AI is growing at an alarming rate, presenting opportunities for healthcare professionals and businesses to automate like never before. In this post, we'll take a look at AI receptionists and breakdown everything you should know about them before you consider whether it's right for your business.
What is an AI Receptionist?
An AI receptionist is a platform designed to automate patient communication for healthcare clinics. This means automating phone calls, messages and even emails, allowing patients to contact your clinic to manage appointments, ask questions and more.
AI receptionists are becoming widely popular due to their fast evolving nature and appealing cost efficiency when compared to traditional internal or external administrative teams.
How do AI Receptionists Work in Clinics?
Connecting an AI Receptionist to Your PMS/EHR
So how do AI receptionists work? AI receptionists work by connecting to your Practice Management System (PMS) or Electronic Health Record (EHR) via an API integration. The API allows the AI receptionist to access and alter certain information on your PMS/EHR, such as patient records and appointment times in order for it to perform requested tasks.Functionality can vary depending on which PMS/EHR your clinic is using, as some will allow more functions to be accessed through the API than others.
How AI Receptionists Pickup Calls
Functionality can also vary from one AI receptionist to another, depending on how developed each platform is. Most platforms support call automation which works via a VOIP number. Calls can then be rerouted from the existing clinic landline to the AI number in order to make the AI receptionist patient facing. This prevents patients from having to call a different number when contacting the clinic.
Other Enquiry Channels for AI Receptionists
Platforms which support other channels such as email or WhatsApp will have additional setup processes for these channels. WhatsApp integrations will require logging into your Facebook account, whilst email channels usually require inbox forwarding to an AI server email address.
Benefits of AI Receptionists for Clinics
So what really are the benefits of implementing an AI receptionist in your clinic? Well, the main benefit is efficiency, which is essential if you're hoping to grow your clinic and get the most out of your resources.
How AI Receptionists Answer Every Enquiry
AI receptionists operate 24/7, and can take multiple calls at once, meaning there is never an instance where a query goes unanswered. This is crucial for clinics as patient care starts the moment they pick up the phone. This is especially helpful outside of regular clinic opening hours, when calls would have previously been either picked up by someone working late, or completely unanswered - which often leads to the patient calling elsewhere, waiting for that someone who works late to pick up and schedule them in for the following morning.
Patients can create new records, book, cancel or reschedule appointments and even ask questions relating to your clinic and its services, for example directions or parking information. Patients can also leave messages for the clinic or a note on their appointment if they are running late for example.
Whilst some AI receptionists only offer call automation, the more advanced platforms on the market can automate much more. Clinics can even automate outbound communications, such as appointment reminders and patient follow-ups, via calls or SMS. These are also benefits which help to increase the overall efficiency in a clinic.
Cost Benefit of AI Receptionists
When you consider the spectrum of benefits that AI receptionists can provide, the price you pay for them is often very reasonable when compared to alternative options for handling patient communications.
AI Receptionist v Alternatives
Let's take a look at some of the alternatives to an AI receptionist which have been around for a little longer, such as virtual assistants, call centres, or even internal administration teams. Whilst these alternatives are more human intensive, they have one other thing in common - they are generally more expensive, due to the fact that human intensive work can't be scaled as efficiently as technology.
It's important to consider that using technology for efficiency is great, but keeping that human touch for when it's truly needed is still essential. With an AI receptionist you have the ability to escalate a query to a human for support if needed. This can be done by either forwarding the call right on to a team member, or leaving a message with the team for a callback.
Some virtual assistants use AI receptionists as well, allowing them to cover enquiries that come in after hours. This allows them to deliver a better and sometimes more cost efficient experience to clinics that use their services.
Some virtual assistants use AI receptionists as well, allowing them to cover enquiries that come in after hours. This allows them to deliver a better and sometimes more cost efficient experience to clinics that use their services.
Out of all these alternatives, the AI receptionist covers a huge amount more, allowing clinics to take full advantage of its benefits.
Patient Experience & Trust
Quality of the Tech Stack
Given the wide range of functionalities that AI receptionists offer, the patient experience can vary hugely. Many platforms on the market are built using agent builders. Agent builders allow non-programmers to build applications through a user-friendly interface. Whilst agent built products may still function at a basic level, they are limited in scope and tech quality.
The top AI receptionists on the market are products built from the ground, with no corners cut. This allows developers to streamline the code base for better performance and increases the speed at which they can develop additional features or fix bugs/issues.
Another consideration is the quality of the AI models being used. There are a large variety of AI models involved in AI receptionists, such as the Large Language Models (LLM), Speech-To-Text models (STT) and more. Some of the stronger providers for models include:
- OpenAI
- ElevenLabs
Data Security
Security is also a big consideration when talking about the patient experience. It's important to choose an AI receptionist which takes security seriously and adheres to any required data protection laws, such as GDPR and Australian Privacy Act.
Do Patients Prefer AI Receptionists Over Humans
The age old question is now becoming whether patients prefer AI receptionists over humans. Put simply, AI receptionists are generally more effective at dealing with most queries which patients love, especially when those queries fall during the weekend or outside of the clinic opening hours.
Equally, there is always a time and a place for human support, as not all queries can be handled by an AI receptionist. Ensuring that human support remains easily accessible when needed is key to delivering the best overall service possible to patients.
Implementing an AI Receptionist in a Clinic
When it comes to implementing an AI receptionist in your clinic, you'll have to first check that they support the PMS/EHR which you are using to store patient data and manage appointments. Some of the more popular systems on the market include:
- Cliniko
- Nookal
- PracticeHub
If your system is supported, then you can generate an API Key and input it when creating an account for the AI receptionist. From here, you will be able to generate access to your AI number and make it patient facing by setting up call forwarding from your existing clinic landline to this new number. This is the same process involved when rerouting calls to a virtual assistant or call centre.
With every clinic being different, it's important to consider the level of customisation that you can implement when selecting an AI receptionist. Customisation can include general settings and features, but also the ability to edit call scripts or request certain additional additions to your account on the backend.
Challenges & Limitations
General Limitations of AI Receptionists in Clinics
Whilst AI receptionists are developing very quickly, their growth is partially dependent on the growth of AI in general via the use of instrudy models. This can sometimes limit AI receptionist platforms when it comes to hallucinations. With time, hallucinations are likely to reduce drastically until they are something of the past.
Future Outlook for AI Receptionists
Will AI Receptionists Completely Replace Humans?
The short answer is no. Whilst AI receptionists aim to automate a huge amount of patient communication admin for healthcare clinics, the best ones recognise that human interaction is still important and necessary under certain circumstances.
As AI receptionists develop, they will be able to automate more and more, but the necessity of that human touch will never truly disappear, it will just reduce over time.
Conclusion
Is an AI Receptionist Right for Your Clinic?
With all that said, understanding whether an AI receptionist is right for your clinic depends on the nature of your clinic. If you've just started out growing your clinic and you've got a manageable number of patients, then it might be worth focusing on developing a strong relationship with those patients.
If however you have a growing clinic with more patients and feel as though you're overpaying for a human solution, but you'd still like to streamline your patient communications, then we'd highly recommend checking out an AI receptionist to reach that next level of cost and operational efficiency in your clinic.
Feel free to check out the BookedSolid platform at no cost for 14-days, or drop us an email below at support@bookedsolid.co.uk.