Capabilities
AiMe is designed to deal with most common requests made by patients. Below is a list of the main capabilities. ow each of these requests will be handled will vary by practice as AiMe is designed to accommodate the different protocols and workflows employed by practices. For example, some practices may allow patients to make face-to-face appointments directly where other practices will want to have a call with the patient before arranging an appointment. AiMe has the flexibility to accommodate these different working arrangements.
Main Capabilities
- make, cancel and alter appointments.
- Aime is instructed to try and ascertain the reason that the caller is requesting an appointment. Based on a practice-dependent list of staff specialties and services available in-practice and elsewhere, AiMe can take the most appropriate action:
- If the caller requests a service not directly supported by the practice (e.g. maternity) the system can inform them how to contact that service.
- Suggest that the caller might like to contact their local pharmacist if it’s a condition that pharmacists are qualified to handle (e.g. psoriasis).
- Inform the caller how to handle the request themselves when appropriate (e.g. taking their blood pressure by using the blood pressure machine in the practice or pharmacy).
- Make an appointment with the most appropriate clinician in the practice based on staff specialties, if appropriate.
- AiMe will use its general knowledge to categorise requests. For example, AiMe would know that a call about eczema would be best seen by doctor specialising in skin conditions even though that particular condition may not be listed in the practice specialties.
- Aime is instructed to try and ascertain the reason that the caller is requesting an appointment. Based on a practice-dependent list of staff specialties and services available in-practice and elsewhere, AiMe can take the most appropriate action:
- signpost patients to other services.
- AiMe can be instructed to direct calls for services to other health organisations. This can be specific such as when asking for a midwife, when the caller could be directed to the local maternity unit, or for more generic requests such as eye health, the caller can be advised to contact any local optician. AiMe will not forward calls directly but give the contact details to the caller. It is possible, though not in this prototype, that AiMe could send the contact details as a text message to the caller’s phone.
- AiMe will not forward calls directly but give the contact details to the caller. It is possible, though not in this proof of concept, that AiMe could send the contact details as a text message to the caller’s phone.
- record patient at-home readings.
- AiMe can accept at-home readings from the caller, such as blood pressure, and save the results to the patient record. AiMe will also check the reasonableness of the readings and confirm the results with the caller before accepting and saving them.
- take patient messages.
- AiMe can take messages from callers intended for staff members. AiMe will always confirm the message with the caller before saving it. The message will be sent to administrative staff unless the caller mentions a specific staff member that the message is intended for.
- order repeat prescriptions.
- supply practice information
- Requests for information on services, disabled access, car parking, upcoming events, etc can all be answered according to the details of the specific practice.