Waaru is not a clinical decision system.
Do not use a configured workflow for diagnosis, treatment recommendations, emergency triage, medication advice, or an unsupervised clinical decision.
Use structured WhatsApp steps for appointment requests, verified slots, confirmations, reminders, rescheduling, and report-ready notices. Keep the purpose, minimum required data, booking state, and responsible front-desk owner visible throughout the conversation.
In one line
Clinic automation should coordinate access and administration, not diagnose, prescribe, or triage emergencies. A safe workflow captures only what scheduling needs, confirms a real slot, records message purpose, and hands exceptions to qualified staff.
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Appointment intake, consent, reminders, and changes can follow a structured path. A symptom, treatment question, or emergency concern leaves that path with the context preserved for qualified staff.
Appointment CL-1842
Tuesday · 11:30 AM
Current boundary
Administrative
Scheduling can be structured. Diagnosis, treatment, and emergency decisions remain outside the workflow.
Operating boundary
Before publishing, define which administrative fields are necessary, where the booking is confirmed, and who receives anything that exceeds the workflow's purpose.
Use the clinic's connected WhatsApp number, purpose-specific patient communication, approved teammate roles, and the minimum permissions required by a connected calendar.
The workflow can use patient replies, Flow submissions, contact fields, conversation history, and supported calendar availability. It should not request a broad medical history merely to schedule a visit.
Logic Flow can update contact fields, conversation state, assignment, and administrative messages, and can read supported calendar availability. Booking creation or changes use a separate Automation or connected-app action, or an authorised front-desk handoff.
Inbound replies and Flow submissions move the active conversation. A verified calendar event starts an independent Automation run; it does not cancel an admitted Broadcast. Keep cancelled appointments out of the next reminder audience at its authoritative source.
Test unavailable slots, duplicate submissions, cancellation, rescheduling, late replies, provider downtime, identity-sensitive retrieval, and clinical or emergency language before launch.
No diagnosis, prescribing, treatment recommendation, emergency disposition, or unsupervised clinical advice. Do not claim that connecting Waaru makes the clinic compliant with privacy or health law.
Unknown, sensitive, urgent, or clinical messages stay in the thread and route to the clinic's defined human process with the appointment context retained.
The problem
A patient may request one time, receive another, ask to reschedule, cancel by phone, or reply after the front desk closes. If calls, WhatsApp, and calendars do not share one booking state, reminders can reach cancelled appointments and staff ask for the same details again.
Intake
Ask for location, department or service, preferred date, and a contact name. Explain why a required field is needed. Avoid collecting symptoms, reports, identification documents, or medical history when they are not necessary for appointment coordination. A WhatsApp Flow can make the intake easier to complete, but its fields still need a clinic-specific privacy review.
Operator worksheet
Take one appointment type and document the administrative record before building the conversation. Every field needs a scheduling purpose and an owner. If the front desk cannot explain why a field is needed, remove it from the WhatsApp intake and collect it later through the clinic's approved process when necessary.
Booking
Present availability from a tested calendar connection or send the request to the front desk for confirmation. Where it fits the clinic's operating model, review the current Google Calendar integration boundary before enabling a write. The appointment reference, selected service, location, and message thread should point to the same booking.
Reminder
A reminder should identify the appointment without exposing unnecessary sensitive detail. Give the patient clear actions to confirm, request another slot, cancel, or contact the clinic. Record the response against the same appointment and remove cancelled bookings before the next campaign is admitted. An ambiguous reply needs a human owner rather than a guessed booking change.
Results administration
Tell the patient that a report is ready and provide the clinic's approved retrieval route. Do not place diagnoses, sensitive results, open file links, or identity answers in a generic template. The clinic must define access control, identity verification, consent, retention, and the response when the recipient says the message reached the wrong person.
Human boundary
Symptoms, adverse events, emergencies, medication questions, and treatment decisions should leave the administrative workflow. Waaru can preserve the thread, appointment reference, and an urgency marker for the clinic's queue, but a configured message must not present itself as a clinician or tell a patient what care to take.
Operations
Track time from request to confirmed slot, reminders delivered, confirmations, reschedules completed without duplication, cancellations removed from later sends, messages awaiting front-desk review, and handoffs awaiting qualified staff. These measures show whether administration improved. They do not prove a medical, attendance, or revenue outcome without the clinic's own reviewed data.
Yes. A WhatsApp Flow or guided workflow can collect the request and offer verified slots. The booking should be confirmed against the clinic's current calendar or by authorised staff.
Research notes
These references inform message and form design. They are not a substitute for the clinic's medical, privacy, security, and legal review.
WhatsApp's Business Messaging Policy governs user control, acceptable business use, message purpose, and opt-out handling.
WhatsApp Business Messaging Policy · Accessed 20 August 2026
Meta documents WhatsApp Flows as structured experiences that open inside WhatsApp.
Meta for Developers · Accessed 20 August 2026
India's Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology publishes the Digital Personal Data Protection Rules, 2025 and their enforcement timeline.
Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Government of India · Accessed 20 August 2026
Start with one administrative appointment path.
Bring the current intake, calendar, reminder, cancellation, privacy, and human-escalation steps. Keep clinical decisions outside the automation boundary.