Clinic front-office glossary

The share of patient messages and calls that arrive outside opening hours and still get a timely reply. Many patients get in touch in the evening, so a clinic without after-hours coverage can lose bookings to clinics that reply first.

Booking done by an AI agent rather than a person: it checks real availability in the clinic's system, books, reschedules or cancels the appointment, and confirms it with the patient. The agent can act for the clinic, or answer a patient's own AI assistant.

Software that answers a clinic's phone calls or messages using AI. It can answer common questions and book, reschedule or cancel appointments, and it passes anything it can't handle to a staff member. It should work from the clinic's real calendar and rules, and never give medical advice. See Zeya Voice Agents.

A way for a business to send conversion events, such as a booking or an attended visit, from its own systems straight to an ad platform's servers, instead of relying only on a browser pixel. It helps the ad platform learn which ads bring real patients, not just clicks. Clinics should send only the minimum event data needed and never clinical details. Zeya Analytics sends offline conversion events to Meta Conversions API.

Where data is physically stored and processed. Some clinics and hospitals need patient data kept in a particular country, so ask every vendor where theirs is. For Zeya: Data is hosted in Singapore, Vietnam, and Australia. Hosting in other regions is available on request.

Turning paper records, referral letters, forms and scanned PDFs into structured data in the EMR, so the information can be searched, shared and used in workflows. See Zeya Lens.

An EMR (electronic medical record) is a clinic's digital record of patients and visits; EHR is often used to mean the same thing. A PMS (practice management system) runs appointments, billing and patient details, and in allied health and dental it often holds the clinical notes too. A HIMS (hospital information management system) runs a hospital's admissions, scheduling, billing and records. See integrations.

The share of patient enquiries resolved in the first conversation, with no callback or follow-up needed. A higher rate usually means less work for the front desk and a better experience for patients.

The point where an AI agent passes a conversation or call to a staff member, with the full context, for example when a patient asks a clinical question, is upset or asks for a person. The clinic should set the handover rules, and every handover should be logged.

A cancellation made too close to the appointment for the slot to be easily refilled, often defined as less than 24 hours before. Clinics usually track the late-cancellation rate separately from no-shows, and set their own policy for it.

The share of booked appointments where the patient neither arrives nor cancels, usually calculated as no-shows divided by all booked appointments over a period. Two-way reminders that let patients confirm or reschedule in one reply are a common way to bring it down.

Outcomes that happen away from the ad or website, such as a booking made on WhatsApp, a phone call or an attended visit. They are uploaded back to the ad platform and matched to the original click or lead, so campaigns are judged on patients, not form fills.

One shared inbox where the clinic team handles messages from every channel, such as WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook and email. Conversations can be assigned, tagged and tracked, and the history stays with the clinic rather than on staff phones. See Zeya Converse.

Linking each patient's path from first touch (an ad, a post, a search or a referral) through enquiry, booking and attended visit to revenue. It shows which channels and campaigns actually bring in patients. See Zeya Analytics.

Contacting patients who are due for their next visit, such as a six-monthly dental check-up, a review after a course of treatment or a patient who hasn't been back in a while. Recalls are usually driven by visit history in the EMR. In Singapore, keep service reminders separate from promotional messages, which need the patient's prior written consent.

Personal Data Protection Act. Singapore's PDPA (2012) and Malaysia's PDPA (2010) set rules for how organisations collect, use, disclose and protect personal data, including consent and security. A clinic stays responsible for patient data that its vendors handle on its behalf.

Planning which clinicians and staff work where and when. In a clinic, the roster also decides which appointment slots can be booked, so a roster change should update availability. See Zeya Tempo.

How quickly a clinic replies to a new enquiry. An enquiry answered within minutes is much more likely to turn into a booking than one answered the next day, especially for aesthetics and other services patients find through ads.

Filling a cancelled or empty slot by offering it to patients on a waitlist, or to patients who want an earlier appointment, usually by message and first come, first served. When it is automated, a slot freed at 8pm can be filled before the clinic opens the next day.

Meta's official way for businesses to send and receive WhatsApp messages through software, also called the WhatsApp Business Platform. Unlike the WhatsApp Business app on a single phone, it lets a whole team and automated agents work from one clinic number. Messages a business starts outside a 24-hour window after the patient's last message must use pre-approved templates.