Medical practice daily operations board

A busy general practice runs on dozens of small queues: results waiting for a doctor to action, patients to recall, repeat script requests, call-backs, a cancellation list nobody has time to work, care plans and health assessments falling due, and the practice manager's daily checks. Most of it lives in the clinical system's inbox, sticky notes and the receptionists' memory, so things slip and the phones never stop.

An illustrative operating system for the daily running of a practice, sitting beside the clinical system.

• Morning huddle: today's sessions, gaps in the appointment book, results waiting per doctor, recalls due, staff away.
• Results follow-up: results the doctor has marked for action move through to contact, booked, completed. The doctor decides on every result; the system only tracks the follow-up and drafts the patient message for staff to send.
• Recalls and reminders: recalls due this week, AI-drafted SMS for staff approval, replies matched back, and a second attempt or phone call when there is no response.
• Repeat script and referral requests: requests from phone, email and online forms land in one queue, go to the right doctor, and the patient is told when it is ready.
• Call-backs: every "please call me back" with who, why and how urgent, so nobody waits all day.
• Cancellation list: when an appointment frees up, the system suggests suitable patients from the waitlist and drafts an offer for reception to send.
• Care plans and health assessments due: eligible patients with a plan or review falling due, ready for the nurse to book.
• Practice manager checks: vaccine fridge temperature log, sterilisation and equipment checks, accreditation tasks, end-of-day reconciliation.
• Week view: the appointment book per doctor and nurse, with session templates applied to a day, leave that blocks the day and flags existing bookings to rebook, clash detection that refuses double bookings and bookings into leave, and reminder and rebook messages drafted for staff approval.
• Billing and payments: completed appointments move to To bill, staff choose bulk-billing or a private fee (described as standard or long consult, no item codes), the rebate claim is submitted, the gap is taken, and unpaid gaps become outstanding accounts with reminders drafted for approval. Daily takings link to the end-of-day reconciliation. All simulated.
• Staff: the weekly roster and doctor sessions, leave and shift-swap requests to approve (approved leave blocks the week view and updates staff away), timesheets approved and sent to payroll, registration, CPR and immunisation expiries with renewal reminders, and a new-starter onboarding checklist.
• Purchasing: consumables and vaccines against par levels, a suggested order approved by the practice manager, purchase orders to Supplier A to F, goods received with a shortage, a cold-chain temperature check that rejects vaccines arriving outside 2 to 8 °C, and supplier bills matched to the order (including a mismatch) before a draft bill goes to accounting for approval.
• Integrations: the clinical system (Best Practice, MedicalDirector or similar) through an approved integration partner, online booking (HotDoc, HealthEngine or similar), secure messaging, an SMS gateway, Xero, MYOB or QuickBooks, Deputy, Tanda or Employment Hero, and Microsoft 365, each showing what flows in and out.
• Follow it end to end: a guided walkthrough takes one patient from an online booking request to the week view, an approved reminder, the visit, a private fee with a gap, the claim, the payment and today's takings, then a vaccine reorder through approval, cold-chain check and a matched supplier bill.
• Guardrails: no clinical decisions, nothing sent to a patient without a staff member approving it, billing choices stay with staff, vaccines outside the cold chain are never received, health information stays in Australia.

Roles: practice manager, reception, practice nurse, GPs.

Illustrative: designed from how general practices run day to day and the integration options their clinical systems offer through approved partners, not built for a specific practice.