Appointment booking for medical practices
Quick summary
- A first visit, a follow-up and a blood-pressure check are different lengths, and they do not share one list.
- The assistant may book only the types the desk already books without asking you.
- A caller who asks for anything today may want results, a certificate, or a person — not the next free time.
- A telephone consult is not a shorter visit, and it is not how results are given.
- If the calendar cannot be reached, the assistant takes a callback. It does not guess Thursday.
- It confirms by SMS at the moment of booking, in the language of the call.
TL;DR
When the lock turns, the first calls are people who want a time this week. Some mean a first visit, a follow-up or a blood-pressure check. A parent is booking for a child. Some mean last Thursday's blood tests. A few mention chest pain and ask for anything today. An assistant checks the calendar before it offers a time, books only the types the desk already books, and confirms by SMS. It never reads a result. It never treats a symptom as a booking. If the calendar is down, it takes a callback.
Key takeaways
- Name each bookable type with its owner and its real length before anything goes live.
- Start with ordinary follow-ups, blood-pressure checks and nurse bloods. Keep same-day times as callbacks.
- A telephone consult and a visit in the room are different types, even when they share your name.
- Move an appointment as one change, or the patient's own time blocks the hour they are trying to take.
- If the caller mentions chest pain, trouble breathing or a baby who is not right, stop offering times and ring the phone you named.
- Confirm by SMS at the moment of booking, in the language of the call.
The first calls are people who want a time
The receptionist is at the glass with the people who walked in. Name, AMKA, which doctor, whether they brought last Thursday’s papers. You are in the consulting room with the first patient. The phone starts as soon as the lock turns.
Someone wants a time this week. Someone wants the blood-pressure check. A parent is calling about a child, and the name that belongs on the record is the child’s. Someone wants a telephone consult. Someone had blood taken on Thursday and it is Monday, and they ask for anything today. Someone needs a certificate for work. A few stay on long enough to say they have pain in the chest, and they also ask for anything today.
The receptionist can book one of those conversations. The others hear the ring, or hold music, or a machine. Some hang up and come to the glass. Some hang up and ring the next practice. A few mention chest pain to whoever finally picks up, after that person has already been placing a follow-up.
An assistant that answers every line at once can take the booking, or the request, while your hands are on the examination. A patient who believes they have 11:20 with you, when 11:20 is a nurse bloods time, will wait in the wrong queue and the morning will run late. A patient who believes they have a telephone consult about their bloods has been promised a conversation the assistant is not allowed to start.
What they mean by a time
“I need a time this week” is one sentence on this telephone. It is not one job.
A first visit is longer than a follow-up. A blood-pressure check is not a full consult. A telephone consult is not a shorter visit in the room. If you work with a colleague, their list is not yours. If you have a nurse, their bloods and dressings are not your times. A parent who says it is for their daughter is giving you the person who belongs on the record, not a footnote.
Some callers do not want a time at all. They want last Thursday’s results. They want a certificate for last week. They want a referral. They want you to come to the house. They have pain in the chest and they use the same words the follow-up callers use.
If the assistant hears every one of those sentences as a free time, you spend the morning moving people. The first visit goes into a follow-up and the next two people wait in the corridor. The child goes onto an adult review. The results caller goes onto the telephone list. The certificate takes a gap that was meant for a blood-pressure check. The person with chest pain is told they have tomorrow at 11:40.
Check that the time is free before you offer it. Offer only a type you named, on the owner you named, at a length you set. If the request is for a result, a certificate, a home visit, or a phrase on your short list, stop offering times.
The types the desk already books
Teach the assistant the types the way you teach a new receptionist.
Doctor, first visit. Doctor, follow-up. Doctor, blood-pressure check. Telephone consult. Nurse, bloods. Nurse, dressing. Nurse, injection. A new-patient first visit, if you have one and the desk already places it. A child’s follow-up, if you keep those on their own list.
Each type has an owner and a length that comes from last month’s book, not from a default. The assistant may book the types you already let the desk book without asking you. Everything else is a callback with a complete note: name, date of birth or AMKA, what they asked for, in their words.
If those names do not exist, the assistant will do what a new receptionist does and put the caller in the first empty time it can see. That is how a first visit goes into a follow-up, and how bloods go onto your list when the nurse still has a gap at 10:30.
The name on the book is the child’s
A parent who says “it is for my daughter” is not booking for themselves. The person who will be in the room is the child. The name, the date of birth and the AMKA that belong on the record are hers.
If the assistant books the parent, the child arrives and the notes are wrong. Ask for the child’s name. Read it back. Put the parent’s number down as the number to call. Do not put the booking under the adult who happened to hold the phone.
Two siblings are two appointments, or a paired type you created. They are not one time stretched to forty minutes. If you have not set up a pairing, the assistant takes both names and hands the pairing to the desk.
