Typical scenario · Healthcare
Group medical practice: a front desk that's never engaged
Four family doctors, a phone that's always busy and patients turning up without an appointment.
Typical scenario: results are estimates based on similar projects, not data from a real client.
Sound familiar?
- “The phone rings while you're examining a patient”
- “Prescription requests come in through five different channels”
- “Patients complain that “nobody ever answers””
- The challenge
- A group practice with four family doctors and two assistants. From 8 to 10 a.m. the phone is a wall: repeat prescriptions for chronic conditions, certificates, appointments, “is the doctor in today?”. Requests also arrive by email, text message and notes left in the waiting room, and some get lost. Those who can't get through turn up in person, and the waiting room fills up.
- The approach
- Rules first: health data is a special category under the GDPR, so a data protection impact assessment (DPIA), EU-hosted providers and data processing agreements came before any line of code. Then a week observing the front desk to classify requests. One fixed point: no tool does clinical triage.
- The solution
- A single channel for non-urgent requests (web form and messaging) with guided paths: repeat prescription, certificate, appointment, information. Each request lands already sorted in the right doctor's queue, with automatic confirmation to the patient. Appointment reminders with one-click cancellation. For any sign of urgency, the system tells the patient to call emergency services immediately.
Tools
- Guided request form and messaging hosted in the EU
- Work queues per doctor
- Appointment reminders by text or message
- Automatic answers to administrative questions (hours, cover arrangements)
Timeline
6–8 weeks, plus the time for the impact assessment. Gradual rollout: one doctor first, then the whole practice.
Expected results (estimates)
- Estimate: 30–50% fewer calls at peak times
- No lost prescription requests: each one is tracked from arrival to reply
- Estimate: fewer missed appointments without notice thanks to reminders
The people
The phone doesn't disappear: it stays available at set times for those who don't use a smartphone, especially older patients. The assistants move from answering calls to looking after the people in the waiting room.
Is your practice swamped by admin requests? Let's start by analyzing a typical week.
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