River One
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WhatsApp Business API

WhatsApp appointment booking for Indian clinics.

Let your patients book appointments on your clinic's own WhatsApp number. Automatic T-48, T-24, T-2 hour reminders. Prescription, lab report, and invoice delivery — all in the chat they already know. Verified through Meta's official WhatsApp Business API.

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600M+
WhatsApp users India
97%
Open rate in 30 min
30% → 12%
No-show reduction
24/7
Patient self-service
Why WhatsApp

Your patients already live on WhatsApp. Meet them there.

India has 600+ million WhatsApp users — more than any other country. Your patients book Ola on WhatsApp, order groceries on WhatsApp, send bank payments on WhatsApp. The friction of asking them to download your clinic's app, remember a password, and navigate a booking form is the reason your front desk phone never stops ringing. River One OPD puts clinic booking exactly where your patients already are.

How it works

Four steps. Then your front desk breathes.

Setup takes a week. After that, patients book 24/7 without your receptionist ever picking up the phone.

1

Verify your clinic's WhatsApp number

We handle the Meta WhatsApp Business API verification. You need a dedicated clinic phone number (not personal). Approval in 1–2 business days.

2

Publish the number

Put it on your clinic board, prescription letterhead, Google Business Profile, visiting card. Patients start messaging it instead of calling.

3

Automation handles routine bookings

Menu appears when a patient messages. Date and doctor selection, booking into your calendar, confirmation with map link — all automatic.

4

Reminders go out automatically

T-48, T-24, and T-2 hour reminders. Patient can reply CONFIRM or RESCHEDULE directly in the chat. No-shows drop from 30% to under 12%.

Patient self-service menu

Every routine clinic interaction, via WhatsApp.

When a patient messages your clinic, they get a menu with every self-service option. Front-desk workload drops dramatically because the automation handles the routine 70% — receptionist focuses on the patients physically in front of them.

What patients CAN do on WhatsApp

  • Book a new appointment (date + doctor selection)
  • View their upcoming appointments
  • Reschedule or cancel an appointment
  • Receive confirmation with clinic Maps link
  • Receive their prescription as a PDF
  • Receive their lab report as a PDF
  • Receive their invoice + pay via UPI link
  • Get follow-up reminders at the right interval
  • Opt out any time by replying STOP
  • Reach the clinic for custom queries

What the automation NEVER does

  • Give medical advice or diagnosis
  • Prescribe medicines without a doctor
  • Ask patients to leave Google reviews
  • Send birthday or festival messages
  • Promote discounts or limited-time offers
  • Market new services or doctors
  • Share diagnoses or lab values in plain chat
  • Message patients who didn't consent
  • Handle emergencies without routing to staff
  • Charge patients extra for using WhatsApp
T-48 / T-24 / T-2 reminder cadence

The evidence-based reminder sequence that cuts no-shows.

Indian clinics typically see 25–30% no-shows without reminders. A structured T-48, T-24, T-2 reminder cadence drops this to under 12%. Each reminder is strategically timed to catch a different moment in the patient's week.

T-48
48 hours before
The planning reminder. Patient still has time to reschedule if needed. Includes clinic address, doctor name, and any preparation instructions (fasting, documents to bring).
T-24
24 hours before
The confirmation reminder. "Reply CONFIRM or RESCHEDULE." Patients who weren't going to come either confirm (committing them) or cancel (freeing the slot for a replacement).
T-2
2 hours before
The final nudge. "Your appointment is in 2 hours. Arrive 10 minutes early." Catches last-minute cancellations and reduces the "I forgot" category of no-shows almost entirely.
NMC Guidelines 2026 compliant

Operational communication, not marketing.

The National Medical Commission's October 2026 guidelines explicitly draw a line: inform and educate, don't promote. Most clinic WhatsApp tools haven't caught up — they still ship birthday messages and review request flows by default. River One OPD was built around the NMC guideline from day one.

Your doctors don't face a show-cause notice because their clinic software accidentally sent a "limited time offer" message. Every WhatsApp template in River One OPD is operational by design — confirmations, reminders, document delivery. Nothing promotional.

