Hospital AI booking tools for WhatsApp agents

What a WhatsApp AI booking assistant can do for your patients, what to set up in LeapHealthOS first, and how to handle bookings that come in this way.

Patients can book with your hospital on WhatsApp, at any hour, through an AI booking assistant. The assistant talks to the patient, and LeapHealthOS does the work: it looks up your clinics, doctors, services and open slots, and it registers patients and creates, moves or cancels appointments using the same rules your front desk uses.

This page is for administrators deciding what the assistant may do, and for front-desk staff who handle bookings that come in this way.

Who sets this up

The WhatsApp AI assistant itself (its instructions, tone and which actions it may take) is set up by your implementation team. Everything the assistant reads and writes is your LeapHealthOS data, so the preparation described on this page happens in LeapHealthOS.

What the assistant can do for patients

Your organisation decides which of these the assistant may do. Some only look information up; others change your data.

Look things up

See the patient profiles of the patient and their linked family members, and ask who the appointment is for when there is more than one.
List your active clinics, with their address.
List your doctors, optionally only those at one clinic, with specialisation, qualifications and experience.
List the consultation services a doctor offers at a clinic, with the fees.
Check the days and consulting hours a doctor sits at a clinic. This shows when the doctor is present, not which times are still free.
Search the open slots for a service at a clinic, with the fee this patient would pay.
List a patient's appointments, newest first, with status, doctor, clinic and time.

Make changes

Register a new patient profile, for the patient or a family member, and record the family relationship.
Book a chosen slot, either to pay at the clinic or online with a payment link.
Move an appointment to a new time and, if your rules allow it, to another doctor, centre or service.
Cancel an appointment that has not started yet, with the patient's reason.

The assistant cannot show clinical records, prescriptions, reports or bills, and cannot take payment itself. For an online booking it sends the patient a payment link.

Start with look-ups

You can launch with look-ups only, so the assistant answers questions about doctors, fees and availability and hands bookings to your front desk. Add registering and booking when you are happy with the answers, and rescheduling and cancelling last.

Safeguards built in

Patients and their family only. The assistant can act only for the patient and the family members linked to them on the patient profile's Family tab.
The same booking rules as staff bookings. Slot availability, booking limits, approval, payment holds, and your cancellation and reschedule policies all apply. If a policy does not allow an action, the assistant explains this and offers to connect the patient to your team.
Confirmation before changes. The assistant reads the details back and gets the patient's confirmation before registering, booking, rescheduling or cancelling.
No double bookings. If the patient already has an appointment with that doctor, the assistant tells the patient about it instead of booking another.

What to set up first

The assistant can only offer what is bookable in LeapHealthOS. Before you switch it on, check:

Active centres with an address and the correct time zone. See Centres and clinic configuration.
Doctors mapped to services at each centre, with fees. A doctor with no active service at a centre cannot be booked there. See Doctor onboarding and configuration.
Weekly schedules for every doctor the assistant should offer. No schedule means no slots. See Weekly schedules, blocks and overrides.
Online payments, if you want patients to pay when they book. See Holds, payment at booking and approvals.
Cancellation and reschedule policies in System Settings, so the assistant follows the rules you want. See Appointment and slot settings reference.
Notification rules for booking confirmations and reminders, so patients get the same messages as for staff bookings. See Notification rules.
Family links for families who book for each other. See The patient profile.

A typical conversation

The patient says who the visit is for

The assistant lists the patient's profiles and linked family members. If there is more than one, it asks which person, by name and relationship. If there are none, it registers the patient after reading the name, date of birth and gender back to them.

Expected result: The assistant knows which patient profile to book for.

The patient picks a clinic, doctor and service

The assistant lists your clinics and the doctors at the chosen clinic, then the doctor's services and fees. It offers only services that are active.

Expected result: The assistant has a clinic, doctor and service.

The assistant finds a time

If the patient has no date in mind, or the doctor visits only on some days, the assistant checks the doctor's schedule first. It then searches open slots for a day or a short range.

Expected result: The patient chooses a slot.

The assistant books

The assistant confirms the patient, doctor, clinic, date, time and fee, and asks whether the patient will pay at the clinic or online. For an online booking it sends the payment link and tells the patient to pay before the time shown.

Expected result: The appointment appears in All Appointments.

Paying, holds and registration fees

Pay at the clinic: the appointment is booked (or waits for approval, if your settings require it) and the fee is collected at the desk.
Pay online: the appointment is held while the patient pays through the link. Unpaid holds lapse according to your hold settings. See Holds, payment at booking and approvals.
Free consultations: if the price works out to zero, there is nothing to pay online and the appointment is booked to pay at the clinic.
Registration fee: if a patient still owes a registration fee, the assistant tells the patient it is payable at the clinic. It does not block booking. See Registration fees and estimates.
Missing details: if the clinic needs patient details the assistant did not collect, the assistant tells the patient the clinic will ask for them at the desk.

Cancelling and rescheduling

The assistant moves or cancels only appointments that your policies allow the patient to change. A change may not be allowed when the appointment is too close, has reached its reschedule limit, would move to a different doctor when that is not allowed, or when patients may not cancel. When your settings require a reason, the assistant asks for one. If a move changes the price, the assistant sends a payment link for the difference.

When a paid appointment is cancelled, the assistant tells the patient the refund amount your cancellation policy works out.

Refunds are not paid out automatically

The refund amount is recorded, but the money is not returned to the patient automatically, and LeapHealthOS has no refund screen yet. Your implementation team issues the refund. See Rescheduling, cancellation and refunds.

Troubleshooting

When the assistant cannot complete a request, it tells the patient why. These are the cases you are most likely to hear about:

The patient is told	Why	What to check
The assistant can't book for that person	The person is not registered as the patient or linked as a family member.	Register the person, or link the profiles on the Family tab.
"That doctor is not open for bookings at this centre right now."	The doctor has no active, priced service at that centre.	Map the doctor to services at the centre in Doctor Configuration.
The assistant finds no slots	The doctor has no schedule, is fully booked, or slots are held for walk-ins.	The doctor's weekly schedule and the walk-in settings. See How slot search works.
"That appointment time was just taken."	Someone else booked the slot first.	Nothing. The assistant offers a fresh time.
"This patient already has an appointment booked with that doctor."	A booking already exists.	Nothing. The assistant tells the patient about it.
"The clinic does not allow this appointment to be moved."	Your reschedule policy does not allow it.	Appointment settings for rescheduling.
"The clinic does not allow the patient to cancel this appointment."	Your cancellation policy does not let patients cancel.	Appointment settings for cancellation. Staff can still cancel it.
"That appointment can no longer be changed."	Its status does not allow changes, for example it is already checked in or completed.	Nothing. Staff handle it at the desk.
"The clinic system could not complete that request."	Something else went wrong.	The assistant offers to connect the patient to your team. Contact support if it keeps happening.

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