AI reception for allied health practices.
Physiotherapy, podiatry, psychology, speech, occupational therapy and dietetics. The phone is the front door of the practice, and the person calling is often in pain, anxious, or both.
The most carefully configured setup we do.
Health calls carry two things other industries do not: sensitive information, which attracts a higher standard under the Privacy Act, and the possibility that the person on the phone needs help right now. Both are handled by narrowing what the AI does rather than widening it. It books, reschedules and captures contact details. It does not go anywhere near clinical territory.
Who is actually ringing.
A new patient booking
Name, contact, practitioner or service requested, referral if they have one, and availability. It does not ask what is wrong, and if the caller volunteers it, that detail is passed on but never acted on.
An existing patient rescheduling
The most common call in any practice and the one that most often goes to voicemail. Captured and routed, or booked directly where your calendar is connected.
Referral and funding questions
Whether a referral is needed, what a plan covers, whether you take a particular scheme. It answers only from what you have written down and approved, and routes anything beyond it.
Fees and rebates
Your published fees, and nothing improvised. Anything conditional goes to a person.
When a call stops being an appointment.
If a caller indicates they are in crisis or at risk, the AI does not attempt to assess, counsel or triage. It is configured to do two things: tell the caller plainly that they can reach emergency services on 000 or a crisis line, and escalate to a person on your rules immediately. The service itself cannot call 000 — it is not an emergency service and is not a substitute for one, and that limit is stated on every page of this site for a reason.
What it will never do here.
The general limits apply everywhere. These are the ones specific to your work.
Give clinical advice
Not general advice, not reassurance about a symptom, not "that sounds like". Nothing.
Triage or assess
It does not ask about symptoms to decide urgency. Urgency is decided by your rules and by your people.
Discuss a patient
With anyone, including someone claiming to be family. It takes a message.
Record more than it needs
It captures what is needed to make the booking. Health information is sensitive, and the least it can hold, the better.
What lands in your inbox.
- Name and contact number
- New or existing patient
- Practitioner or service requested
- Referral status, if the caller raises it
- Preferred appointment times
- The full transcript, held under the retention rules on our security page
Sent the moment the call ends, to whoever should get it. If it could not answer something, that is reported too, so the gap gets closed.
hello247 for allied health practices
Is this appropriate for a psychology practice?
It can be, with the limits above configured tightly and a clear escalation path to a person. We would rather talk that through with you properly than sell it as a drop-in. Some practices decide the answer is no, and that is a reasonable answer.
What about patient privacy?
Health information is sensitive information under the Privacy Act, and the practice is responsible for it. We keep what the system holds to the minimum a booking needs, store it in Australia, and set out exactly what is kept and for how long on our security page.
Will it announce that the call is recorded?
Audio recording is off unless you turn it on, and when it is on the announcement plays. Recording consent rules differ by state — New South Wales, Western Australia and South Australia require every party to consent. We set this up to match where you are.
Set up around how you actually work.
Tell us how your calls come in and what must never be said, and we’ll show you how it would answer.