AI for Urgent Care & After-Hours GP Clinics

The AI uses triage protocols your clinicians approve, aligned with the Australasian Triage Scale to assess the urgency of each patient's presentation over the phone. It asks structured screening questions about symptoms, onset, severity, and relevant medical history, then categorises the case as life-threatening (call 000), urgent (attend now), semi-urgent (attend within hours), or non-urgent (suitable for next-day GP). Callers with a life-threatening presentation are told to call triple zero (000) straight away, and your on-site clinical team is alerted. All triage interactions are logged with timestamps and a call summary for clinical review (full transcripts are on the Custom plan).

Yes. Urgent care clinics operate with a hybrid model that standard booking systems struggle with. The AI manages both streams simultaneously, accepting appointment bookings for patients who prefer a scheduled time, while also tracking the walk-in queue in real time. Walk-in patients receive an estimated wait time via SMS when they arrive, with automatic updates if the queue changes. Patients calling ahead are advised whether walking in or booking would result in a shorter wait, helping distribute patient flow more evenly across the day.

The AI provides dynamic wait time estimates through multiple channels. Patients who call in are given a current estimate and can choose to join the queue remotely or book for a later slot. Walk-in patients receive an SMS with their queue position and estimated wait time upon check-in, with proactive updates if delays occur. Your clinic website can display a live wait time widget powered by the same data. Patients know how long they are likely to wait before they decide whether to stay.

Absolutely. Follow-up care is one of the biggest gaps in urgent care. Patients are treated and discharged, but critical follow-up actions often fall through the cracks. The AI automatically sends post-visit instructions, medication reminders, and wound care guidance as specified by the treating clinician. For patients who need a follow-up GP appointment, pathology, or imaging, the system sends reminders at the appropriate interval and, with a connection scoped as custom work on a quote, can book follow-up appointments into your system or through HealthEngine.

Yes: after-hours operation is a core design principle, not an afterthought. The AI operates identically at 2am on a Sunday as it does at 10am on a Tuesday. It handles the higher acuity presentations typical of after-hours GP clinics, triages with appropriate urgency thresholds for night-time and weekend presentations, and coordinates with hospital emergency departments when cases exceed the clinic's scope. After-hours call data is summarised for your clinical team each morning so they can review overnight activity before the day begins.

The AI does not process Medicare billing directly, but it captures the clinical and administrative data that feeds into your billing workflow. Patient demographics, Medicare numbers, concession card details, and consultation type are collected during the check-in or phone triage process. Syncing them to Best Practice, Medical Director or Clinic to Cloud needs a connection that is not part of Starter or Professional and can be scoped as custom work on a quote. This means your billing staff have all the information they need to process Medicare claims accurately without chasing patients for missing details after the consultation.

Yes. Many urgent care centres serve culturally and linguistically diverse communities where English is not the patient's primary language. The AI supports communication in over 40 languages for SMS and messaging, and can provide translated post-visit instructions, medication reminders, and follow-up care information. For phone-based triage where clinical accuracy is paramount, the system identifies language requirements and flags cases for interpreter-assisted triage where needed, ensuring no patient receives a lower standard of care due to language barriers.

Timing depends on scope and integrations, and we confirm a realistic timeline in your written quote. Setup includes connecting your practice management system, configuring triage protocols to your clinical team's specifications, setting up wait time communication workflows, and training your reception and clinical staff on the dashboard.