UK GDPR.

You normally have one month to respond, extendable in limited cases, and usually cannot charge a fee. For a practice it means being able to find and export everything held about one patient.

A restricted transfer is a transfer of personal data to a separate organisation outside the UK, which UK GDPR allows only under adequacy regulations, appropriate safeguards or a narrow exception.

Safeguards usually mean the International Data Transfer Agreement or the UK Addendum to the EU standard contractual clauses, often with a transfer risk assessment. For health data, a supplier that stores records abroad puts that paperwork on the practice as controller.

The soft opt-in is the PECR exception that lets you send marketing emails or texts to existing customers without fresh consent, for your own similar services, provided they could opt out when you collected their details and can opt out in every message.

It only covers people whose details you obtained during a sale or negotiation of one, and only for your own similar products or services. Messages that promote booking can count as marketing even when they look like service messages.

PECR, the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003, are the UK rules on electronic marketing by email, text and phone, and on cookies and similar technologies.

PECR sits alongside UK GDPR rather than replacing it. Marketing by post falls outside PECR, though UK GDPR still applies to the personal data used.

A retention period is how long a record is kept before it is securely destroyed or anonymised.

UK GDPR requires that data is not kept longer than necessary but sets no number for clinical records, so practices follow professional and NHS guidance. For adult physiotherapy records that is commonly eight years from last contact, longer for children and some mental health records.

A statutory register is a register of practitioners kept by a regulator established in law, such as the HCPC, the General Osteopathic Council or the General Chiropractic Council.

Being on one is what entitles you to the profession's protected title. It is different from an accredited voluntary register, such as those held by BACP or CNHC, and the difference affects VAT, advertising and insurer access.

A protected title is a professional title that, by law, only people on the relevant statutory register may use.

Physiotherapist, podiatrist, dietitian, occupational therapist, osteopath and chiropractor are protected titles, and misusing one can be a criminal offence. Sports therapist, counsellor and nutritionist are not protected titles in UK law.

IRMER, the Ionising Radiation (Medical Exposure) Regulations 2017, govern how medical exposures to ionising radiation such as X-rays are justified, authorised and kept as low as reasonably practicable, to protect the patient.

They apply to any clinic taking X-rays, with defined duty holder roles including the employer, referrer, practitioner and operator. They are separate from the Ionising Radiations Regulations 2017, which protect staff and the public. Northern Ireland has its own equivalent regulations.

POM-A and POM-S are HCPC register annotations that allow a podiatrist to administer (POM-A) or sell and supply (POM-S) specified prescription-only medicines without a prescription, under exemptions in the Human Medicines Regulations 2012.

They are separate annotations with separate training, and holding one does not give you the other. They are specific to podiatry: other professions, such as physiotherapists, access medicines through routes like independent or supplementary prescribing.

A special treatment licence is a local authority licence that some areas, most notably London boroughs, require for premises offering treatments such as massage and acupuncture.

In London it comes from the London Local Authorities Act 1991, and some statutorily regulated professionals are exempt. Elsewhere the rules come from other local legislation or registration schemes, and Wales has its own licensing regime, so check with your council.

Fitness to practise means having the skills, knowledge, character and health to practise safely and effectively.

Regulators such as the HCPC investigate concerns about a registrant's fitness to practise. Outcomes range from no further action to a caution, conditions of practice, suspension or removal from the register, and your records are central evidence.

VAT exemption for health professionals means medical care given by a practitioner on a qualifying statutory register is exempt from VAT, under VATA 1994 Schedule 9 Group 7 as explained in HMRC VAT Notice 701/57.

Two conditions both have to be met: you are on a register HMRC lists, and the service has a therapeutic purpose. Counsellors and psychotherapists are not on a statutory register, so their services are not exempt on this basis.

A standard-rated supply is a sale of goods or services that carries VAT at the standard rate, currently 20% in the UK.

Exempt practitioners can still make standard-rated supplies, for example medico-legal reports or some products sold separately from treatment. Once taxable sales pass the VAT registration threshold, you have to register.

A CCSD code is a procedure code from the schedule maintained by the Clinical Coding and Schedule Development Group, used across UK private healthcare to identify the treatment given.

The code describes the procedure, not the price. Each insurer sets its own fee against the same code, which is why identical treatment can pay differently from one insurer to another.

Insurer recognition is approval by a private medical insurer that lets its policyholders claim for treatment with you.

Each insurer sets its own criteria, which can include registration, years of post-qualification experience and indemnity cover. Recognition brings volume, and usually comes with the insurer's fee schedule and billing rules.

Shortfall billing is charging a patient the difference between your fee and the amount their insurer pays.

Some insurer agreements prohibit it for recognised practitioners, beyond the patient's policy excess. Ask about shortfalls explicitly before you sign, because it changes the economics of insured work.