Your practice phone picks up. Even when the waiting room is full.
Patients call, the practice team is busy. Your agent takes the call, answers questions about office hours, prescriptions, and referrals, and books appointments. In emergencies, calls are routed to the practice immediately.
Notice under EU AI Act Article 50:The preset greeting says right at the start that an AI is speaking. If a transfer number is on file, the agent hands callers over to a person on request.How we use AI
What does the AI phone assistant do for medical practices?
The AI phone assistant for medical practices answers incoming calls, handles questions about office hours, directions, prescriptions, and referrals, books appointments through calendar integrations, and identifies emergencies by keywords. Urgent cases it escalates immediately to the practice and, in emergencies, refers callers to the on-call medical service (116117) or emergency services (112).
Servers in Germany · no US corporations
Stored in Germany. Processed in the EU, without US providers.
GDPR-compliant on EU servers
Many host in the EU and still send the data to US corporations like OpenAI. We don't. Calls, transcripts and knowledge data sit on servers in Germany, and the AI processing runs with European providers in the EU. A DPA under Art. 28 GDPR is in place.
Hosting in Germany, in data centres with ISO 27001 certification
AI processing runs with European providers in the EU, not with US corporations like OpenAI, Google or Amazon. No training on your data.
Speech recognition with EU processing and speech synthesis from a German provider, customers receive the named provider list in the dashboard.
Auto-deletion: 90 days by default, adjustable from 7 days
AI Act Art. 50: AI notice on by default
Since 2 August 2026, people must be told no later than first contact that they are talking or writing to an AI. With rinqo this notice is on by default in every channel.
Phone: the preset greeting says it is an AI; calls the agent places itself always open with it
Chat: notice always visible in the window. Email: notice below every reply from the agent
Generated images: AI label in the metadata, plus a visible label that is on by default
Penalty: up to €15M or 3 % global annual turnover, the lower amount for SMEs
Sources: GDPR Art. 28 + 32 · EU AI Act Regulation 2024/1689 · DSK guidance on artificial intelligence and data protection (German data protection conference, 2024). This overview does not constitute legal advice.
Why medical practices need an AI agent.
As of 31 December 2025 the KBV counts 191,875 panel doctors and psychotherapists. Over 70,000 of them work part-time: more doctors, less consulting time. At reception there is still one medical assistant taking in patients, issuing prescriptions, coordinating queries for the doctor and working the phone in between. The peak is Monday morning and after public holidays: appointment requests, prescription requests and acute complaints all arrive at once. Whoever ends up on hold hangs up and calls the next practice, or lands in the out-of-hours service, which makes the bottleneck worse. That is not a staffing problem but a structural peak-load problem, and that is exactly what an AI phone assistant solves, one that scales in parallel, never hangs up and is still reachable at 8:15 on a Monday.
Patients hang in the queue and hang up
The practice team is juggling the front desk and the phone at the same time
After hours and on weekends, nobody is reachable
Routine prescription requests block the line for real emergencies
When the phone rings after a holiday, we simply can't handle every patient in the first two hours. The ones that slip into the hold queue are gone.
How the phone agent works for medical practices.
Your AI phone assistant answers calls, including several at once depending on your plan. It greets callers with your practice name, listens, sums up the request and guides the caller through it step by step. It answers routine questions about office hours, directions, insurance acceptance, and private services from your knowledge base. Prescription requests are captured with patient name, date of birth, medication, and insurer, and go straight to your inbox. Appointments are booked through your calendar integration (Google Calendar, Outlook, or CalDAV, e.g. iCloud); the agent knows consultation slots, treatment durations, and blocked times. If your practice management system has an open interface, we set up the connection with you. For emergency keywords like chest pain, shortness of breath, heavy bleeding, or unconsciousness, it puts the caller straight through to practice management and tells them to dial emergency services (112) themselves if there is an acute risk to life. After every call you receive a compact email summary with caller, concern, next step, and the full transcript for your records.
What a real call sounds like.
Two typical conversations between caller and agent, pain case and routine booking.
Acute symptoms, Monday morning 8:12am
Agent
Dr. Miller's practice, this is Lara, the AI assistant. How can I help you?
Caller
I need an appointment today. I've had a high fever since last night and can barely swallow.
Agent
I'm sorry to hear that. So I can fit you in quickly: are you already a patient with us?
Caller
Yes, for five years. Maria Smith, born 14 June 1978.
Agent
Thank you, Ms. Smith. In today's acute clinic there's a slot free at 10:30am and at 2pm. Which one works better for you?
