Every GP practice manager will tell you: when you change something on the patient experience side, there’s a good chance you’ll be speaking to patients about it.

Even with seamless, effective tools, some patients find it challenging to adapt to changes in their booking flow. So when Peter Farag, practice manager at Trinity Healthcare Centre, tried Healthengine’s Smart Recalls and didn’t receive a single patient query, he knew he was onto something valuable.

Smart Recalls is a new AI-powered feature in Engage, Healthengine’s patient engagement software.

‘We were wasting a lot of time’: The problem with chasing patients

Trinity Healthcare Centre is a small to medium-sized general practice, with six GPs, two specialists, two physiotherapists, one occupational therapist, one psychologist, and two nurses. On a typical day, the clinic sees anywhere between 100 and 120 patients.

“Before Smart Recalls, we were wasting a lot of time just preparing the manual [recall] list, giving it to the receptionist, and spending a lot of time calling the patients back and forth,” Peter says.

At one point, recalls (results follow-ups and clinical reminders) took up so much time, Peter assigned one reception team member to non-urgent recalls and nothing else.

“It could take her hours,” he says. “It’s a repetitive job. Every day we had to check what’s urgent, what’s non-urgent. We were calling patients to explain why it’s urgent, why it’s non-urgent, why they need to come back.”

Discovering Smart Recalls and the immediate impact

When Peter’s Customer Success Manager, Emma, told him about Smart Recalls (a new AI-powered feature from Healthengine), he knew he had to give it a try.

“Smart Recalls is a really premium solution,” Peter says. “There’s no doubt. I love to use it.”

Streamlined communication leads to happy practice teams.

Peter checks the tool every morning and loves seeing how quickly a conversation can turn into a booking. Patients can reply and book in their own time, with their preferred GP or the first available doctor.

At a glance, he can see all of his GPs have recalls consistently booked with patients.

Supporting his team at a busy time for healthcare workers

The benefits are clear for any general practice, but Peter says Smart Recalls couldn’t have come at a better time.

Like many practices, Trinity Healthcare Centre is currently preparing for Medicare Assignment of Benefits changes, ahead of updated legal consent requirements in 2027.

“They’re loaded up with all this, rather than calling patients,” he says.

With Medicare’s AoB changes rolling out in 2027, Smart Recalls can help free up time for your teams to prepare.

“Now we have peace of mind. We have someone looking into that without all the follow up.”

The most noticeable change for Peter was this: the reduction in his time spent chasing his staff.

“I’ve stopped giving them a [recalls] list or following up with them: ‘have you done this, have you finished that?’” he says. “It gives them a bit of time, a bit of relief, and less stress.”

The patients said nothing at all: no news is good news

When asked about patient feedback since implementing Smart Recalls, Peter says he braced for complaints but they didn’t come.

“I’ve heard nothing, literally nothing, from the patients,” he says. “That means it’s working really well.”

What surprised Peter most about Smart Recalls, in general?

“The success of the tool. How the patients reacted to it without any complaints. This is the smoothest tool I’ve ever used to contact patients, and it’s very effective.”

Peter says he’s yet to receive a question on Smart Recalls from patients: he is happy to say the feature has been a hit, for staff and patients alike.

Making day-to-day workflows easier for front desks like yours

Smart Recalls turns your recall list into a conversation patients can act on, without anyone picking up the phone. This means:

No booking links: Recalls are sent directly from a dedicated practice phone number, with no booking links for patients to misinterpret as spam.

Booking inside the conversation: Patients can respond conversationally, asking about specific doctors’ availability and booking in their own time.

Ability to step in and review: If human input is needed in a conversation, staff can still view the conversation, stepping in to reply manually as required.

“I would advise practices to use [Smart Recalls] no matter what,” says Peter. “I’ve used a lot of tools … this is the best tool I’ve ever used to communicate with patients.”

He “highly recommends” that practice managers, like him, try it: “It’s a big difference.”

Book a short demo to see what’s possible for your practice today.*

Discover Engage today: book your demo now.

* Smart Recalls is available with Best Practice or Pracsoft practice management software.