Conversational agents are increasingly being used by healthcare facilities to manage appointments, communicate with patients, and reduce administrative work, potentially helping physicians better manage their schedules. These AI systems interact with patients or healthcare professionals through text or voice and can automate aspects of patient care, medical guidance, and administrative tasks.

Although these systems are often associated with patient care, they are also beginning to play a role in organizing clinical activities by reducing administrative tasks and helping optimize physicians’ schedules.

In a recent study published in JAMA Network Open, physicians described a mismatch between the structure of their work hours and the work expected of them, which created constant time scarcity. To mitigate work overflow, physicians made trade-offs in patient care and their personal lives, leading to guilt, disillusionment, and dissatisfaction. To sustain themselves in the field, many sought ways to see fewer patients.

Against this backdrop, automating administrative tasks and patient communication may help reduce this burden.

To examine this issue, Univadis Spain, part of the Medscape Professional Network, spoke with Gonzalo Baquero Sanz, MD, medical lead at Ovianta, which is a Barcelona-based AI platform that deploys human-like conversational voice agents and smart workflows to help clinics and hospitals automate patient scheduling, intake, reminders, and follow-ups. The system directly integrates clinical management software and phone infrastructure to streamline administrative tasks.

Management and Tracking Appointments

According to a study published in the British Journal of General Practice, missed primary care appointments have significant implications for healthcare services in terms of time and cost. Experts have therefore called for measures to reduce missed appointments, particularly because patients from ethnic minority groups, patients with lower socioeconomic status, and younger patients are more likely to miss appointments.

Healthcare centers face an average no-show rate of 8%-13%, according to Baquero Sanz. Unattended appointments waste valuable clinical slots, lower operational productivity, and disrupt revenue streams in private clinics.

Many clinics send appointment reminders through text messages, but conversational AI tools can make these interactions more effective by allowing patients to reply, ask questions, or cancel or reschedule appointments directly through messaging apps, such as WhatsApp or chatbots. This two-way communication may help reduce no-shows while saving staff time.

“Doctors deal with the problem every day of patients not showing up for their appointments, sometimes because they forget and other times because they were unable to cancel by phone. One of our agents’ roles is to proactively contact patients to confirm their appointments so that if they cannot attend, they can cancel or reschedule during the conversation with the chatbot.”

Several systematic reviews have found that automated reminders can reduce missed appointments, thereby supporting the potential role of these tools in appointment management.

Another issue highlighted by Baquero Sanz is the frustration physicians face when patients encounter difficulties in contacting a healthcare facility or navigating administrative processes, including problems getting assistance by phone.

“Traditionally, very little importance has been placed on patient intake, even though it is the gateway to the system. Our agents specifically optimize the user experience during intake and enable the facility to capitalize on more opportunities. Because what happens during intake ultimately affects the treating physician.”

According to a 2024 report by the Medical Association on assaults against physicians, 65.9% of the structural factors associated with these incidents are related to delays in patients receiving care.

Therefore, an inefficient and overburdened intake process can affect the wider care pathway. When administrative systems do not function efficiently, healthcare professionals may end up handling tasks outside their clinical responsibilities, including managing appointments and reorganizing schedules.

For Baquero Sanz, one of the main advantages of these agents is their ability to track call center activities, including conversations, concerns, and complaints.

“Before, all this information was hidden and couldn’t be analyzed. The tool allows you to monitor data such as calls answered, appointments scheduled, trends over time, and bottlenecks.”

However, there is still scope to expand these applications. A logical next step would be to simplify the processes before and after appointments, from collecting information in advance and streamlining medical history to following up with patients and monitoring chronic conditions.

The tool has been implemented in more than 400 healthcare facilities and serves 500,000 patients annually through chatbots. “Whenever necessary, the chatbot can transfer the call to a human agent, although this happens in only a small percentage of cases.”

The development of these systems suggests that their potential role extends beyond patient communication to help healthcare facilities manage physicians’ schedules and reduce administrative tasks that take up valuable clinical time.

Baquero Sanz reported serving as medical lead at Ovianta.

This article was translated from El Médico Interactivo on Univadis.