Caller
10:30 would be great.
Agent
You're booked for 10:30am today. If it gets noticeably worse before then, for example shortness of breath, please dial 112 straight away. Get well soon.
Dr. Miller's practice, this is Lara. How can I help?
Caller
I need a repeat prescription for my blood pressure medication. Ramipril 5 milligrams.
Agent
Happy to help. What's your name and date of birth?
Caller
John Baker, 3 November 1956. I've been on this for two years.
Agent
Thank you, Mr. Baker. Ramipril 5 milligrams, one pack. Have you already been to us with your insurance card this quarter?
Caller
Yes, three weeks ago.
Agent
Good, then you don't need to come in. I'll pass the request on, Dr. Miller will check it first thing tomorrow and issue the e-prescription. You can then redeem it with your insurance card at any pharmacy. If she needs to discuss it first, she'll call you back on the number you're calling from now. Does that work for you?
Caller
Yes, that's fine.
Agent
All done. Have a good evening, Mr. Baker.
Example dialogue. The actual wording depends on your details and on the question asked.
191,875
doctors and psychotherapists in statutory care, 31 December 2025
Why rinqo for medical practices, three hard facts on GDPR, sovereignty and AI Act.
Patient data is not marketing data. Anyone choosing a phone system with AI for a medical practice doesn't check voice quality first, but who has access to the conversation, where it's stored, and whether the practice stands clean before the state data protection authority on a data breach report. Three facts that technically and legally separate rinqo from US voice AI platforms and classic IVR solutions, and why each of these points becomes non-negotiable for practices from August 2026.
GDPR Art. 9 + 32
Patient data: stored in Germany, processed only in the EU, contractually guaranteed.
rinqo processes all calls exclusively in EU data centres, with the servers in Germany: for app, database, knowledge index and voice pipeline (data centres with ISO 27001 certification). Speech-to-text runs on a speech recognition service with processing in the EU. Voice synthesis via a German provider with EU hosting, content is not processed outside the EU. The data processing agreement (DPA) per Art. 28 GDPR is digitally signable by default and part of every plan. Patient records don't enter the system, the agent is a phone assistant, not an anamnesis tool. What callers say about their symptoms is still health data, so the practice signs a supplementary agreement before going live. That documents what is processed and for how long.
Servers in Germany, ISO 27001 · DPA Art. 28 included
EU Sovereignty
AI models run in EU data centres, with contractually guaranteed EU data processing.
The language model runs with contractually guaranteed EU data processing, with no training on customer data; a European fallback provider for the language model stands by and takes over if there is an outage. The guidance from the German Medical Association (Bundesärztekammer) and KBV on medical confidentiality and data processing (status October 2025) describes what practices should look for in external service providers, such as a data processing agreement. We are also prepared for the next stages of the EU AI Act: the obligation for AI literacy under Art. 4 has applied since February 2025, and under the Digital Omnibus the obligations for high-risk AI apply from 2 December 2027 (Annex III) and 2 August 2028 (Annex I).
AI service with contractually guaranteed EU data processing · European fallback provider for the language model
AI Act Art. 50 (effective 02.08.2026)
Transparency obligation fulfilled, before it becomes mandatory.
From 2 August 2026, Article 50 of the EU AI Regulation requires that callers can recognise they are talking to an AI. The obligation lies with the provider, but every practice should still check it. At rinqo, the disclosure is built into the default greeting (roughly: "This is the AI assistant of Dr. Müller's practice."). You can adapt the greeting; the note that it is an AI should stay in. This is not compliance theater but a trust line: in everyday practice, transparency is seen as a plus, and patients give the system a chance because they know what they're dealing with.
AI disclosure in the default greeting · Visible notice in chat · Wording adjustable
rinqo vs. classic solutions for medical practices.
Most practices compare three options today: a classic IVR menu from the German telephone provider, a US voice AI platform with German language model, or simply the answering machine. Here's the honest overview.
Feature
rinqo
All channels, one plan
DE IVR
classic phone system
US Voice AI
international providers
Answering machine
Classic
Answer calls individually
Free dialog, AI
Menu only
Free dialog, AI
Recording only
GDPR + EU data center
Hetzner DE, DPA incl.
