AI Receptionist for Primary Care Practices

Quick answer

An AI receptionist answers a primary care practice's phone right away, day and night, in English or Spanish. It handles routine calls such as appointment requests, hours and new-patient questions, and takes clear, accurate messages for everything that needs your staff, including prescription refills and test results. It never gives medical advice: callers with an emergency are told to call 911, and urgent after-hours calls can go to the on-call number you choose.

A primary care phone line carries a little of everything. A parent needs a sick visit for a child with a fever. A patient is almost out of a blood pressure medication. Someone wants to know if their lab work came back. A new resident is looking for a family doctor. And at 8 a.m., all of those calls tend to arrive at once, while the front desk is checking in the first patients of the day.

An AI receptionist will not replace your staff's judgment, and it should not try. What it can do is make sure every one of those calls is answered, sorted and handed to the right person with the details already captured. This guide covers how that works for a primary care or family medicine practice.

The calls a primary care practice gets

Appointment requests. Annual physicals, follow-ups, chronic care visits and well-child checks. These are the bulk of the calls and the easiest to capture accurately.
Sick visits. A patient who feels unwell wants to be seen soon. These callers need to know whether there are same-day options and how your practice handles them.
Prescription refill requests. Frequent and important. They need to reach the right staff member with the correct callback number, every time.
Test results questions. "Did my results come in?" These calls always need a clinician or a trained staff member.
New patients. People moving to the area or changing doctors want to know if you are accepting new patients and which insurance plans you take.
After-hours calls. From routine questions to a worried caller at 10 p.m., these need a safe, consistent path.
Spanish-speaking callers. For many practices, a meaningful share of patients would rather speak Spanish.

What the AI handles

Catchsera's receptionist answers with your practice's name, says up front that it is a virtual assistant and that the call may be recorded, and then handles the routine parts of the call:

Common questions you approve: hours, locations, parking, which providers see patients, whether you are accepting new patients, and which insurance plans you accept.
Appointment requests. It takes the caller's name, best callback number, whether they are a new or existing patient, and the reason for the visit, then adds the request to your team's follow-up list. Your staff book the time in your own system. Catchsera does not write into your practice management software.
Sick-visit requests. It tells callers how your practice handles same-day visits, using the wording you provide, and marks the request so your team sees it first.
Many calls at once. When the morning rush brings five calls in the same minute, every caller is answered.
Secure forms by text. With the caller's permission, your team can text a secure intake form link or your own registration or scheduling link from the dashboard, so details like a date of birth are never said out loud.

What it routes to your staff

Some calls should always end with a person. The receptionist's job on those calls is to capture a clean message and get it to the right place quickly.

Prescription refills. The receptionist records that the caller needs a refill, along with their name and callback number, and passes it to your staff. It does not discuss medications or approve anything. Your team follows your own refill process.
Test results. The receptionist never shares, reads or interprets results. It takes the caller's details and lets them know your team will follow up.
Clinical questions. Questions about symptoms, side effects or whether something is serious go to your clinical staff. The receptionist does not give medical advice.
Billing and account questions. These go to your billing staff. The receptionist does not give billing guidance.
Anyone who asks for a person. Callers can always ask to speak with your team, and the receptionist can transfer a call to the number you choose when you want that to happen.

Every call appears on a live dashboard with a short summary, the full transcript and the caller's details, and your team is notified when it ends. Your staff can also listen to a live call, take it over or transfer it.

The goal is not to answer every question. It is to make sure every caller is heard and every message lands with the right person.

After hours: on-call routing and emergencies

After-hours calls are where a consistent process matters most. Catchsera follows the rules your practice sets:

Emergencies go to 911. If a caller describes something that sounds like a medical emergency, such as chest pain, trouble breathing or severe bleeding, the receptionist tells them plainly to hang up and call 911. It does not try to assess the situation.
Urgent calls reach a person. Calls that need attention before morning can be flagged and transferred to the on-call number you choose.
Routine calls wait for the morning, captured accurately and waiting on the dashboard when your team arrives, so nothing is lost overnight.

The receptionist does not decide how serious a problem is. That decision stays with your clinicians and your on-call process. Our guide to after-hours emergency call triage covers what a good after-hours path should sound like.

English and Spanish on every call

Many primary care practices across New England serve patients who would rather speak Spanish. Catchsera answers in English and continues in Spanish as soon as the caller speaks Spanish. There is no menu and no button to press. The same rules apply in both languages, including emergency instructions and privacy rules, and your team sees every call on the same dashboard no matter which language it was in. Spanish is included in every plan. Read more about bilingual call handling.

Your number stays the same

You keep your existing phone number and phone company. Calls forward to Catchsera from your current line, and you decide when:

After a few rings, so your front desk answers first when it can.
After hours, at lunch and on holidays, when your desk is not staffed.
During your busiest hours, such as the morning rush, when calls stack up.

There is no hardware to install. If you ever want to stop, you turn forwarding off. If there is ever a technical problem on our side, calls roll back to your main line. See our walkthrough on keeping your number with call forwarding.

Privacy for patient calls

A primary care phone line carries protected health information on almost every call. Catchsera is built with HIPAA safeguards and signs a BAA with every practice, covering calls, recordings, transcripts, summaries and messages. The platform runs on Microsoft Azure, recordings and transcripts are encrypted, sign-in uses two-factor authentication, access is limited by role, and actions are recorded in an audit trail.

The receptionist does not ask for sensitive details such as a date of birth over the phone, and texts never include health details. If your practice records calls, callers are told at the start. For a broader look at consent and recordings, see HIPAA, call recording and consent.

Getting started

Tell us how your practice works: hours, providers, locations, new-patient policy, the insurance you accept, how you handle sick visits, and your refill, results and after-hours processes.
We build and test your receptionist. You call it, hear it and ask for changes before it goes live.
Turn on call forwarding. Setup takes under 10 minutes on your side.

Every plan includes every feature, starting at $129 per month, with a free trial and no contract.

Common questions

How does the AI receptionist handle prescription refill requests?

It records that the caller needs a refill, along with their name and best callback number, and passes the request to your staff on the dashboard. It does not discuss medications or approve refills; your team follows your own process.

Will it tell patients their test results?

No. The receptionist never shares or interprets results. It takes the caller's details and lets them know your team will follow up.

What happens with an emergency call after hours?

If a caller describes a possible emergency, the receptionist tells them to hang up and call 911. Urgent calls that need attention before morning can be flagged and transferred to the on-call number you choose.

Can it book appointments directly into our system?

Catchsera captures each appointment request and adds it to a follow-up list for your team, who book the time in your own system. It does not write into your practice management software.

Does it speak Spanish?

Yes. It answers in English and continues in Spanish whenever the caller does, with no menu to press. Spanish is included in every plan.

Do we need to change our phone number?

No. You keep your number and phone company. Calls forward to Catchsera from your existing line, for example after a few rings or after hours.

AI receptionist for primary care and family medicine practices