A child’s first visit still needs the first-visit length.
A telephone consult is not last Thursday’s bloods
Practices opened a telephone list for work that does not need a room. A review of tablets the doctor already asked for. A follow-up the notes already planned. A discussion you said you would have by phone.
Patients use the same list to hear their results. The assistant has to keep those two jobs apart.
The assistant may book a telephone consult if you have that type and the caller is asking for a consult. The assistant may not book one because someone asked whether the cholesterol is back. That is a results request. It takes the name, the date of birth or the AMKA, which tests they mean, and a number to call back on. A person from the practice rings them. You decide whether the answer is a call, a message, or a visit in the room.
If you blur this, you will fill the telephone list with people who believe 10:00 is when they learn a number, and the next two callers will wait.
A result that is not back yet is still a request, not a reason to book. “Not in yet” from an assistant that cannot see the file is a guess. Take the request.
Same-day telephone times are as scarce as same-day rooms. Keep them as callbacks until you have watched a week of ordinary telephone types. The assistant still does not read a result, including one marked normal, including on a call that also booked a blood-pressure check. The SMS confirms the time. It does not confirm a number on a lab sheet.
Friday is a different doctor
The colleague who covers on Friday may not do joint injections. They may not sign certain letters. They may not see another doctor’s patients, by agreement. That is a booking rule. If the assistant cannot see it, you spend Friday afternoon ringing people to move them, and Monday starts with a list you already know is wrong.
Put those constraints in with the type. A first visit on Friday with a doctor who does not take new patients that day is a callback. A follow-up that may go to either of you is a type you named that way. A follow-up that cannot is not.
If you have two lists under one number, the assistant has to know whose time it is offering. “I have 11:20” is not enough if 11:20 is your colleague’s and the caller is your patient. Read the owner back with the time. If the caller wanted you and only you, take a callback. Locum weeks work the same way: the person in the room that week is the owner.
Bloods and the doctor on the same morning
Patients ask for the bloods and then the doctor on the same morning. Some practices run that. Most do not. The assistant must not invent a paired visit.
If you do run same-morning pairings, they are a type you created, with two owners and two lengths, and with a rule about which list is offered first. If you do not, the assistant books the bloods — if that type is unlocked — and takes a request for you as a callback, or books a later follow-up if that is what you already planned. It does not place one of your times against a nurse time and call it one visit.
“I need bloods before my review next week” is two types on two dates, or a note that the review should not happen until the bloods are in. It is not a reason to put the review on the nurse list, and it is not a reason to put bloods on yours.
What it must not treat as a booking
“I need a certificate for last week” is a policy request, even when the caller asks for the first free time. The assistant gives this practice’s own rule — registered patients only, a visit if the absence was not already recorded, or whatever you actually do — and takes a task. It does not invent a ten-minute time to print a document you have not agreed to write. “You probably do not need a note for three days” is advice. It does not belong in the assistant’s mouth.
Referral letters, gym notes, school notes and insurance forms are the same kind of request. Facts about the process can be spoken. A time can be offered only if you have a type called letter, with a length and an owner. Most practices do not.
A home visit is a decision for you. The assistant takes the name, the address, the reason in the caller’s words, and the callback number. It does not offer 14:30 at the house because 14:30 was free in the room.
A new patient is name, AMKA, telephone, and who sent them if anyone, handed over as a complete note. Do not let the assistant say they are registered if a human still has to see a document. If you allow a first-visit type for new arrivals, that is what it offers after the details. If you do not, it takes the note and a callback.
Moving one appointment
Find the existing item, release it, place the new one, same type, same owner. That order is the only one that does not block the patient with their own follow-up. Split into cancel and then book, and they are told they cannot have Wednesday because Tuesday is still in the book.
A cancellation the practice hears about the day before is a time the next follow-up or the next nurse list can use. Let patients cancel through the assistant. Write it back immediately. A cancellation that lives only in a transcript cannot be offered to the next caller.
A patient who missed Tuesday’s follow-up and now wants Wednesday’s last same-day time is not a move. That Wednesday time is one you are still handing out today. A human looks. The assistant takes the request.
Times you are still giving out today
Same-day times look empty in the software. They are not empty in the building. You are spending the morning deciding who those times are for. An assistant that treats them as the first available “today” will spend them on certificates and on people who wanted a result read out.
Keep those times closed to the assistant until you have watched a week of the safer types and still want this. Even then, the phrases on your short list must win. “Anything today” plus chest pain is not a same-day request. It is a ring to the phone you named.
If you open same-day times at all, they must be their own type, blocked from every other use, and read after the first week. Most practices should not open them.
If the calendar does not answer
If the calendar cannot be reached, the assistant takes a callback. It does not guess a Thursday. An appointment the patient believes in and the practice has no record of is worse than no booking at all. They will arrive. You will not be free. The desk will spend the next day moving the people who were already in that hour.
