Book lab draws without mixing chairs and results
Quick summary
- The assistant reads the diary before it offers a time, so a printout collection is never offered as a 07:30 chair.
- A hatch pickup and a fasting draw are different bookings. Get that wrong and a person who already ate sits in a fasting slot.
- Draw, results or named test first. Then the name. Then the diary.
- Anything that sounds like interpretation, a diagnosis, or “is this normal?” stays a callback.
- If the assistant cannot read the diary, it takes a callback. It does not guess.
- The assistant texts the time, the type, and only the preparation you marked for that named test.
TL;DR
You are labelling a tube. A caller who wants a time will not wait for a callback just to learn whether 07:40 is free. An assistant can book those times if it reads the diary first, treats a hatch collection as different from a chair, and asks draw or results before it places anything. A draw is a slot. A result is a request. An interpretation is not a visit type — someone from the lab will call. If the diary cannot be reached, the assistant does not guess. It takes the request and says so. The assistant texts the time, the type, and only the preparation on your list.
Key takeaways
- Give the assistant the types and their real durations before you let it book — fasting chair, non-fasting chair, hatch collection, home draw, ultrasound slot.
- Mark Monday fasting start, lunch close and August short days in the same diary it reads.
- Test a move on an existing hatch collection and on a chair, separately, before you test a new panel.
- Turn on the SMS at the moment of booking, with only the preparation you marked speakable.
- If the diary cannot be reached, the only answer is a callback.
- Check the first fifty bookings by hand. That is when you find the hour that was a results call put into a chair.
A chair that is actually free, and a hatch that is not a chair
The person who wants a slot will not wait until you have labelled the last morning tube. They will ask for 07:30, because 07:30 is when they can still get to work. 07:30 is a fasting chair. A printout in that chair is a blockage. A person who already ate, put in a fasting slot, is a ruined tube.
The assistant reads the diary you already keep. It offers only hours you marked for that type. Fasting chairs early. Non-fasting later. Hatch collection in the afternoon. Home draw as its own run. Ultrasound in its own room.
If it cannot see the diary, it takes a callback. A guessed 07:40 is worse than no time. You then spend the morning apologising at the door.
Chair, hatch, home, ultrasound
These four are not one booking with a different label.
Fasting chair. Named tests you marked as needing an empty stomach. Duration you actually use. Not a results conversation.
Non-fasting chair. Everything else that still needs a vein. Do not put it at 07:30 if that hour is reserved.
Hatch collection. A paper. Five minutes. Not a number read out. Not 07:30.
Home draw. Travel, stairs, a morning window. Its own calendar. Do not let it occupy a lab chair you then leave empty.
Ultrasound or other slot. Different room, different duration. A bloods chair is not an ultrasound.
Mix them and Thursday morning fills with printouts while the person who needed a vein is standing.
The split still comes before the diary
Draw, results, or named test. Then the name. Then, and only then, a look at the week.
A results question is not a chair. “Is yesterday ready?” is a request. If they also want to collect, that is a hatch time. Do not let the assistant hunt for 07:30.
A named test without a speakable preparation is a chair plus a flag, not a fasting lecture. Take the doctor’s name if they offer it.
An interpretation is not a visit type. “Is it normal?” can become a callback from you, or from the referring doctor. The assistant still does not answer it on the way to the booking.
What must not be offered as a time
Hours you are not drawing. Lunch. August short mornings. A public holiday you marked. A chair type that does not match the test.
The assistant should say the close, not hunt for a gap that does not exist. Patients remember the SMS. An SMS that offers 07:30 for a printout trains them to arrive at the worst moment.
If you run home draws only on Tuesdays, mark Tuesdays. A booking into a dark morning is a person on the pavement with an empty stomach and no chair.
The SMS is part of the booking
The text names the time, the type, and only the preparation you marked. “Tomorrow 07:40, draw, water only — this line is for the glucose on your slip.” Not “come fasting” as a blanket.
It goes out in the language of the call — 70+ languages. A patient who booked in English should not receive a Greek preparation they then ignore.
Do not put a result on the SMS. Do not put a range. Do not put “normal.”
If you change a time, the assistant writes the new time into the same diary and sends a new text. It does not leave the old 07:40 live.
Results, coffee, and a chair on the same call
People stack. They say they need yesterday, and also a new draw, and also whether they may have coffee.
That is three notes. The results request goes on the list without a number. The draw goes into a matching chair. The coffee question is refused unless that named test has a speakable line.
