For years, medical practices and health centers have added more communication channels: live chat, automated SMS, patient portals, online booking systems.
The goal is straightforward: simplify access to care, reduce pressure on the secretariat, and modernize the patient experience.
Yet one fact remains unchanged: despite all these tools, the phone is still the number one channel patients use.
In some practices, call volume is even increasing.
Why does the phone remain so essential in a fully digital era?
And how can practices manage this without overwhelming their medical secretaries?
1. The phone is the most human and emotional channel
A medical appointment is not an administrative transaction.
It often involves pain, fear, illness, urgency, or uncertainty.
In these situations, the phone allows patients to:
- get immediate reassurance,
- verify they aren’t making a mistake,
- explain their situation more easily than through a form,
- feel accompanied instead of being alone in front of an interface.
Even when information is available online, patients continue calling because speaking to someone feels safer emotionally.
2. Medical journeys cannot be standardized
Multichannel systems work well for simple cases.
But many medical situations require a real conversation.
Examples include:
- a new patient who doesn’t know which appointment type to book,
- a patient in pain who needs semi-urgent support not listed online,
- a specialty with strict medical criteria before accepting a consultation,
- a request for documents, certificates, or administrative guidance.
In these situations, chatbots or SMS are not enough.
A phone call allows the secretary to adapt the answer to the real context.
3. The phone is perceived as faster
Even if online booking is easy, many patients still think:
“If I call, someone will fix this in 30 seconds.”
Even if they end up waiting before someone picks up.
This is a cultural and psychological reflex:
the phone gives the impression of instant resolution, while digital tools feel impersonal or slower.
4. Other channels don’t reduce workload - they shift it
SMS, chat, and forms automate part of the work.
But they also generate new types of requests:
- administrative questions sent by message,
- patients who confirm via SMS but still call to be sure,
- duplicated requests (message + call) due to fear of not being heard,
- platform issues that redirect… back to the phone.
The result: the secretariat remains overloaded despite digital tools.
5. The phone is essential for medical prioritization
Medical practices manage sensitive cases every day.
Some need immediate attention, others can wait.
The phone is the only channel that enables real prioritization:
- distinguishing acute pain from simple requests,
- calming an anxious patient,
- spotting cases requiring urgent medical review,
- preventing serious situations from being overlooked.
No form or chatbot can replicate this nuance.
6. How to reduce overload without removing the phone?
Removing the phone is not an option.
Adding more channels does not reduce calls, because emotional and clinical needs remain the same.
The solution is not to replace humans but to rely on automation to absorb the volume.
7. Why Donna is the ideal solution in a multichannel environment
Donna, the medical voice assistant designed for practices, allows the phone to remain the main channel without overwhelming secretaries.
She answers instantly, filters, qualifies, and handles all simple requests.
Donna can:
- schedule, move, and cancel appointments,
- send confirmations and reminders,
- filter irrelevant or commercial calls,
- collect all necessary information,
- transfer to human staff whenever a situation is sensitive or emotional.
She absorbs 60–80% of calls while allowing secretaries to focus on in-person patients and important cases.
In other words, Donna lets the phone remain king without anyone bearing the burden.
Discover Donna : https://callrounded.com/cas-usage/secretariat-medical
Conclusion: the phone will not disappear - but it can become intelligent
The phone will remain the central channel of the patient journey for a long time.
It is human, direct, reassuring, and perfectly adapted to complex medical situations.
But it should no longer be a source of exhaustion for medical secretaries.
By adopting a hybrid model where Donna handles simple and repetitive calls, and humans focus on essential interactions, practices gain:
- more time,
- more calm,
- better organization,
- a smoother, more professional patient experience.
Donna does not replace the human relationship.
She protects it by eliminating everything that does not require a human.
