Table of Contents
Appointment Booking via Voice Agents
Appointment booking is a Workflow that takes a patient from "I'd like to come in" to a confirmed appointment in MedMe, without anyone on the team picking up the phone. The Agent works from the same appointment settings staff and the Booking Portal use, so it can only offer what the pharmacy has made available.
Please note: A Documentation link is the link sent to a patient after their appointment is booked, so they can complete screening questions, consent, and anything else the appointment requires. A Waitlist is a list of patients who want a service that is not currently open for booking; waitlisted patients are sent a Scheduling Link when appointments open up.
How Appointment Booking Works
Booking can run on an outbound call or an inbound call. How the call starts differs, but the booking itself works the same way:
The Agent introduces itself, discloses that it is an AI, and obtains the patient's consent to continue.
The Agent collects and confirms the patient's details.
The Agent checks the pharmacy's live appointment settings to see what is bookable at that moment, and offers available times.
The patient selects a time, and the Agent books it in MedMe.
The patient receives a confirmation, plus a documentation link if anything is left to complete.
The appointment and the call are both available in MedMe for the pharmacy to review.
Reminder: The appointment the Agent creates is an ordinary MedMe appointment. It appears, behaves, and can be edited exactly like one booked by a staff member or through the Booking Portal.
What the Agent Collects from the Patient
The Agent asks the patient for the following to complete the booking:
First name
Last name
Date of birth
Phone number
Email address, only if the patient is unable to receive a SMS confirmation
What the Agent Can Book
The Agent can only offer appointment types the pharmacy has made available. Depending on how the Workflow is set up, that is either every appointment type enabled for public intake, or a specific list of services chosen for the voice agent. The pharmacy should contact its account manager for configuration details.
Availability comes from the live MedMe calendar at the moment of the call, so the Agent cannot offer a slot that is not really there or double-book a time.
Booking More Than One Service, or More Than One Person
Where it is enabled for the Workflow, a patient can add other services to the same visit, and can book for family members or others on the same call.
Waitlists
If a service is in waitlist mode, the Agent offers to add the patient to the waitlist instead of booking them.
The Agent reads the pharmacy's settings at the time of the call. There is no need to tell MedMe when a waitlist is turned on or off - the Agent checks the appointment settings for that service and location while it is on the phone, and behaves accordingly: The Agent is explicit that joining a waitlist is not a confirmed appointment, and that the pharmacy will be in touch with a Scheduling Link when spots open up.
When the Patient Cannot Receive a Text
Confirmations and documentation links normally go out by text to the patient's phone number. That does not work for a landline, so when the Agent is dealing with a patient who cannot receive a text, it collects an email address and sends everything there instead.
When a Booking Cannot Be Completed
If the booking does not save, the Agent does not tell the patient they are booked. It apologizes, tries once more, and then either offers a transfer to the pharmacy, where the pharmacy is open and transfers are enabled for the Workflow, or directs the patient to book through the Booking Portal.
Viewing the Booking in MedMe
The Appointment
An appointment booked by the Agent is a normal MedMe appointment. It appears in the Appointments tab, on the calendar, and on the patient's profile, and staff can open, edit, complete, or cancel it exactly as they would any other booking.
Getting Back to the Call That Created It
To review the call behind an appointment:
Open the patient's profile.
Review their linked Concierge calls.
Select the call to open it in a side panel
Confirmations and Documentation
Appointment Confirmation
Once the appointment is booked, the patient receives a confirmation with the service, date, time, and location - to their phone number, or to their email address if they cannot receive a text.
Documentation Link
Anything the patient did not complete on the call - screening questions, consent, and other required paperwork - is sent to them as a documentation link after the call. This keeps the call short and lets the patient finish the detailed questions at their convenience, before their appointment.
Documentation Link Reminders
Patients do not always act on the documentation link the first time they see it. Appointment reminders are sent so if a patient was sent a documentation link and still has not completed it, the reminder they receive includes the link again. The reminder schedule is:
One week before the appointment
One day before the appointment
One hour before the appointment
The reminder only includes the link while the documentation is still outstanding. Patients who have already completed it receive the standard reminder.
FAQ
The Patient Says They Booked, but the Appointment Cannot Be Found
Check the call record first. If the appointment was never created, the patient may have been disconnected, or the booking may have failed at the last step. The transcript will show how far they got.
Why Did the Patient Not Receive Their Confirmation?
The most common cause is a landline, since a text cannot be delivered to one. Check the call record to see which contact details were captured; if an email address was collected, the confirmation was sent there instead.
Does the Agent Ask Screening Questions?
Only if the Workflow is set up that way. Otherwise the patient completes them through the documentation link after the call.
A Patient's Name Is Spelled Incorrectly in MedMe
Correct it on the patient record as usual, and report it to the account manager. The Agent confirms every name letter by letter before using it, so an incorrect spelling is worth investigating.