Ukrainian medical clinics operate under constant calls. Administrators handle dozens of calls every day, record appointments, remind about appointments, and answer the same questions. But there is a nuance: this process stops after the end of the working day. The need for patients does not disappear, they need convenience here and now, and the staff needs a solution to which they can delegate part of the routine.

4 challenges that complicate the work of clinics today:

Challenge #1. Human Factor

Administrators spend hours every day manually recording, clarifying details, and calling to confirm appointments. This reduces efficiency and creates the risk of human error. During recording, forgotten reminders or data inaccuracies are a common problem when processes depend on people. Sometimes this leads to missed appointments and confusion in the schedule.

Challenge #2. Time constraints

Patients can only contact during business hours. If you need to make an appointment in the evening or on the weekend, you will have to wait. This is inconvenient, creates queues, and leads to patient loss.

Challenge #3. High workload on staff

Communication carried out through only one communication channel can complicate the work of staff. While the administrator is talking to one patient, the call of another remains unanswered. Of course, he will call back as soon as he finishes the current conversation, but during this time the patient can contact another clinic.

Challenge #4. The need for continuous communication

During blackouts or unstable communication, patients may lose access to clinic services. But health cannot wait — it is important to ensure 24/7 communication.

To overcome these challenges, we integrated a chatbot (a digital assistant that automates key processes) for the Ukrainian medical network Medea. Its task is to take over routine communication and ensure continuous access to clinic services. How effectively was this tool implemented, did it really simplify the clinic’s work and improve the quality of service for patients? I share in this article.

Appointment with a doctor: fast, convenient, without calls.

The key function of the chatbot was automated appointment booking. The patient chooses a branch, specialization and doctor — the bot shows available hours. For greater functionality, we added the ability to receive information about free services and check basic data about the medical facility: address, opening hours, etc.

To ensure that the record is accurate and synchronized with internal systems, we have set up API integration with CRM Doctor Eleks (the system used by the clinic). This means that:

Patients see the current schedule of appointments.

Entries made through the bot automatically appear in the CRM — without manual entry.

Administrators always have an up-to-date patient database and can quickly respond to requests.

What is important: the bot offers to authorize by phone number. You can enter it manually or simply send the number tied to the Telegram account.

You can share your number with the bot in one click, and if the user made a mistake in the number, it can be corrected

First visit? The bot will help you register effortlessly

If a person applies for the first time, the bot helps to complete registration. It accepts dates of birth in different formats and automatically organizes the data to avoid confusion.

Before confirming the information, the bot offers to check the entered data — this minimizes the risk of errors and facilitates the work of administrators. After authorization, the patient gets access to the full functionality of the chat bot.

Booking an appointment: everything under control

The booking process is simple and clear. First, the patient selects the clinic branch that is currently accepting patients. Then the bot suggests a specialization, and then all available doctors in this category.

After selecting a specialist, the bot shows his photo and brief information. If the patient changes his mind or makes a mistake, he can easily return to the list of doctors. An important plus is that the patient can not only book an appointment at the clinic, but also arrange a doctor's call to his home.