Appointment confirmations & reminders
Operational — allowed under Block 11
Prescription & lab report delivery
Operational — allowed
Clinically indicated follow-up recalls
Medical duty — allowed under Block 3
Payment links & receipts
Compliance — allowed under Block 15
Review solicitation automation
Risky under Block 7 — not shipped
Birthday / festival messages
Promotional — not shipped
Discounts, "limited time," referral incentives
Prohibited under Block 7 & 15
Safety by design

Consent and opt-out — built in.

Automation handling patient messages is a medico-legal responsibility. River One OPD takes it seriously — patients stay in control of every conversation.

Simple reply keywords

Patients don't need to learn a menu to stay in control. A one-word reply is enough, at any point in the conversation.

  • STOP, UNSUBSCRIBE or CANCEL — opt out of WhatsApp messages
  • CONFIRM — confirm the appointment
  • HELP — get the clinic's menu and contact details
  • Never gives medical advice over WhatsApp

DPDP Act 2023 consent

Patient consent is captured per-purpose at registration — WhatsApp operational messages, reminders, data sharing. Each consent is timestamped and withdrawable instantly. How we support DPDP compliance.

  • Granular consent (not a blanket checkbox)
  • STOP keyword honored instantly
  • Consent withdrawal logged with timestamp
  • Clinical details as PDF only — never plain text
WhatsApp booking FAQ

Common questions about clinic WhatsApp booking.

Straight answers about setup, cost, compliance, and daily operations.

Do I need a dedicated clinic WhatsApp number?
Yes. The clinic needs its own WhatsApp Business number — separate from the doctor's personal WhatsApp. Meta requires this for Business API verification. If your clinic already uses a dedicated phone number for the reception, we can use that number. The verification process takes 1–2 business days; we handle it for you as part of onboarding.
How much does WhatsApp booking cost?
It's included in the standard ₹3-per-visit pricing. No separate module fee, no per-message charge passed to the clinic. Meta's platform fee for utility-category messages (which is what we use — not marketing-category) is absorbed in our ₹3 pricing.
What happens if a patient tries to book without consent?
The first time a patient's number interacts with the clinic WhatsApp, the system asks for explicit consent before any other message. The patient replies YES or NO. If NO, no automated messages ever go to that number. Consent is captured per-purpose (DPDP Act 2023 compliant) and can be withdrawn anytime with STOP.
Is WhatsApp booking NMC compliant?
Yes. All WhatsApp automation in River One OPD is operational only — confirmations, reminders, prescription delivery, lab reports, invoices. No review solicitation, no promotional messages, no birthday or festival wishes, no discount offers. Fully aligned with NMC Guidelines 2026 for ethical patient communication.
Can patients WhatsApp me directly during consultation?
The clinic WhatsApp number is not the doctor's personal number — it's your clinic's business number managed through River One OPD. Messages come into a shared clinic inbox. Doctors can respond via the clinic number if needed, but their personal mobile stays private.
What if I want to send a WhatsApp promotion anyway?
We don't ship promotional templates and we don't recommend you add any. NMC Guidelines 2026 explicitly prohibit solicitation, incentive offers, and promotional patient communication from registered medical practitioners. The penalty is a show-cause notice, suspension of registration, or in repeated cases removal from the medical register. Our product is built around that line, which is what makes it defensible.
What if the WhatsApp Business API has downtime?
Meta's WhatsApp Business API has 99.9%+ uptime historically. If an outage happens, incoming messages queue and are processed when the API is back. Patients see a slight delay in confirmation but no messages are lost. For scheduled reminders, they go out as soon as the API recovers (so a T-24 reminder might become T-22 in an extreme outage case).
Can my receptionist still take phone calls for booking?
Yes. WhatsApp booking is additive — it doesn't replace phone bookings. Receptionists can still take calls and book appointments manually; those bookings share the same calendar as WhatsApp bookings (no double-booking across channels). Patients who prefer calling still get served the way they always have.
Does this work for multi-doctor polyclinics?
Yes. When a patient books via WhatsApp, they get the option to pick a specific doctor by name or by specialty. The system shows available slots across all doctors in that specialty. Returning patients default to their previous doctor automatically (one-tap booking instead of five). See multi-doctor polyclinic features.

Let your patients book on WhatsApp. Save your front desk's day.

Register your clinic in under 2 minutes. WhatsApp Business API verification handled by us.

Register your clinic → See pricing (₹3 per visit)