August 2026
Running a successful fertility clinic requires more than excellent clinical outcomes. Clinics are expected to maintain consistently high clinical and laboratory standards, deliver an excellent patient experience, attract and retain patients in increasingly competitive markets, operate efficiently and, at the same time, understand how new technologies such as artificial intelligence can be introduced responsibly.
These challenges are interconnected, but they are not necessarily best analysed through one single assessment. Fertility Consultancy offers three complementary assessment approaches that can be conducted individually or combined:
- IVF PRO – International benchmarking of clinic performance
- Patient journey assessment – incl. patient acquisition, experience and conversion
- AI governance & readiness assessment – responsible and effective adoption of AI
Together, they provide fertility clinics with the opportunity to move from a broad assessment of overall performance to targeted deep dives into areas that may have particular strategic importance.
1. IVF PRO – understanding the overall performance of the clinic
IVF PRO provides the broad foundation. The assessment looks across the clinical, laboratory, operational and management activities of a fertility clinic and benchmarks current practices against international best practices. The tool was developed in collaboration with experts from Merck Healthcare.
Rather than focusing only on clinical outcomes or laboratory performance, IVF PRO considers the organisation as a whole. The assessment addresses areas within 5 modules including:
- Clinical processes
- Clinical operations
- Laboratory processes
- Laboratory operations
- Strategy and leadership
- Organisation and staffing
- Customer orientation
- Quality and safety
A broad perspective is important because development potential or bottlenecks in fertility clinics are rarely isolated.
A laboratory may perform very well technically while weaknesses in workflow, communication, management systems or patient coordination create unnecessary inefficiencies. Similarly, a clinic may have excellent physicians but lack the organisational structures required to consistently translate this expertise into the best possible patient experience.
What are the advantages of an IVF PRO assessment?
An external and structured perspective
Organisations naturally become accustomed to their own procedures. Activities may be performed in a particular way simply because “this is how we have always done it”.
An external assessment challenges this familiarity and provides an opportunity to compare existing practices with approaches used internationally.
A benchmark across the entire organisation
Instead of analysing one department in isolation, IVF PRO provides management with a broader picture of how the different functions of the clinic perform.
This makes it easier to identify whether improvement priorities lie primarily within clinical activities, the laboratory, operational processes, management and/or communications.
Identification of strengths as well as gaps
An assessment should not simply identify deficiencies. Understanding where the clinic performs particularly well can be equally valuable. Strong areas can be protected, replicated elsewhere in the organisation and potentially incorporated into the clinic’s market positioning emphasized in its communicational efforts.
Prioritisation of improvement opportunities
Most clinics can identify dozens of things they would like to improve. The challenge is determining which of them matter most. The so-called “low-hanging fruits”. A structured assessment helps distinguish between important strategic priorities and lower-impact improvements, allowing management to direct resources where they can create the greatest value.
IVF PRO can therefore act as the overall benchmark and starting point to for a wider clinic development programme having a prioritized action planning.
2. Patient Journey Assessment – understanding how patients experience and choose the clinic
A fertility clinic can deliver excellent medical treatments and still struggle to grow patient volumes. The decision to undergo fertility treatment is highly emotional, complex and in many countries expensive. Patients may research several clinics, compare treatment options, read reviews, communicate with multiple coordinators and physicians and evaluate costs before deciding where to proceed.
This makes the patient journey a critical part of clinic performance, and the FC Patient Journey Assessment takes a deeper look at the patient experience from the first awareness of the clinic through treatment and subsequent follow-up.
Depending on the clinic and scope of the project, the assessment can include areas such as:
Awareness → Information Research → Clinic Selection → Initial Enquiry → First Consultation → Treatment Planning → Treatment → Follow-up → Long-term Relationship
Particular attention can also be given to the stages before treatment begins identifying drop-out points, where clinics frequently lose potential patients without fully understanding why.
What are the advantages of analysing the patient journey?
Understanding where potential patients are lost
Website traffic and enquiries alone do not create growth. Clinics need to understand the conversion funnel: Awareness → Enquiry → Consultation → Treatment
If enquiry volumes are high but few patients proceed to consultation, the problem may be communication, response times, pricing information or follow-up. If consultations are numerous but treatment conversion is low, other issues may be involved. Understanding these points of attrition allows the clinic to address the actual problem rather than simply increasing marketing expenditure.
Improving patient acquisition
The assessment can support examine how patients find the clinic, what information they search for, which patient segments the clinic is targeting and how effectively the clinic differentiates itself from competitors.
For clinics wishing to expand internationally, this can also include identifying attractive geographical markets and considering whether the clinic’s services, languages, pricing, digital presence and patient coordination are suitable for those markets.
