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A referred patient can be on your schedule for weeks before anyone at your practice talks to her. The visit is booked, but your team still needs the registration details that were not in the referral.
Hello Patient builds AI agents for healthcare, and the agents handle patient conversations, inbound and outbound, across voice, text, and web chat. For outbound patient intake, the agent calls and texts the patients your practice wants to contact, asks for the details the record is missing, and puts their answers where your staff can see them.
This page covers how that outreach works before an ENT visit, who gets contacted, what the agent asks, and where the work goes next.
Why does a referred ENT patient wait for the phone to ring?
Because the referral goes from one office to another, not to the patient. A referral is a message between two offices. The referring doctor sends it to your practice, and the patient may leave expecting somebody to contact her.
Sometimes the referral reaches you before the patient calls. Sometimes she calls first, and your front desk is looking for a referral that is not in the system yet.
Say the visit is three weeks out. Her chart at your practice holds a name, a phone number, and a referring doctor. Calling a patient three weeks out never becomes the next thing in the day, because the phone is ringing and there are people at the counter.
Your practice has to start the outreach.
Which patients does an ENT practice put on the outreach list, and when?
Your practice decides who gets contacted and when. By default, your team supplies the list and the agent works it. The agent can also pull that list from your EHR.
At an ENT group, that list can include new patients booked from referrals, surgical consults, allergy testing visits, and visits paired with audiology. And you want the visits paired with audiology on the list, because two appointments have to hold together or neither one is much use.
A week ahead, two weeks ahead, or the day the visit is booked, the window is a setting that belongs to you.
Getting a referred patient onto the schedule in the first place is a different job. The AI scheduling for ENT page covers that. This page starts once the visit is booked.
This is different from an appointment reminder. A reminder gives the patient the date. Pre-visit outreach asks for missing information, takes the answers back, and can answer when the patient writes back.
What does the agent ask a referred ENT patient before the visit?
It asks for the registration details your system is missing. It can ask for her name and date of birth, her address, and which plan she carries now. It can also tell her whether your practice accepts that plan.
The agent never gives medical advice. When a patient brings up her medical history or asks a clinical question, the agent passes it to a person on your team with the whole thread attached.
The agent finds her record in the system your practice runs and creates one if none exists yet. It works with the EHR, practice management, and CRM systems healthcare already runs on.
Take a patient whose visit is a week out. The agent texts her, she answers three of the questions between meetings, and then she stops. When she comes back to it in the evening, the thread picks up where it left off and finishes. Nobody at your practice had to call her back for the last two fields.
The calls coming into your office are a different job. The AI receptionist for ENT page covers those.
Hear how it sounds here or request a free demo agent for your practice today by booking a call.
What if the ENT visit depends on a hearing test or imaging?
The agent can ask about the test or imaging before the patient arrives, using your practice's own words. Have you had a hearing test in the last year, and where was it done? Whatever she answers goes where your staff will see it before she walks in. Which test she needs is a decision for your clinical team, and they start from her answer.
If your rules pair a provider visit with a hearing test, booking those two together is scheduling work, not pre-visit intake.
When does the outreach stop for a referred ENT patient who never answers?
It stops when the contact attempts your practice set are used up. The agent closes the outreach on its own instead of continuing to call or text.
If the patient replies STOP, that is honored on the spot and recorded, and the conversation ends. No one hears from the agent unless your team decided they should.
A patient who never answers still comes in and does her intake at the counter as before. If she answered some questions before going quiet, those answers are there for your staff to see.
Some patients on an audiology list may find a phone call harder because of hearing loss. Text gives them something they can read again, show to a family member, and answer later. The agent can run outbound outreach by phone and text, and your practice sets which comes first and what follows. A patient who would rather type can also start a web chat on your website, where the agent answers her questions.
Who closes the loop with the office that sent the patient?
Your team does, starting from what the agent collected.
At the end of the outreach window, your staff can see who answered and what the patient said. If the patient told the agent she had a hearing test, that answer is there before someone on your team calls the referring practice.
Ortho1 Medical Group, a multi-location orthopedic group, put an outbound agent on its referrals and reached 718 patients and booked 190 visits over two months, without adding front-desk staff.
Find out whether Hello Patient fits your practice. Book a call and we'll take one week of your referred new patients and show you what would go out to each of them before the visit, on the system you run today. Make sure to ask for a free demo agent to see how it will sound to your patients.
Frequently asked questions
How far ahead of an ENT appointment should a pre-visit call or text go out?
Your practice decides the timing, and Hello Patient's agent follows that setting. A week ahead, two weeks ahead, or the day the visit is booked, the window is a setting that belongs to you. The useful question is how much time your staff wants after the patient answers. If she says a hearing test was done somewhere else, your team may want time to act on that answer before the visit.
Can an AI agent pull the list of ENT patients to contact before a visit?
Hello Patient's agent can pull the list of patients to contact from your EHR, and it calls and texts them in the window you set. Your practice decides who belongs on the outreach list and supplies that list by default. Pulling it from the EHR changes where the list comes from, not who makes the decision. Your team can include new referred patients, surgical consults, allergy schedules, or paired audiology visits. No one hears from the agent unless your team decided they should.
Can an AI agent find out whether an ENT patient had her hearing test or scan before the visit?
Yes, by asking her. Before the visit, Hello Patient's agent asks your question in your words, such as whether she has had a hearing test in the last year and where it was done, and puts her answer where your staff will see it before she arrives. Your staff gets the answer early, so there is time to act on it. Which test she needs is a decision for your clinical team, and they start from her answer.
What happens when a referred ENT patient never answers a pre-visit call or text?
The outreach ends after Hello Patient's agent uses the contact attempts your practice set. If she replied to part of the intake before stopping, what she did answer stays there for your staff to see. If she never answered at all, she can still do her intake at the counter the way she would have before. A STOP reply is honored immediately and recorded, and the conversation ends. The appointment itself is not canceled because the patient did not complete the outreach.
Should an ENT practice reach older patients with hearing loss by text or by phone?
Your practice chooses the order, and Hello Patient's agent can run outbound outreach by phone and text. Text can be useful for a patient with hearing loss because she can read the message again, show it to a family member, and answer later. Phone may still be the channel your practice wants to try first for another group of patients. The agent follows the order and follow-up cadence you set. A patient who would rather type can also start a web chat on your website, where the agent answers her questions.
Can an ENT group run pre-visit outreach for its allergy and audiology schedules too?
Yes. Hello Patient's agent can work the allergy and audiology patient lists your practice chooses to include. Your team decides which schedules are part of the outreach and which registration questions the agent asks the patient on each one. Audiology visits are often booked next to a provider visit, so the useful question is whether she knows she has two appointments and how long she will be at your office. The agent never gives medical advice, and clinical questions go to your clinical team.
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