The same rule applies when every time of that type is taken. Say so. Take a callback. Do not offer your colleague’s last gap because yours is full, unless you named a type that may go to either of you.
When it does book, it confirms by SMS at the moment of booking, in the language of the call. That removes the second call that begins “did I actually get the 11:20?” The SMS names the person who will be seen, the owner, the type, and the time. For a child, it names the child, not the parent who placed the call. It answers in 70+ languages. The SMS follows the language of the call.
Phrases that stop the booking
Chest pain. Trouble breathing. A baby who is not right. Whatever else you decide for this practice. Keep the list short, and point it at a phone a person actually holds.
If a phrase on that list appears, the assistant stops offering times. It writes down what the caller said and rings the number you named. It may say that someone will call immediately. It may not say “I have 12:10”. It does not tell the caller what the symptom means, or to wait, or to go anywhere. After the door is locked it reads the closed-hours wording you wrote and still rings the on-call phone. Those words do not go to a flag on a screen.
What you set up first
Four types: a short follow-up, a blood-pressure check, a telephone consult that is not for results, a nurse bloods time if you run one. Real lengths from last month’s book. Owners named. Friday’s covering doctor noted, including the work they will not do.
Unlock those four. Keep new registrations, long reviews, same-day times, home visits, letters, and the escalation phrases as callbacks. SMS on, at the moment of booking. Results and certificates as notes, not as times.
A forward after fifteen to twenty seconds while the desk is staffed, so the people at the glass still get a human when someone is free. An immediate forward once the desk is empty.
Tell the doctors, in writing, what the assistant will book and what it will not, before the first live morning. Read the first fifty bookings by hand. You are looking for a first visit in a follow-up, a bloods patient on your row, a results caller who received a time, and a child booked onto an adult review. Any one of those is a type you have not finished naming.
Rates are published once, on the pricing section of the home page.
AI receptionist, in-house staff, or a call centre
| CITT | In-house | Call centre | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Checks the calendar before offering | Yes, against the live calendar | Yes | Usually takes a message |
| First visit vs follow-up length | If you named the types | Yes | Writes "appointment" |
| Nurse bloods vs the doctor's list | If you mapped the types | Yes | Rarely |
| Telephone consult as its own type | Yes, when configured | Yes | Often writes "appointment" |
| Same-day times you are still managing | Callback, unless you open them | You decide during the morning | Takes a message |
| Chest pain asking for anything today | Stops, rings a named phone | Hands it to you | Transfer |
| Confirmation | SMS, immediately | If the desk has time | Sometimes |
| Calendar unreachable | Takes a callback | Looks at the paper book | Message only |
What a first visit in a follow-up time costs the morning
Worked from these assumptions — change any of them and the answer changes:
- One doctor, about 24 follow-up times and 6 first-visit times in a day. Put your own counts in.
- This example assumes 3 first visits a week land in a follow-up time when the types are not named. Replace 3 with what your own week shows.
- Each one runs about 15 minutes over. Recovery at the desk — a move, an apology, a squeezed extra — is about 10 minutes. Use your own figure.
- Desk time is about €11 an hour including employer costs in this example. Use your own figure.
- 3 × 10 minutes = 30 minutes a week of desk recovery.
- 30 minutes × 46 weeks ÷ 60 ≈ 23 hours a year.
- 23 × €11 ≈ €250 of desk time, which is the small number.
The large number is the morning that ran late and the last patient who waited in the corridor — not the €250.
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 first visit, or only follow-ups?
It can book a first visit if you created that type, with its own length and its own owner, and you already let the desk place those without asking you. If a first visit still needs a document or a word from you, keep it as a callback. Do not let the assistant drop a new patient into the first follow-up it can see.
Should it book people who want something today?
Most practices say no at the start, and they are right. The times you are still giving out this morning are ones you are managing while you work. The assistant takes the request and hands it over. Chest pain does not become “I have 11:40”.
What about telephone consults?
Treat them as their own type. They are shorter, they cannot take an examination, and they are what patients ask for when they want results — which the assistant still must not give. A results request is a note for you, not a booking, until you decide it should be a call.
Can it move an appointment that is already in the book?
Yes, as a single change: find the appointment, release it, place the new one on the same type and the same owner. If that is split into cancel and then book, the patient's own time is still in the book and they are told they cannot have it.
Will it register a new patient and book them on the same call?
It can take the details you already ask for — name, AMKA, telephone — and, if you allow it, offer a first-visit type you created for new arrivals. Whether they are actually on your list still depends on the identity checks you insist on. Do not let it say “you are registered” if a document is still due.
What if a parent wants two children seen?
That is two appointments, or a paired type you created, not a longer version of one time. If you have not set up a family pairing, the assistant should take both names and hand the pairing to the desk rather than invent a forty-minute gap on a list that does not work that way.
