What does the receptionist need from the practice system?
A phone booking involves four separate actions, and each needs its own permission. The receptionist must read availability for the right practitioner, location and appointment type. It must find the caller's patient record or create a new one. It must write the appointment. If you want it to handle changes, it must also cancel or move appointments. Ask a provider which of these it will do in your system, and switch on only the ones you need. A receptionist that can read every patient record in order to make a booking has more access than the task requires.
How do Cliniko and Coreplus handle outside bookings?
Cliniko's API uses an API key belonging to an individual user and limits each user to 200 requests per minute. Requests must carry a User-Agent naming the application and a contact email. The API includes available times, individual appointments, appointment types and patients, and works in UTC, so a booking system must convert to each clinic's local time. Coreplus describes its API as covering clients, practitioners, availability slots and appointments, intended for server-to-server use. A booking needs start and end times and the practitioner, and the request can ask Coreplus to send the practitioner an SMS.
How do PracSuite and Nookal handle access?
PracSuite requires two keys on every request. Smartsoft issues a vendor key to approved third-party developers, who must show a minimum standard of privacy, security and data handling. The clinic generates its own subscriber key inside PracSuite and can revoke it at any time. The API includes booking, available appointments, appointment types and cancellation reasons. Nookal integrations start with an API key created in the clinic's Nookal account, where the clinic sets the level of access. Its developer documentation lists availability, booking, patients and appointments among its functions.
How should new patients be handled?
New patients need the most care, because a duplicate record splits a patient's history across two files. Agree a matching rule, such as name plus date of birth plus mobile number, and decide what happens when only two of the three match. Collect the minimum the first appointment needs and leave the full intake form to the clinic's usual process. Funding details such as a GP referral, NDIS plan, DVA card or workers compensation claim need a person to check them, so flag those for staff instead of booking a funded appointment type automatically. A minimal new-patient record might hold:
- Full name and date of birth
- Mobile number, read back to the caller
- Reason for the visit in a few words
- Referral or funding type, flagged for staff
- Preferred practitioner and location
Does the Privacy Act apply to a small clinic?
If the clinic provides a health service, yes. The Privacy Act generally exempts businesses with annual turnover of $3 million or less, but the OAIC lists private sector health service providers as covered regardless of size, including allied health professionals, complementary therapists and gyms. A phone booking collects personal information and often a reason for the visit, so the clinic's privacy notice should mention the receptionist and the provider that processes calls. Our guide to Privacy Act duties for AI receptionist call data covers the detail. This is administrative guidance; for advice, use the OAIC's resources or a privacy adviser.
What should you test before going live?
Create a test practitioner and test patient in your real account, then book through every appointment type the receptionist will offer. Check the result in the diary as staff see it, including the local time for each location and any buffer rules. Book at the edges: the first and last slot of the day, a public holiday, a practitioner on leave and a slot someone else takes during the call. Confirm whether the practice system's own SMS confirmations fire for phone bookings. Then break the connection and check the caller hears that a request was taken, not that a booking exists.