DE provider
US cloud, Cloud Act
Local
AI disclosure under AI Act Art. 50
Auto & editable
Not an AI system
Manual config
Not an AI system
Calendar appointment booking
Google, Outlook, CalDAV
Custom setup needed
Emergency forwarding + referral to 116117
Keywords
Via keypad routing
Main language from 17+ languages, plus English
DE + EN
Monthly price (practice avg. 220 calls/week)
Scope determines the plan. We work it out with you in the first call.
Subscription model
Billed per call, plus setup
Free to low-cost
Whoever calls feels heard
Real dialogue
Frustrated in menus
Hangs up
Classic IVR solutions are cheap but fail at the first hurdle ("Press 3 for prescriptions") and produce frustration instead of appointments. US voice AI platforms deliver dialogue quality but fail the GDPR stress test and AI Act compliance from August 2026. Answering machines are, in effect, unanswered calls. rinqo brings together dialogue quality, processing in the EU and calendar integration, at a fixed monthly price.
What your agent does for medical practices
Office hours and directions
Appointment booking and cancellations
Prescription requests
Referrals
Emergency routing
Insurance and co-payment questions
What the Phone agent can do
Answers common questions automatically
Books appointments directly in your calendar
Qualifies inquiries and captures contact details
Routes complex cases to your team
Main language from 17+ languages
Answers from your website and documents
Honest answers to real concerns.
The questions that come up before the start.
Can the agent really identify an emergency?
The agent listens for keywords like chest pain, shortness of breath, or unconsciousness. On suspicion, the agent escalates immediately to your practice lead and refers the caller to the on-call medical service (116117), or to emergency services (112) if life is at risk. You set the keywords, better too broad than too narrow.
What happens to patient data?
Transcripts are stored on servers in Germany and deleted after an adjustable retention period (90 days by default, a maximum of 365 days for phone calls). A data processing agreement is in place. Because patients mention symptoms on the phone, the practice processes health data, and for that it signs a supplementary agreement before going live. The agent does not ask about diagnoses or findings, it is a phone assistant, not an anamnesis tool.
Does it integrate with my practice management system?
The agent books appointments through calendar integrations (Google Calendar, Microsoft Outlook, or CalDAV, e.g. iCloud). If your practice management system (such as medatixx, T2med, or CGM) has an open interface, we set up the connection with you. Alternatively, sync your PMS calendar with Google Calendar.
What if the agent can't answer a question?
It says so honestly, captures the request structured, and offers a callback from your practice team. You see all open items immediately in the dashboard and can update the knowledge base in a minute, next time the agent can answer.
Frequently asked questions for medical practices.
Yes. Your agent recognizes emergencies based on keywords. In those cases, the agent escalates immediately to the practice and refers callers to the on-call medical service (116117), or to emergency services (112) if life is at risk. You set the keywords, better too broad than too narrow.
Your agent works via a phone number you assign to your practice. Appointments can be synced through calendar integrations. We set up a direct connection to your PMS (such as medatixx, T2med, or CGM M1 Pro) with you if it has an open interface. Alternatively, sync your PMS calendar with Google Calendar.
Your agent is available 24/7. It answers questions, takes appointment requests and, in emergencies, refers callers to the on-call medical service (116117) or, in life-threatening situations, directly to 112.
We guide you through the setup. You get a phone number for the agent and forward your practice number to it, so your number stays yours. Your practice website and office hours go into the knowledge base, and you set the emergency keywords and forwarding targets. The agent is tested on the very first call, and you can apply corrections live at any time.
Yes. You forward calls to the agent only outside opening hours, or also when your line is busy during office hours. You set up the forwarding with your phone provider.
The agent knows your insurance approach from the knowledge base: which funds you treat, whether you bill privately, whether IGeL services are offered and within which price range. Privately insured patients get the information they need without your team having to take the call.
That depends on your practice's call volume. We work out which plan fits in the first call. The monthly subscription can be cancelled monthly.
The on-call medical service (116117) is responsible outside office hours for acute complaints that are not life-threatening. The practice template instructs the agent to refer callers with these concerns politely to 116117, and in life-threatening situations directly to 112. You adapt the keywords for this to your practice. You can also specify that it puts acute concerns through to a practice or cover number you have set.
Multi-channel for your industry
rinqo for Medical Practices, all channels
Telephone, chat and email from one platform: business case, ROI, GDPR and integrations.
Founder of rinqo. Builds a company memory where an organisation's knowledge comes together and stays available, and the AI agents that work from it: on the phone, in the inbox, in chat, in marketing and in further roles. Writes here about bringing AI into companies, about data protection, and about what holds up in daily operation. Developed in Germany, processed in the EU, no US providers.
