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PatientNow New Consult Scheduling
How Katie gathers a new aesthetic consult request for PatientNow practices: treatment, provider, consult type and preferred times, ready to book.
Not every consult is the same appointment
A complimentary injectable consult with a nurse injector might fit a short slot on any weekday. A rhinoplasty consult with the surgeon needs a long visit, time for photos, and a coordinator in the room afterward. A laser consult may include a test spot on the same day. Treating all of these as one generic consult is how calendars end up wrong and patients end up waiting.
Your practice sets the consult types Katie works with and how long each one takes. She asks enough to tell them apart, so the request your coordinator receives already names the right visit and the right provider.
What Katie asks a first-time caller
The questions are yours to set. A practical starting list for an aesthetic practice on PatientNow:
- Name, phone number and email
- The treatment or area of concern, in the caller's own words
- Whether they want a specific surgeon or injector
- Which location, if you have more than one
- Days and times that work for them
- How they heard about you, for your marketing records
Matching the caller to the right provider
Callers often ask for a provider they saw on social media or heard about from a friend. Katie records the request, and your rules decide what happens next: route it to that provider's coordinator, suggest another provider who offers the same service, or note the preference for whoever completes the booking.
When a caller is unsure which provider to see, Katie can describe what each one offers using your wording, which keeps the conversation factual. She does not rank providers or comment on results.
Katie does not collect medical history beyond what your practice approves for the phone, and she never tells a caller whether they are a good candidate. Candidacy is what the consult is for.
Handing the request to your coordinator
Every call ends in a structured summary: who called, what they want, which consult type fits, and when they can come in. MedReception AI is live with practices on PatientNow, and your coordinator works the request there, confirming the consult and any consult fee by your usual process.
If a surgical consult requires a fee or deposit, Katie explains your policy in your words and directs the caller to your billing line or payment link. Collecting the money stays with your team and your existing payment channels.
A caller who is not ready to commit still leaves as a named lead with a treatment of interest, which gives your coordinator a reason and a context for the follow-up call.
Frequently asked questions
- Does Katie put the consult on the PatientNow calendar herself?
- Your coordinator completes the booking in PatientNow from Katie's consult request, which arrives with the visit type, any provider the caller asked for and her preferred times. On a demo we walk through that handoff for your practice.
- Can Katie handle requests for virtual consults?
- Yes, if your practice offers them. Add virtual consults as their own consult type, with their own length, and Katie will ask callers which format they prefer.
- What if a caller only wants pricing, not a consult?
- Katie shares whatever pricing you have approved for the phone and offers a consult for anything that depends on an exam. Callers who are not ready still end up as a named inquiry in the summary.
- Can new and returning patients be asked different questions?
- Yes. Returning patients usually need fewer questions, so you can give Katie a shorter list for them and keep the fuller intake for first-time callers.
Ready to implement this for your PatientNow practice?
Book a demo and we'll walk through your consult intake, treatment inquiry handling, scheduling, financing questions, and post-treatment call rules for PatientNow.