Healthcare & clinics
WhatsApp for clinics and hospitals.
Patients call to book, call to check timings and call to reschedule. Move those calls to WhatsApp: patients book and change appointments by message, and your front desk answers them from one inbox.
What does Baat do for clinics and hospitals?
For clinics and hospitals, Baat handles the front desk work on WhatsApp: appointment booking, confirmations, reminders, rescheduling, directions and feedback. An AI agent answers routine questions such as timings and location, and hands anything else to your staff. It is not a tool for sharing medical records or selling medicines.
A clinic's phone line is busy at exactly the hours patients want to call. Patients who cannot get through book somewhere else, and patients who booked forget, which leaves a doctor's slot empty that nobody else can use at short notice. Front desk staff answer the same questions about timings, fees, parking and directions all day. When a patient needs to reschedule, they often just do not turn up, because cancelling means another call.
How do clinics and hospitals use WhatsApp?
Each of these runs on Baat today. Open one to see how it works.
Guide
Let patients book by message
A WhatsApp Flow shows the patient a short form inside the chat to pick a department, a date and a time. Staff confirm it from the inbox. No call is needed.
Use case
Send reminders patients can reply to
A reminder goes out the day before with the time and the clinic's address. A patient who cannot come replies to move the slot, so it can be offered to someone else.
Use case
Answer timing and direction questions
An AI agent trained on your clinic's information answers routine questions about OPD timings, location and what to bring. It hands the patient to a person for anything else.
Use case
Route patients to the right desk
Assign conversations to the front desk of each branch or department, so one person owns each patient's request and nothing is answered twice.
Use case
Ask for feedback after the visit
Send a short feedback request after the appointment. A complaint reaches the clinic manager privately, and a happy patient can be pointed to your public review page.
Example conversation
A booking that never needed a phone call.
The patient books, gets a reminder, and moves the visit by replying. Notice what the chat does not do: it never asks about symptoms or medical history.
- Shared Inbox: Every branch's front desk works from one inbox, on the web or on the mobile app, with each request owned by one person.
- AI Agents: Routine questions about timings and location are answered at any hour, and anything else goes to staff.
- Journey Builder: Confirmations and reminders run on their own after every booking, on the timing you choose.
Sunita Rao Online
- Hello, can I book a general consultation for tomorrow evening? 9:20 AM
- Good morning Sunita. Tomorrow we have 5:30 PM or 6:15 PM at the Indiranagar clinic. Which one suits you? 9:21 AM
- 6:15 PM please. 9:24 AM
- Booked for tomorrow at 6:15 PM. Please bring any earlier reports with you to the visit. Do not send them on WhatsApp. 9:25 AM
An example. The people in it are made up.
Automation
Empty slots get a second chance.
A journey starts when an appointment is booked. It confirms the booking, reminds the patient the day before, and alerts the front desk if the patient asks to move it.
- Appointment booked
- Send confirmation with time and address
- Send a reminder the day before
- Ask the patient to confirm or reschedule
Reschedule?
YesHand to front desk
NoKeep the slot
Why do patients prefer WhatsApp to calling the clinic?
Because they do not have to wait on hold. Most patients book during their own working hours, when the clinic line is busiest. A message can be sent at any time and answered when the front desk is free. The confirmation then stays in the chat, with the time and address, where the patient can find it on the day.
For the clinic, every booking request arrives in writing. Nothing is lost on a sticky note, and two staff members do not book the same slot twice.
What should a clinic put on WhatsApp?
Put the front desk work on WhatsApp, not the medical work. Booking, confirmations, reminders, rescheduling, timings, directions, fees and feedback all suit WhatsApp well. They are short, they repeat, and patients want quick answers.
Keep diagnoses, test results and prescriptions off WhatsApp unless you have checked that your local rules allow it. Meta’s own policy warns against sending health information where the law requires stricter systems. The safest pattern is simple: the chat arranges the visit, and the medical conversation happens at the visit.
How do reminders reduce no-shows?
A reminder works when the patient can act on it. A reminder that says “reply to reschedule” turns a patient who would not have come into a moved appointment, and the original slot can then go to someone on the waiting list. Send it the day before, so there is still time to fill the slot.
Where does the AI agent help?
Most messages to a clinic ask the same few things. What time does the OPD open? Where is the clinic? Is parking available? What should I bring? An AI agent trained on that information can answer at any hour. Set it up to hand over to a person for anything else, and never to answer medical questions. The person who takes over sees the whole conversation, so the patient does not have to repeat it.
Can several branches share one setup?
Yes. Conversations can be assigned to the front desk of each branch or department. A manager can see every open request across all of them.
What do WhatsApp's rules mean for clinics and hospitals?
- Meta's policy lists medical and healthcare products, and drugs, among the goods you must not buy, sell or promote over WhatsApp. Use WhatsApp for appointments and clinic information, not to sell medicines.
- Meta's policy says not to use WhatsApp for telemedicine or to send or request health information where the law requires stricter systems for that information. Keep diagnoses, reports and prescriptions out of the chat unless you have confirmed your local rules allow it.
- Do not ask patients to share ID card numbers, payment card numbers or bank account numbers on WhatsApp. Meta's policy does not allow it.
- Message only patients who agreed to receive WhatsApp messages from you. Reminders for an appointment the patient booked are expected. Health promotions to a general list are not.
Checked against Meta's own policy pages on 21 October 2026: WhatsApp Business Policy. Meta changes these rules from time to time, so read the current version before you start.
Questions clinics and hospitals ask about WhatsApp
Can a clinic use WhatsApp for appointment reminders?
Yes. Appointment confirmations and reminders are a common and accepted use. Send them to patients who booked and agreed to hear from you, and let them reply to confirm or reschedule.
Can we share reports or prescriptions on WhatsApp?
Be careful. Meta's policy says not to send or request health information on WhatsApp where the law requires stricter systems for it. Check your local rules first, and ask patients to bring reports to the visit instead.
Can the AI agent give medical advice?
No, and it should not be set up to. Train it on clinic information such as timings, location, fees and what to bring. Anything about symptoms or treatment should go to a person at the clinic.
Can we sell medicines or health products on WhatsApp?
No. Meta's policy lists medical and healthcare products, and drugs, among the goods that must not be sold or promoted on WhatsApp. Baat's catalogue and payment features are for businesses whose products are allowed.
Do appointment reminders count as marketing messages?
A reminder about a booked appointment is normally a utility message under Meta's categories, which costs less than marketing. Current rates for India are on the pricing page.
Read next
Guide
What are WhatsApp Flows?
What WhatsApp Flows are, how they differ from ordinary messages, and when to use one.
Article
WhatsApp chatbot vs human agents: who should answer what
The useful split is not bot versus human — it is routine versus not. How to decide which WhatsApp questions to automate, and why the handoff matters more than the bot.
Article
What counts as opt-in on WhatsApp
Meta requires opt-in before you message anyone on WhatsApp. Here is what a valid opt-in must say, where you can collect it, and what it costs you to get this wrong.
Page
Plans and pricing
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