The short answer: ask how it handles emergencies, clinical questions and hand-offs before you ask about features. A good vendor answers these clearly, in writing, and lets you hear it for yourself.
Safety first
1. What does it do when a caller describes an emergency?
The right answer: it tells the caller to contact emergency services straight away and alerts your team. It should never try to assess or manage an emergency itself.
2. How does it handle clinical questions?
It should never diagnose, comment on symptoms or advise on treatment or medication. Ask to hear it say so, and how it hands the question to your team.
3. How does it hand a call to a person, and what do we receive?
Ask what triggers a hand-off, whether calls can be transferred live, and what lands in your inbox afterwards: who called, why, how to reach them, and what is still needed.
4. Does it say it's an AI?
Patients should hear that they are talking to an AI assistant at the start of the call, and be able to reach a person.
Privacy
5. What patient data does it collect, where is it stored, and for how long?
It should collect only what booking needs. Ask where recordings and transcripts live, how long they are kept, and how you delete a patient's data on request. In the United States, a vendor handling protected health information for your practice is generally a business associate, so ask whether they will sign a BAA. Other countries have their own rules.
6. Which other companies process our calls?
AI receptionists rely on other providers, such as the AI model, the voice engine and the phone carrier. Ask for the list and where each one processes data.
Day-to-day fit
7. Does it book into our scheduling software, or just take requests?
Both can work, but they are different products. Ask to see it working with your system, not a generic calendar, and what happens when a slot is taken mid-call.
8. What happens when several people call at once?
One of the main benefits is that nobody waits. Check how many simultaneous calls are included and whether busy periods cost extra.
9. Which languages does it speak, and how well?
If your patients speak more than one language, test each one yourself. Quality varies by language.
10. Can we trial it on after-hours calls first, and how do we stop?
A careful start is after hours and at lunch, with a supervised trial where you listen to real calls. Ask about contract length, notice periods and what happens to your data when you leave.
Test any demo yourself
Call the vendor's demo and play your patients. Book a cleaning, move an appointment, say you've cracked a tooth, ask whether a filling will hurt, and ask whether your insurance is covered. You'll learn more in five minutes than from any brochure. You can try ours: Daisy, our demo dental receptionist, is on the dental clinics page.
The bottom line
The vendors worth trusting are the ones who answer the safety and privacy questions before you finish asking them. Get the answers in writing, and never skip the supervised trial.
This is general information, not legal advice. Your own adviser can tell you what applies to your clinic.
Sources
- HIPAA Journal, HIPAA business associate agreements.