A medical virtual assistant for your practice phones and bookings

What a healthcare virtual assistant covers in a clinic day

A clinic runs on the work around each consultation. When practitioners or a stretched front desk handle all of it, calls go to voicemail and cancellations stay empty. A remote receptionist working inside your practice software covers the day:

• Opening: clear overnight messages and online booking requests, and confirm the day’s appointments.
• Through the day: answer the phone, book and reschedule within your rules, and fill cancellations from the waitlist.
• New patients: register them and check referral and administrative details before the first visit.
• Close of day: send reminders, run recall lists, prepare invoices for review and leave handover notes.

The role suits physiotherapy, psychology, podiatry, chiropractic, speech pathology and other allied health practices. Many keep an onsite receptionist for patients in the clinic and use a remote one for phones, online bookings and back-office admin.

What stays in the clinic

• Clinical questions, triage and anything requiring a practitioner’s judgement
• Patients at the desk, payments taken in person and onsite tasks
• Decisions on fees, discounts and exceptions to your policies

How we test receptionists

Many healthcare virtual assistant services are answering services that take messages for many clinics at once. We recruit one person for your practice, so patients hear the same voice each time. Each search typically starts with 1,000+ candidates from job advertising, direct headhunting and referrals through vetted local networks in the Philippines. Of that starting pool, about 40% pass CV and quality screening, 20% the video screen, 10% the practical assessment and 5% the structured interview. Around 2% reach finalist review, and you receive a shortlist of 3–4, usually within about 2 weeks.

The practical assessment could include rebooking a practitioner’s cancelled session around availability rules, then a role-play call from a patient whose question needs to go to the clinician. When you interview, listen for a warm, unhurried phone manner, accurate booking details read back to the caller, and the right call on what to escalate.

What an agency receptionist costs over time

With a managed agency, you pay a fee every month on top of your receptionist’s salary, for as long as they answer your phones. Staff Domain, for example, publishes $1,099 per person per month, about $13,188 a year, plus $1,200 per hire (checked October 2026). Over two years that is about $27,576 in fees.

With Tarino you pay a one-time fee, and your medical virtual assistant keeps their full salary because you pay them directly. Compare agency fees with a one-time fee, or see the markup for a reception role in the calculator.

Keeping the phones covered

Patients call on public holidays too, so check the Philippines public holidays for 2026 and plan who answers on those days. Start with phone cover and bookings, then add recalls and billing once your rules are written down. If the work is wider office admin than phones and diaries, an admin assistant may fit; for high enquiry volumes across channels, a customer service representative. Patients like hearing the same voice, and more than 95% of Tarino placements are still in the role at 6 months. See the five screening stages.