The four kinds you can buy
- A human answering service. People in a call center read a script for your practice, take a message, and email it to you. They are polite and they are not looking at your calendar.
- A virtual receptionist. A remote person, often shared across several businesses, who can be trained on your practice and may have a login to your booking page. Good during their hours; the night still goes to voicemail.
- A generic AI bot on a phone number. Answers every hour, sounds fine, and knows what it was told in a text box. Books into its own form, or sends you a transcript, rather than into your calendar.
- An agent built on your calendar and menu. Connected to your record system, knows your providers and what each one does, books the appointment, and hands anything medical to a person with the context attached.
Compared on the booking and the menu
| Option | Books into your real calendar | Knows your menu |
|---|---|---|
| Human answering service | Rarely; takes a message | A script, updated when you remember to |
| Virtual receptionist | Sometimes, with a login, during their hours | As well as you trained them |
| Generic AI bot | Often a form or a transcript instead; ask | Whatever is in its prompt |
| Agent on your calendar and menu | Yes, the appointment lands on the calendar | The menu, the providers, what needs a consult |
Compared on handoff, logs and who owns the number
| Option | Handoff rules and logs | Who owns the number |
|---|---|---|
| Human answering service | Takes a message for everything; a message, sometimes a recording | Often the service; ask |
| Virtual receptionist | Their judgment, which varies by person; their notes | Often you; ask |
| Generic AI bot | A fixed script, hard to change; transcripts on their site | Often the vendor; ask |
| Agent on your calendar and menu | Written with your providers, medical goes to a person; every call transcribed and traceable to the booking | You, on your account |
What to ask any vendor before you sign
- Show me a booking landing on my calendar, with the right provider and the right service, from a test call you make in front of me.
- What does it say at 9 pm when a new patient asks about a treatment we do not offer?
- What does it say when someone asks if they are a candidate, or what they should get?
- How does it hand a call to a person during hours, and what does the person see when the call arrives?
- Where do I read every transcript, and who else can read them?
- If we stop, what happens to the number, the recordings and the calendar connection?
- Will you sign the agreements my practice requires for patient health information? Confirm with counsel which ones those are.
How to trial one in a week
- Monday: once the vendor has signed the agreements your practice requires (confirm with counsel which), forward only the after-hours calls to the trial and keep the desk on daytime. Tell the desk, so they know where the morning's bookings came from.
- Tuesday to Thursday: call it yourself at 1 pm, 6 pm and 10 pm with the five calls your desk gets most. Price shopper, 'do you do this', reschedule, nervous first-timer, complaint. Write down what landed on your calendar each time.
- Friday morning: pull every transcript. Read for three things: did it offer two times, did it say anything medical, and did it tell the truth about being an assistant when asked.
- Friday afternoon: ask the desk what showed up on the calendar and whether the notes made sense to them.
- Decide on the count: calls answered, bookings made, and calls that should have gone to a person and did.
Where compliance comes in
Anything an agent hears from a patient may be protected health information, and any text it sends afterwards needs the same consent your practice requires for any other text. Call recording notice follows your state's rules. Write the operational process into the handoff rules, and confirm with counsel and your medical director before the first live call.
What to do next
NorthCore's Answer every patient solution is the fourth kind: an agent on your number, your calendar and your menu, with handoff rules written with your providers. Scoped in writing and covered by the promise on this site: results in 90 days, or we keep working until you have them.
