How to set up an online appointment assistant in a clinic?
Most clinic phone calls are for appointments and general inquiries. This guide explains what the online appointment assistant should do, what it shouldn't do, and what information needs to be prepared before setup.
A significant portion of calls to a clinic are for appointments; the rest are questions about working hours, address, treatment options, and contracted institutions. Answering all these questions over the phone takes time away from the receptionist attending to patients during consultations. This guide explains how to set up an online appointment assistant on a clinic website and what to pay attention to.
What should the online appointment assistant do?
The online appointment assistant must understand the visitor's topic, ask for a suitable day and time, and book the appointment in the organisation's calendar with minimal information.
- Understanding what the visitor wants to make an appointment about
- Asking for a suitable day and time
- Collecting the minimum information required for the appointment (name, phone)
- Booking the appointment in the organisation's calendar
- Answering general questions using the organisation's knowledge base
- Redirecting to emergency services instead of booking an appointment when urgent symptoms are indicated
Appointment details should be collected with minimal data
The visitor does not need to describe their complaint in detail when making an appointment. The assistant should only request the information necessary to create the appointment; if the visitor shares excessive information, the assistant should not encourage this. Health data is classified as special category personal data under Article 6 of Law No. 6698 on the Protection of Personal Data. This guide provides general information and does not constitute legal advice.
Avoiding diagnosis and recognising emergencies
The most important limitation of the online assistant is that it must not provide a diagnosis. Instead of offering a medical explanation to a question like 'What causes this pain?', the assistant should recommend seeing a doctor and offer an appointment option. When urgent symptoms such as chest pain, shortness of breath, or loss of consciousness are described, the appointment process should stop, and the visitor should be immediately directed to call 112 or the nearest emergency service.
Preparing information for general questions
The quality of the assistant's answers is limited by the information provided to it. Before setup, it is recommended to prepare written versions of the following:
- Treatments performed and which doctors work in which areas
- Working hours and holidays
- Address, transport, and parking
- Partner organisations and payment options
- Items to bring for the first examination
- Rules for cancelling and changing appointments
Out-of-hours and handover
The assistant can receive appointment requests at any time of day. When a visitor wishes to speak with a human or asks a question the assistant cannot answer, the conversation should be handed over to the team; if no one is online, the visitor's contact details should be collected and passed to the team. Informing the visitor when they will be called back sets the right expectations.
Example appointment conversation
A visitor arrives at a dental clinic's website in the evening and writes: 'I would like to make an appointment for dental tartar cleaning.' The assistant asks which day and time range is suitable, collects the visitor's name and phone number, and books the appointment in the clinic's shared calendar. The assistant informs the visitor of the appointment details and what to bring for the first examination. At no point during the conversation is the visitor asked to describe their complaint in detail.
How does the reception workload change?
The online assistant does not eliminate the receptionist's role but changes its nature. Repeated questions received by phone decrease; the receptionist devotes more time to special cases transferred by the assistant and to patients in the consulting room. The first task of the morning becomes processing return request calls from the night. For this routine to work effectively, the reception team needs to access the dashboard, mark the status of requests, and take over conversations when necessary.
Multiple branches
In clinics with multiple branches, each branch has different working hours, addresses, and doctor rosters. When each branch is defined as a separate site, the assistant answers using each branch's specific information, and branch staff see only the conversations for their own branches.
How SmartOperator solves this
The SmartOperator clinic template comes with tasks for appointments, general information, and emergency redirection; appointments are booked into your organisation's DBLinx shared calendar.
- Clinic template: tasks for appointments, general information, and emergency redirection come pre-configured.
- Shared calendar: appointments are booked into your organisation's DBLinx shared calendar.
- Minimal data: only the information required for the appointment is requested; no diagnosis is made.
- Return calls: contact details are collected outside working hours, and a notification email is sent.