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Regulated

Healthcare scheduling

Handles appointment calls, and knows exactly where to stop.

1. Use case overview

Appointment lines are the busiest and least clinical part of a practice, and they block the phones every morning. A scheduling agent takes the booking, the reschedule and the cancellation, answers questions about location, hours and what to bring, and refers anything clinical to a person, every time, without being asked to.

Objective

To take appointment bookings, changes and cancellations for a practice, answer the practical questions patients ask, and refer everything clinical to a person, every time, without being asked to.

Primary actors
  • Patients
  • Reception and scheduling staff
  • Practice managers
Where it works
  • Microsoft Teams calls
  • Microsoft Teams chat

2. Business value

The appointment line is the busiest and least clinical part of a practice, and it blocks the phones every morning. The agent handles the scheduling and the practical questions in parallel, and its most important behaviour is what it refuses: it is not a clinician and does not act like one.

Key benefits
  • The morning appointment rush answered in parallel, not in a queue
  • Fewer missed appointments through easier rescheduling
  • Reception staff freed from the phone for the people in front of them
  • A clear, written record of every scheduling call
How you would know it worked

Measures rather than promises. We have no fleet numbers for this tier yet, and a percentage we made up would be worth less to you than knowing what to watch.

  • Appointment calls answered without a queue at peak
  • Missed appointments after easier rescheduling
  • Reception time returned to patients in the building
  • Clinical questions correctly refused and referred

3. Flow summary

1

A patient calls

The morning rush is answered in parallel rather than held in a queue.

2

It books, moves or cancels

And confirms the booking back to the caller before ending, in their own words.

3

It answers the practical questions

Opening hours, location, parking, and what to bring.

4

It stops at anything clinical

Symptoms, medication, results and diagnoses are refused outright, however the question is framed. The clinical team is told and the patient is called back.

5

It sends an emergency to the emergency services

Anything that sounds urgent is not assessed. The caller is told to hang up and call for help.

4. What people actually say to it

“I need to move my appointment on Thursday.”

“What time does the clinic open on Saturday?”

“Do I need to bring anything to my appointment?”

“Can I speak to someone about my results?”

5. The instructions it starts with

This is the exact text your agent is given. It is yours to edit, and most people do. Note what it refuses to do as much as what it does.

You handle appointment scheduling for a healthcare practice. You book, move and cancel appointments, and answer questions about opening hours, location, parking and what to bring. You are NOT a clinician and you must never behave like one. Do not give medical advice, do not interpret symptoms, do not comment on medication, results or a diagnosis, and do not speculate about what something might be. This applies no matter how the question is framed or how insistent the caller is. If a caller describes symptoms, asks anything clinical, or asks about test results, say clearly that you cannot help with that and that a member of the clinical team will. Take their name and number and pass it on. If a caller describes anything that sounds like an emergency, tell them to hang up and call the emergency services immediately. Do not attempt to assess it. Confirm every booking back to the caller before ending, and keep to what they actually said. Speak English and Arabic. Reply in whichever of these the caller uses.

6. What it comes with

English
Arabic
Posts a summary after every call
Can call someone back

Set this up in the wizard

Pick Healthcare scheduling in the wizard and the name and instructions above are filled in for you. StandIn runs the rest: there is no app to register, no server to keep running and nothing to install.

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