Transforming Patient Experience with WhatsApp Flows

About Client:

 A technology-driven healthcare company transforming care delivery in India by integrating health plans, providers, and patients through data, digital tools, and seamless processes.

Background:

As part of its mission to simplify everyday healthcare, the client offers integrated practice management services that connect health plans, provider groups, and patients into a single digital ecosystem.

While the company had built strong foundations in data and process integration, the communication layer between patients, doctors, and administrative teams still relied on manual steps. Appointment scheduling, diagnostics, prescription sharing, and payments often required separate apps, phone calls, or manual coordination — creating inefficiencies and inconsistent patient experiences.

The company wanted to leverage a familiar, accessible platform to unify these touchpoints and streamline the care journey end-to-end.

Challenge:

  • Patients had to navigate multiple apps or calls to book appointments and make payments.
  • Doctors and front-desk teams spent significant time managing schedules manually.
  • Labs and runners relied on phone-based coordination for test assignments and updates.

This created operational overhead, limited visibility, and reduced the quality of patient interactions.

Solution:

A Unified WhatsApp-Based Healthcare Platform

To address these issues, we implemented a WhatsApp-based healthcare platform powered by Meta’s WhatsApp Flows, bringing all key healthcare interactions — appointments, prescriptions, diagnostics, and payments — into one seamless chat interface.

The solution was built using the Meta Business Platform (API) with WhatsApp Flows, interactive templates, and rich messages to enable guided, conversational experiences. It was directly integrated with the client’s backend systems, ensuring FHIR-standard data structures and HIPAA compliance for all patient information.

From the portal side, the platform was developed using Next.js for a fast, responsive frontend interface, while the entire backend was powered by Python FastAPI, enabling high performance, modular APIs, and secure integration with WhatsApp through webhooks.

Five role-based WhatsApp Flows were developed to meet the needs of different user types:

  • Beneficiaries: Book appointments, request prescriptions, and make payments.
  • Doctors: Manage appointments, prescribe medicines and lab tests.
  • Doctor Front Desk: Handle multiple doctors’ schedules and appointments.
    Lab Front Desk: Assign and monitor lab tests efficiently.
  • Lab Runner: Visit subscribers for sample collection and update status in real time.

Each flow guided users through structured, automated interactions  such as selecting doctors, choosing appointment slots, confirming details, or submitting payments — all within WhatsApp.

Behind the scenes, responses were captured through webhooks, automatically updating ilumina’s systems to confirm bookings, schedule lab visits, or notify doctors  eliminating manual coordination entirely.

Outcome:

  • Appointment booking time reduced from 6 minutes to just 2 minutes.
  • Reduction in manual coordination, freeing up staff for higher-value tasks.
  • Faster overall scheduling process, improving turnaround and patient throughput.
  • Higher engagement and satisfaction, as patients could book, pay, and share prescriptions directly on WhatsApp.
  • Real-time visibility for doctors, labs, and support teams through automated updates.
  • HIPAA and FHIR compliance ensured secure, interoperable data management.

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