Improving conversion
Fertility treatment involves a high level of trust. The quality and speed of communication during the early stages of the patient journey can therefore have a substantial influence on whether a patient ultimately chooses the clinic.
Reviewing enquiry handling, consultation processes, follow-up and patient information can identify opportunities to improve conversion without necessarily increasing marketing expenditure.
Improving patient retention and lifetime relationship
The patient relationship does not necessarily end after one treatment. Frozen embryo transfers, further treatment attempts, sibling treatments and recommendations to other patients can all form part of the longer-term relationship. A structured patient journey therefore also considers how clinics maintain communication and support after treatment.
Ultimately, the Patient Journey Assessment connects patient experience with commercial performance.
It can be particularly relevant for clinics experiencing declining patient volumes or wishing to increase both their local and international patient base.
3. AI governance & readiness – ensuring AI creates value without creating unnecessary risk
Artificial intelligence is rapidly becoming relevant across fertility care. Potential applications range from administrative automation and patient communication to clinical decision support, laboratory technologies, embryo assessment, workflow optimisation and data analysis.
But the question for clinics should not simply be:
“Where can we use AI?”
A more important question is:
“Where should we use AI, and are we ready to do so responsibly?”
The FC AI Governance & Readiness Assessment therefore examines seven core areas:
- AI Inventory & Classification
- Clinical Risk & Human Oversight
- Evidence & Validation
- Organisation, Policies & AI Literacy
- Supplier & Contract Assessment
- Data, GDPR & Bias
- Patient Transparency & Communication
What are the advantages of an AI readiness assessment?
Creating visibility over existing AI use
Management may not always have a complete overview of where AI-enabled systems are already being used. An AI inventory creates a structured picture of systems, applications, suppliers and areas of use throughout the clinic.
Assessing clinical risk and human oversight
AI should support healthcare professionals rather than create unclear responsibility. The assessment therefore examines where human oversight remains necessary and whether responsibilities are clearly defined.
Evaluating evidence and validation
AI systems should not be adopted simply because they are innovative. Clinics need to understand what evidence supports their use, whether performance has been sufficiently validated and whether the technology is appropriate for the intended purpose and patient population.
Reviewing data, GDPR and potential bias
AI frequently depends on significant amounts of data. Data governance, privacy, representativeness of training data and potential bias therefore become important considerations for fertility organisations.
Assessing suppliers and contracts
Clinics increasingly depend on external technology providers. Understanding supplier responsibilities, contractual protections, data arrangements, system updates and ongoing validation can therefore become an important part of risk management.
Building organisational AI literacy
Even a strong AI system can create problems if employees do not understand its capabilities and limitations. Policies, responsibilities and staff education therefore need to develop alongside the technology itself.
The purpose is not to discourage the use of AI as good governance can allow fertility clinics to adopt AI with greater confidence and potentially realise efficiency gains while protecting quality, patients and organisational reputation.
Three assessments – different perspectives, one objective
The three assessments address different questions.
- IVF PRO asks: How does the clinic perform overall compared with international best practices?
- Patient Journey asks: How effectively does the clinic attract, convert, support and retain patients?
- AI Governance & Readiness asks: How prepared is the organisation to adopt and manage AI responsibly and effectively?
A clinic may have a specific reason for conducting only one of these assessments. However, combining them can provide a particularly powerful perspective.
For example, IVF PRO may identify customer orientation or organisational processes as an area with significant improvement potential. A Patient Journey Assessment can then explore that area much more deeply.
Similarly, IVF PRO may identify opportunities for digitalisation and efficiency improvements. The AI Governance & Readiness Assessment can then determine where AI could realistically contribute and whether the organisation has the governance structures required to introduce it responsibly.
The result is not three isolated reports.
The assessments can contribute to one prioritised improvement roadmap covering quality, organisational development, patient growth and operational efficiency.
From assessment to action
The purpose of benchmarking is not the score itself. The real value comes from identifying what should happen next.
Depending on the findings, improvement initiatives might therefore include:
- Clinical or laboratory process optimisation
- Improved quality and management systems
- Better patient communication and coordination
- Higher enquiry-to-treatment conversion
- Development of local or international patient markets
- Improved organisational responsibilities and workflows
- Digitalisation and automation
- More structured AI governance
- Better use of data and management KPIs
The ultimate objectives remain the same:
- Higher quality
- Better benchmarking
- More patients
- Greater efficiency
Fertility Consultancy’s three assessment approaches can be delivered individually according to the clinic’s priorities or combined to provide a broader and more integrated perspective on future development.