Scheduling Rules for Cerbo Practices with an AI Receptionist

Rules first, calendar second

Every Cerbo practice already has scheduling rules. Most of them live in people's heads: the physician who only sees new patients on certain days, the nurse practitioner who handles hormone follow-ups but not first consults, the infusion chair that cannot be booked over lunch. When a new staff member starts, those rules get taught one mistake at a time.

Putting an AI receptionist on the phone forces those rules into writing, which is useful in its own right. The practice sets them: which visit types exist, how long each takes, which provider offers what, and which requests need a person.

How Katie applies them on a call

When a caller wants a visit, Katie works through your rules to pin down what kind of visit it is, who it should be with and what the practice needs to know first. She records the caller's preferred days and times, and anything that limits when they can come in.

Katie does not place the appointment in the Cerbo calendar. The finished request reaches your staff inside the call summary, already shaped to your visit types, and a staff member books it in Cerbo. Because the request arrives complete, the scheduler is choosing a slot rather than starting a conversation.

The rules to write down first

Start with the rules that cause the most rework when someone breaks them:

• Which providers see which visit types, and which providers are taking new patients
• How long each visit type runs, including extended first visits
• Visit types that need a clinician's approval before staff book them, such as a first infusion or a hormone start
• Days or sessions reserved for particular services, like infusion mornings or a telehealth block
• How members, non-members and self-pay patients differ, if they do

Requests better handled by a person

Some requests are easier to settle live. A patient asking to see two providers back to back, a family wanting several appointments together, or a caller with a complicated travel schedule can all be sorted faster in one conversation with a scheduler. Mark those in your rules, and while the office is open Katie can transfer them to staff.

Keeping the rules current

Rules go stale quietly. A provider changes their days, a new service starts, a visit type is renamed in Cerbo. Assign an owner who updates Katie's rules the same day the Cerbo schedule changes, and review the full set every quarter so small drifts do not pile up. A rule Katie follows faithfully is only as good as the day it was last updated.