ClinoVoice for secretaries

Signing in

Your password and then a code from your authenticator app, every time. On your own computer, tick "Don't ask again on this computer" when it is offered, and the code is skipped for a while; never do that on a shared one. If you work for more than one clinician, each is a separate practice in ClinoVoice: the practice's name in the top bar opens the list to switch between them, and you see one at a time.

Adding patients and appointments by hand

Add a patient once (name, date of birth and sex, with the hospital or NHS number when you have it) and book them into a clinic day with a time and an appointment type. The type decides what kind of letter the clinician gets (new patient, follow-up, post-procedure and so on), so set it; a row with no type is flagged on the clinic day until someone does.

Importing a clinic list from another system

Export the clinic from your system, put its columns under ClinoVoice's headings, save as CSV, upload. Four columns must be filled; the rest help when you have them.

Most practices already have the list in a practice system or the hospital's patient administration system, and nearly all of them export a clinic or a day as a spreadsheet. ClinoVoice takes that as a CSV with a fixed set of column headings, and the Imports page gives you the headings as a template to download. The way that works in practice: export the clinic from your system, open it in Excel or Numbers, put the columns under ClinoVoice's headings, in any order (delete the ones ClinoVoice has no heading for), and save as CSV. Only four columns must be filled: surname, forename, date of birth and appointment date. The hospital number is worth keeping: it is how ClinoVoice knows the Mrs Holloway on next month's list is the same patient as this month's. Dates as dd/mm/yyyy, times as HH:MM. The appointment type can be in your system's own words (New, FU, Post op, Review, Procedure are all understood); a word ClinoVoice does not know imports with the type blank for you to set, and your wording is kept beside it. Phone or video in the medium column marks the appointment as one the clinician dictates afterwards rather than records. Anything in a notes column becomes the context the clinician sees, usually the reason for the appointment.

Before anything is saved you see a preview: each row as add, update, already imported, cancelled, invalid or to match by hand. Uploading the same list again updates rather than duplicates, so a corrected list is safe to send twice, and a changed time is simply an update. A row held "to match by hand" is a patient ClinoVoice could not pair with one already on the books; match it from the Imports page. Invalid rows are skipped and named, so fix those in the spreadsheet and upload again.

Integrations

The spreadsheet step is the one we most want to remove. ClinoVoice already has an interface that practice systems can send appointments to directly, and we are working on connections to the systems practices use, so the clinic list arrives on its own. If you would like yours connected, tell us which system you use, whether that is a private practice system such as DGL, Semble, Meddbase or Cliniko, or your hospital's PAS: Feedback at the top of any page, or an email to our support address (show our email address), is enough. The ones we hear about most go first.

What you see of a consultation

Each appointment shows how far it has got: recorded, transcribing, extracting facts, drafting letter, ready to review, approved, sent. You do not hear the recording, and you do not read the draft unless the practice has given you editing rights (below). A row that says Ready to review is with the clinician and needs nothing from you.

Approved letters

Approved letters sit under the appointment and on the clinic day. From the appointment: Send or Download one letter. From the clinic day: Send letters sends every approved letter for that date in one email, in its body or as a zip, with the patients not yet approved listed in the email so nothing is silently missing; Download letters gives a zip with one file per patient for filing. Letters go only to the practice's letter recipients, the addresses the clinician has verified by code under Settings; you choose which from the list at send time. If you need an address added, ask the clinician: you can see the list but not change it.

When a letter does not arrive

The email service tells ClinoVoice whether each send got through. A bounce shows as a banner on the appointment and clinic pages for a week, with Send again to the same or another address. The letters stay marked sent; the banner is about the email, not the letter.

If the practice has given you editing rights

You can read the draft and the transcript, and tidy the letter's wording before approval: a misheard name, a wrong title, a paragraph the clinician asks you to move. Your edits are recorded under your name. You cannot approve; the clinician still reads and approves every letter.

If the practice has given you operating rights

A recording that was never sent for transcription, or a stage that failed, shows Process or Retry beside it, and you can press it so the clinician is not held up. Running a stage that already succeeded is a cost to the practice, so it is offered to you only where the practice has allowed it.

Dictations

A clinician may also dictate a letter or note straight to ClinoVoice. One dictated on its own appears at the foot of the clinic day under Dictations, and one about an appointment on that appointment. Both come to you the same way: approved, then sent or downloaded with the rest.

Getting help

Feedback at the top of every page goes straight to ClinoVoice, and your practice sees it too; from an appointment it carries which one you mean. Patient details never go in the feedback text; the page already tells us which appointment it is.