Automated Appointment Scheduler
1. Introduction
A chatbot is an Artificial Intelligence (AI) feature that understands human voice/text interaction and provides an intelligent response based on the input received and the context of the conversation. A chatbot can be used in various messaging applications to interact with users and provide responses to common queries.
Chatbots are widely utilized in the healthcare domain as well, with the help of a chatbot a customers can interact with the host, request information, book or reschedule physician appointments. It's an AI-driven interface between the customer and the host. This intelligent automation can schedule appointments without human intervention and send out appointment confirmation emails, make digital directions, etc. to help deliver a timely and top-notch experience always.
Problem statement
Appointment scheduling is one of the key processes in the healthcare industry. A well-developed appointment system can improve patients’ satisfaction and reduce the cost of clinics and hospitals. When a patient arrives at a clinic or calls the clinic to schedule an appointment, some clinics manage their appointments by using a scheduling book or a simple online appointment calendar. This is the traditional method to schedule an appointment, an AI based online appointment scheduling is more popular and relevant nowadays.
2. Solution Implemented
An Appointment scheduler Chatbot was created to solve the above issue using Power Virtual Assistant and Power automate as core components. Below steps were required to configure Power Virtual Assistant and Power automate:
1. Chatbot is created using Power Virtual Assistant for which we need to define topics for every activity.
2. Each topic contains multiple questions and actions. For example, we can configure separate questions for patient name, age, contact and address. Action will be used to call power automate flows.
3. For every topic, multiple training phrases are configured so that bot can understand user responses correctly.
4. After every question we can prompt with user with message/next question/action,
5. Using Power Automate flows, we will perform the necessary processing required at the back end.
6. Power Automate will fetch the backend data like doctors list from excel file uploaded at one drive and calendar information of each doctor from outlook web.
7. In case the user enters incorrect data then bot can provide a relevant error message to user.
8. If the user enters all the information correctly then an appointment will be scheduled, and confirmation mail will be sent to user.
3. Benefits Derived
Some of the key benefits of Appointment scheduler chatbot, were
1. Saving patient’s time in appointment scheduling and avoiding human error.
2. Enabling patients to schedule the appointment anytime.
3. Ability to attend multiple patients at the same time
4. Providing anonymity in case of the patient sharing sensitive health issues.
Connect with us if you need to streamline your appointment processes.
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