Clinic Agent
What Docistra's AI receptionist does for your patients, and when it steps aside
Docistra's AI agent answers your patients on WhatsApp, Telegram and your website widget. It books, reschedules and cancels appointments, answers questions about your clinic, and hands the chat to your team when needed.
Everything it does shows up in your dashboard right away: bookings in Appointments, chats in Conversations.
Where the AI works
- WhatsApp: on your clinic's own WhatsApp number. Without a connected number there is no WhatsApp. See WhatsApp Settings.
- Telegram: on your clinic's Telegram bot, with free messages. See Telegram Settings.
- Website widget: on your own website. See Website Widget.
A clinic can have a main number (or bot) for every branch and one per branch. When a patient writes to a branch's number or bot, the AI treats that branch as theirs: it offers that branch's doctors, days and address first and books there. If the patient asks for another branch, it books that one instead, in the same chat, and names the branch in the confirmation.
What the AI can do
The AI checks each doctor's live availability, offers open times (or a queue number for walk-in doctors), and books once the patient confirms. It asks for the patient's name and age before booking, and checks for existing bookings first so it doesn't create duplicates.
A patient can book for a child, parent or spouse from their own WhatsApp. The AI creates a separate record for that person, linked to the caller.
The AI can cancel an upcoming appointment and book a new time in its place. Visits that already started, passed, or were completed can't be cancelled by the AI.
Fees, follow-up prices, services, doctors' working days, insurance, and anything you added to the Knowledge Base.
When a patient asks for the address, the AI sends the branch address and its Google Maps link.
On WhatsApp, the AI can send the patient their records portal link and set or reset its 4-digit PIN. This never happens on the website widget, because the widget can't prove who is chatting.
After a visit, when the patient replies to the review request with a score from 1 to 5 (and an optional comment), the AI saves it to Reviews.
For labs and radiology centers, the AI quotes tests and scans from your catalogue, registers the patient, and answers "is my result ready?".
If a patient clearly asks to talk to a human, or the chat matches one of your When to hand off to a human rules, the AI turns itself off for that chat and alerts your team. See Conversations and Agent Settings.
What the AI won't do
- Give medical advice or a diagnosis
- Take payments
- Quote prices, tests or scans that aren't in your data
- Invent preparation instructions (fasting, contrast, etc.). It says the clinic will confirm.
Language
The AI replies in the language the patient is using: Egyptian Arabic for Arabic or Franco-Arabic messages (or simple Modern Standard Arabic if you choose it in Agent Settings), English for English. It also understands voice notes, which are transcribed automatically.
What the AI knows
| Source | Where you manage it |
|---|---|
| Clinic name, description, phone, addresses | Settings → Clinic |
| Doctors, fees, working days | Doctors |
| Services and prices | Services |
| Extra info (prices, insurance, FAQs) | Knowledge Base |
| Its name, greeting, dialect and tone | Agent Settings |
| Your clinic's rules and style | Agent Settings and Custom Instructions |
| The conversation so far | Recent messages in the chat |
Testing the AI
Go to Clinic Agent in the sidebar (owners and admins only) and tap Test as a patient. The Patient tab lets you chat as if you were a patient.
Test chats are a safe playground. The AI checks real availability, but nothing is actually booked, cancelled or saved to a real patient.
The Training tab is where you teach the AI your clinic's rules. See Custom Instructions.
When the AI stops answering
The AI pauses on its own in these cases. Your patients' messages still reach Conversations so your team can follow up.
| Situation | What the patient gets |
|---|---|
| AI turned off for that patient (by staff, a doctor assignment, or the patient asking for a human) | No AI reply. Your team is notified. |
| Subscription not active (trial ended, payment overdue, suspended or cancelled) | A short message that the assistant isn't available, with your clinic phone if set. Sent at most once every 12 hours per patient. |
| Clinic profile incomplete (missing name, public URL, logo, description, phone, or an address) | Same short message |
| Monthly fair-use limit for your plan reached | A message that the assistant isn't available this month and the clinic team will reply |
Complete your clinic profile before sharing your WhatsApp number or clinic link. The AI won't answer patients until the required fields are filled in. See Billing & Plans for subscription states.