How does online scheduling work for a clinic?
The clinic registers its professionals, appointment types, how long each one takes and working hours. The system works out the open slots and shows them to the patient. Once a slot is chosen, it leaves the list right away, which prevents double booking.
It works for medical practices, dental clinics, physical therapy and aesthetics. What changes are the rules of each one: the gap between patients, room preparation time, procedures that can only be booked after an assessment.
The front desk stays in control. It blocks slots, fits in urgent cases and sees on one screen who confirmed and who has not answered yet. Examples of routines like this are in AI in admin. Scheduling, reminders and contracts also show up in the admin articles.
How do you set up automatic booking on WhatsApp?
The patient writes to the clinic's number. An AI assistant asks about the type of appointment and the professional, shows open slots and books the chosen one. It also answers common questions, such as address, price and insurance. Questions about symptoms or treatment go to the team, as explained in AI for clinics.
To do this, the AI uses the official WhatsApp API, which Meta bills per delivered message. Messages from the patient are free, and each business number gets 1,000 free service messages per month. The WhatsApp customer service offering connects this to the calendar. For clinics that get many calls, the AI voice assistant books by phone.
How do you confirm appointments online?
The confirmation goes out on its own, usually a day before, with date, time, professional and address. The message offers simple options: confirm, reschedule or cancel. If the patient chooses to reschedule, the AI shows new slots. If they cancel, the spot returns to the calendar and can go to someone on the waiting list.
One WhatsApp rule matters here. After the patient writes, a 24-hour window opens for free-form replies. Since confirmations usually go out days after booking, they use a template message, a standard text approved in advance by Meta. That is why the confirmation and reminder templates are written and approved at the start of the project.
Giving notice ahead of time and making rescheduling easy helps the clinic fill empty slots. How much this changes the number of no-shows depends on each clinic, and only the clinic's own calendar data can show it.
What care does the calendar need with patient data?
Brazil's data protection law, LGPD (Law 13,709/2018), classifies health data as sensitive personal data, with stricter rules for its use. In the calendar, this means storing only what is needed to book: name, phone, time slot, professional and, if any, insurance. The reason for the visit and any clinical information stay in the medical record, with access limited to the health team.
See how Lotaloja sets this up in clinics and aesthetics, and take the free diagnostic to find out where your clinic should start.
Good to know
Questions we often get.
Does the patient need to download an app?
No. They book through the WhatsApp they already use or through a link that opens in the phone's browser.
Does the front desk lose control of the calendar?
No. The front desk blocks slots, fits in patients and sees who confirmed. AI only books in the slots the clinic left open.
Are WhatsApp confirmations charged?
On the official API, Meta bills per delivered message, by category. Prices in Brazilian reais are in Meta's pricing table.
Can there be a waiting list?
Yes. When someone cancels, the slot can be offered automatically to whoever asked to be notified.
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