Definition
When a client books a new appointment with the same profession they previously had, after a gap of 4 months or more. During this time, the client did not have any appointments with that profession at the clinic, although they may have had appointments with other professions.
Example
If a client had several appointments with Profession A at Clinic A and then waited for 4 months or more before booking another appointment with Profession A at the same clinic, this is considered a "New Episode."
The client may have had appointments with other professions (e.g., Profession B or C) during the 4-month gap, but not with Profession A.
Context
A client might be discharged by the practitioner they are seeing ie they have achieved their health outcomes / completed their care plan and have no future appointments required and therefore no future appointments booked in. After some time (eg 4 months), the Client books another appointment because they have a new health issue or 鈥榥ew episode始 (of the same/previous condition) of care that requires therapy.
A client might have cancelled, not rebooked and time has lapsed (somewhat of a self discharge from care) and they are returning for care in the clinic.
A clinic owner likes to calculate a related statistic called 鈥楨pisode Visit Average始. This is similar to the Patient Visit Average, though it is confined to just one episode, where as PVA is the sum of all episodes for a client within the last 90 days from the current date at the clinic.