Virtual Medical Receptionist — Australia
Every line answered. Every clinical call handed over.
General practice reception carries a call load no other front desk does, and most of it is routine: appointments, hours, billing policy, how repeats work. Lumomatics answers every line at once and handles that routine layer — then stops, immediately and every time, at anything clinical. Symptoms, results and prescriptions go to your team, not to a machine.
Where it stops, and why that comes first.
On every other page on this site, what the service does comes before what it does not. Here it is the other way round, because in general practice the limit is the product. A practice manager evaluating this is not asking whether it can book an appointment. They are asking what it does when someone rings who is genuinely unwell.
It does not assess anything clinical, ever. Not how serious a symptom sounds, not whether a caller should be seen today, not whether something can wait. It recognises that a call has moved into clinical territory and involves a person, carrying across exactly what the caller said. Where a call suggests a possible emergency, it directs the caller to ring 000 without hesitating or qualifying.
Three categories always reach your team. Symptoms, in any form. Results, regardless of what they say or whether the caller has been told to ring. And prescriptions, beyond explaining how your repeat policy works. These are not tuning options that a practice can relax during setup — they are how the service is built.
The calls that do not need a clinician.
What is left after the boundary is still most of the call volume, and it is the part that keeps reception from the patients in front of them.
Handled on the call
- Booking, rescheduling and cancelling, with the right consultation length
- Whether the practice is accepting new patients, and what a first visit needs
- Billing policy — whether you bulk bill, for whom, and standard private fees
- Hours, location, parking, accessibility, which doctors work which days
- How your practice handles results and repeats, as a process
- Telehealth eligibility and how the appointment will work
Straight to your team
- Any mention of a symptom, however minor it sounds
- Results enquiries, every time, without exception
- Prescription requests beyond explaining the policy
- An individual patient asking what they will be out of pocket
- Anyone in distress, and anything suggesting an emergency — to 000
- Calls from hospitals, specialists, pharmacies and other practices
Consultation length is the whole session.
A standard consultation, a long consultation, a telehealth appointment, a care plan, a skin check and a vaccination are different lengths with different requirements. Book a long appointment into a standard slot at nine in the morning and the session runs behind for the rest of the day — which is felt by every patient after it, and by the doctor.
The rules for which is which are configured once, against your practice: which appointment types exist, how long each runs, which doctors offer them, which cannot be booked by a new patient, and whether the practice is open to new patients at all. The booking is written into the practice management system you already run, which stays the source of truth. Integration is scoped at the audit, and if there is no sound path for your system we will say so then rather than after you have paid for a build.
Flat monthly, practice setup separate.
Monthly plans start at AUD $349 for 300 call minutes, with AUD $0.5 a minute beyond that. No per-call charge, no lock-in contract.
Practice setup is AUD $2500 rather than the standard AUD $1500. The difference is the work a medical practice actually needs: booking integration, the appointment-type rules, the escalation boundary written and tested against real call scenarios, and privacy documentation. It begins with a Workflow Clarity Audit at AUD $399, credited in full toward setup — and that is where the boundary gets defined with your practice rather than assumed by us.
Virtual medical receptionist questions.
What happens if a caller describes symptoms?
It stops and involves a person. The service does not assess symptoms, does not decide how urgent something sounds, and does not offer health information of any kind — it recognises that a call has moved into clinical territory and hands it over, with what the caller said captured verbatim. Anything indicating a possible emergency is directed to call 000 immediately. This is a fixed boundary, not a setting.
Can it tell patients whether their results are back?
No, and it should not. Results are a clinical conversation and a privacy matter, and a results enquiry is passed to your team every time regardless of what the result is or whether it is normal. What the service can do is take the call properly, confirm the practice policy on how results are communicated, and book the appointment if that is what your policy requires.
What about repeat prescription requests?
Handled to the edge of your policy and no further. It can explain how your practice manages repeats, whether a consultation is required first, and how long the process takes, and it can book the appointment. It does not take the request as an order, does not confirm that a script will be issued, and does not discuss medication. Where your policy allows a request to be logged, it is logged for a person to action.
Can it answer billing and bulk billing questions?
It answers your practice policy — whether you bulk bill, for which patients or consultation types, what a standard private fee is, and what a patient should bring. What it will not do is calculate an individual rebate or tell a caller what they personally will be out of pocket, since that depends on their circumstances rather than your policy. Those go to your team.
Can it book the right consultation length?
Yes, and it matters more in general practice than most settings. A standard consultation, a long consultation, a telehealth appointment, a care plan, a skin check and a vaccination are different lengths with different requirements, and booking a long appointment into a short slot puts the whole session behind. The rules are configured at setup, including whether the practice is currently accepting new patients.
Does this meet accreditation requirements for after-hours access?
That is a question for your accreditation adviser, not for us, and any provider answering it with an unqualified yes is overreaching. What we can tell you is what the service does: it answers at the hours you set, delivers whatever after-hours message your practice specifies — including directing callers to your deputising service, a nurse line, or 000 — and escalates on your rules. How that maps to your obligations is yours to confirm.
Start with the boundary, not the demo.
The demo line is on 03 5910 1919 if you want to hear it. But the conversation worth having first is which calls must always reach a person in your practice — book fifteen minutes and we will map that before anything else.
Clear workflows. Smarter business.