# Clinic front-desk workflow checklist

By Paperwhale. Adapt this administrative checklist to your team.

## Before the clinic opens
- [ ] Confirm today’s hours, service changes and reception contact details.
- [ ] Review doctor availability, blocked periods and appointments due.
- [ ] Check who owns unanswered calls, booking requests and WhatsApp replies.
- [ ] Verify connected-channel status before relying on automation.

## When a patient enquires
- [ ] Answer routine questions from the clinic’s maintained information.
- [ ] Record only the information needed for the administrative request.
- [ ] Keep booking requests separate from confirmed appointments.
- [ ] Hand clinical or urgent concerns to the clinic’s established staff-led process.

## At arrival and handoff
- [ ] Record arrival separately from the appointment record.
- [ ] Use agreed queue states: Waiting, Called, With doctor and Completed.
- [ ] Make the next responsible teammate and outstanding action visible.
- [ ] Check current availability before confirming a changed appointment time.

## For reminders and follow-ups
- [ ] Give each message a clear purpose and one useful next action.
- [ ] Review consent, recipient selection and applicable provider requirements.
- [ ] Keep queued, sent, delivered, replied and booked as distinct states.
- [ ] Assign someone to review patient replies and requests that need a person.

## At the end of the day
- [ ] Review unresolved enquiries and identify the next owner.
- [ ] Review cancellations and no-shows using recorded workflow states.
- [ ] Note missing history and untracked sources instead of reporting them as zero.
- [ ] Update the clinic information that caused repeated questions.

Source: https://paperwhale.health/resources/clinic-front-desk-checklist
Clinical decisions and urgent-care handling remain with your healthcare team.