If the assistant books one “catch-up” at 07:40 and stuffs all three into it, you sit down with a person who ate, a results question you cannot answer at the chair, and a tube you cannot use.
Write the stacking rule: split, then book only the part that is a visit.
Home draws that collide with the morning list
A home draw is a van, not a chair. If the assistant books it as 07:30 in the lab, both the house and the lab are wrong.
Mark travel time. Mark which postcodes you actually cover. If you do not cover an island this week, say so on the first call.
The assistant does not say the elderly patient “will be fine” without a draw today. That is a clinical reassurance. Book or flag. Do not comfort.
What you configure before it books
Types and durations. Closed blocks. Speakable preparation per named test, not a general fasting sermon. Whether EOPYY and private use the same chairs. The sentence that forbids reading a result.
Then test. Move a hatch collection. Move a fasting chair. Do not test those two as if they were the same hour. The first fifty bookings are where you find the 07:30 printout that slipped through.
If the diary cannot be reached, the only honest sentence is a callback. See pricing for how a call you pick up is treated.
What a good week of slots looks like
The chair is for veins. The hatch is for paper. The phone is not for numbers.
The assistant’s job is to keep those from sitting on top of each other. A patient who would have turned up at 07:30 for a printout now has 13:20. A patient who would have asked you, at the chair, whether the TSH is normal, still has no number on this call.
It will not invent a fasting rule. It will not put an ultrasound on a bloods chair. It will not offer a time it cannot see.
Rates live on the pricing section of the home page.
AI receptionist, in-house staff, or a call centre
| CITT | In-house | Call centre | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reads the diary before offering a time | Yes, the diary the hatch works from | Yes | Usually not — takes a message |
| Books 07:30 fasting chairs | Yes, if you marked them | No, they are in a vein | Sometimes |
| Treats a hatch collection as different from a draw | If you marked the two types | Yes | Rarely sees the week |
| Starts with draw, results or named test | Yes — before it looks at the diary | Yes | Often jumps to what time |
| Books an interpretation as a visit | Never — someone from the lab will call | The doctor does, after the file | Sometimes books "a results chat" |
| Sends the confirmation and only listed preparation | Automatically, by SMS | If they remember | Sometimes |
What a month of empty fasting chairs costs
Worked from these assumptions — change any of them and the answer changes:
- Two chairs. About 40 booked morning draws a month that need an empty stomach.
- An empty 07:40 is not given to someone else the same hour if they already ate.
- About 10% of booked fasting chairs arrive having eaten, or nobody comes. Check your own figure. Labs vary.
- Recoverable value of a used chair, €35. Put your own figure in. A chair and a hatch collection are not the same.
- A reminder that names only the listed preparation cuts ruined slots by a third. Challenge this first.
- 40 × 10% = 4 ruined or empty fasting chairs in a month.
- A third of those, about 1 chair, is the one a named reminder would have saved.
- 1 × €35 = €35 that month, from one recoverable chair.
- Twelve months — 12 × €35. Put your own months in if you close in August.
About €420 a year from ruined fasting chairs — only if you accept the reminder effect. Change it.
What it costs
CITT is pay as you go: no packages, no minimum, no contract. The current rates — the monthly fee per number and the per-minute rate — are on the pricing section of the home page, which is the only place they are published.
Frequently asked questions
Can it book a fasting chair for an unnamed panel?
It can book a chair. It must not attach a fasting lecture unless that named test is on your speakable list. “The doctor said bloods” is not a kit. Take the doctor's name if offered. Flag preparation as unknown. A guessed empty stomach is how people arrive angry, or eat and ruin the tube.
What if they want 07:30 for a printout?
Mark hatch collection as its own type, later in the day. The assistant should not offer a fasting chair to someone who only needs a paper. If the diary cannot show those types, do not let it book.
Can it book an ultrasound in a bloods chair?
Only if you marked ultrasound as its own duration and room. A twenty-minute slot on a phlebotomy chair is how the morning list collapses. Write the types. Test them separately.
They asked if the result is normal. Is that a booking?
It is a results request, not a visit type. Book a hatch collection if they want the paper. Do not book “a results chat” the assistant will then fill with a number. Someone from the lab calls back.
What if the diary is down?
It takes the request and says someone will call back. It does not guess 07:40 from yesterday's pad. A guessed fasting chair is a person standing at seven while you have no tube ready.
Do they get a text?
Yes, if you turn it on. The SMS names the time, whether this is a chair or a hatch collection, and only the preparation you marked. It goes out in the language of the call. See [pricing](/en/#pricing) for how answered calls are treated.
