What does an AI answering service do for a pediatric practice?

An AI answering service books the visits parents call a pediatric practice about, from well‑child checks matched to the child's age to same‑day sick visits, and it can book brothers and sisters on one call. A PolyAI voice agent does this inside your EHR with your rules applied, and passes any symptom your pediatricians flag as urgent to a person straight away.

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Pediatric calls follow the child's age

Pediatric scheduling depends on how old the child is, who's calling and what the visit is for. You write those rules into the agent in Dialog Studio (formerly Agent Studio), and it applies them on every call. These are examples of what practices build in, and we think sick-visit calls are the place to start, because a parent with a sick child wants an answer before hanging up.

Well-child and vaccine visits matched to age

Well-child visits follow the schedule your pediatricians use, such as the AAP's Bright Futures periodicity schedule. The agent works out which visit the child is due for from their date of birth and books that visit type. Vaccine visits without an exam go into the nurse slots your rules allow.

Sick visits on the same day

A parent calling about a sick child gets routed by your rules to a same-day sick slot, a walk-in time or a nurse. Symptoms your pediatricians flag as urgent follow the escalation and handoff pathways your team defines, with no booking attempt first.

Newborns and siblings on one call

Parents calling after a birth give the agent the baby's details and the hospital discharge date, and it books the newborn visit inside the window your practice sets, with registration finished by your team where your system needs it. A parent who says "both my boys need their school physicals" gets back-to-back slots with one provider.

Parents and guardians on the line

The caller is usually a parent or guardian, so the agent checks who's calling against your records and follows your rules on who can book for the child. A caller your records don't list goes to your staff.

Bookings land in your EHR during the call

For your IT team: PolyAI connects to Epic through SMART on FHIR and to athenahealth, and NexHealth syncs scheduling and records across practice management systems. Any other system connects through its API. Patient data runs under HIPAA Security Rule controls examined within our SOC 2+ report, and a business associate agreement (BAA) is available for eligible healthcare deployments.

Results from a community health center

Howard Brown Health is a federally qualified health center in Chicago that serves more than 40,000 adults and youth a year across seven clinics. Its agent, Alex, answers around the clock, patients use it in Spanish and Polish as well as English, and patient satisfaction is up 4%. The PolyAI platform supports 73 languages.

Your pediatricians keep the clinical calls

The agent does not diagnose or give medical advice, and that includes medicine questions from worried parents. Those calls go to your nurse line with the child's details captured. Wren, the agent inside Dialog Studio, reviews live calls and drafts a fix when a booking goes wrong, and a person approves every change.

Questions pediatric teams ask

Can the agent book two or three children on one call?

Yes. It books siblings back to back with the provider your rules allow, so a parent makes one call instead of three.

Does it know which well-child visit a child is due for?

It works that out from the child's age and the schedule you give it, then books the matching visit type.

What if a parent describes an urgent symptom?

You decide which symptoms are urgent. When a parent describes one, the agent transfers the call to your clinical team straight away. If a parent describes an emergency, the agent tells them to call 911 and transfers them to a person, following your approved emergency protocol.