Guides · · by the BittaFlow team
The short answer
Look for software that runs the front desk where your patients already are — WhatsApp. That means booking by department and doctor, reminders and OPD tokens sent on WhatsApp, follow-ups that go out on their own, cash and panel billing, each doctor’s share worked out, a price per clinic rather than per booking, and your patient list exportable any day.
What is the difference between a marketplace, an HMS and a clinic CRM?
Three kinds of product are sold to Pakistani clinics, and they solve different problems. A booking marketplace lists your doctors where patients search and takes a fee per booking or per lead. A hospital management system (HMS) runs wards, pharmacy, lab and the clinical chart. A clinic CRM runs the front desk and the patient conversation: bookings, tokens, reminders, billing and follow-ups.
Most clinics need the front desk sorted before anything else, and many hospitals already have an HMS they will not replace. The questions below are for that front-desk layer.
| Booking marketplace | Hospital management system | Clinic CRM | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it is for | Bringing new patients | Wards, pharmacy, lab, clinical chart | Front desk and patient messages |
| How it is usually priced | Per booking or per lead | Per hospital, quoted by phone | Per clinic or per user |
| Patient messages | SMS and voice, from the marketplace | Usually SMS | WhatsApp, SMS and calls in one inbox |
| OPD token queue | No | Often, with SMS | Yes, with WhatsApp or SMS notices |
| Where the booking record lives | On the marketplace | In your system | In your system |
Why does WhatsApp matter so much?
Because it is where patients and doctors already talk. A 2018 survey of 718 Pakistani physicians found WhatsApp the most-used app for medical purposes, and large hospitals already send reports to patients over it.
Ask any vendor whether WhatsApp is built in or bolted on, whether patients can reply to a reminder to confirm or move it, and whether you keep the number your patients already know.
What should an OPD token system do?
A token system exists so patients stop asking the desk how many are ahead of them. A good one:
- Issues a sequential token per branch per day, for walk-ins and for booked patients who arrive
- Sends the token number to the patient’s phone, so they can wait somewhere other than the counter
- Tells the patient when their turn is near
- Lets a booked patient check in from their phone instead of queuing to say they are here
- Shows the desk who is with a doctor, who has been called and who is waiting
What questions should you ask before you buy?
Ask these on the demo, and get the answers in writing:
- 1Is the price per clinic, per doctor or per booking — and what happens to it when you add a doctor?
- 2Can patients book by department, then by doctor, and see only the times that doctor is free?
- 3Do reminders and tokens go out on WhatsApp, and can patients reply to them?
- 4Can an invoice be billed to an insurance or company panel, with the covered share split out?
- 5Does it work out each doctor’s share of the consultation fee?
- 6Can you export your patient list and history yourself, any day, without paying for it?
- 7Is there a contract, and what does leaving cost?
What do clinics complain about most?
Not the wording of a reminder — that it never arrived. Reviews of marketplace bookings in Pakistan describe patients turning up to be told the clinic had no record of the booking, and paid bookings missing from the clinic’s dashboard. Whatever you choose, ask how you will know a message was delivered and read, and where the booking record lives.
How does BittaFlow handle a clinic’s front desk?
BittaFlow has a Clinic & Hospital setup with patients, doctors and branches. Every doctor has a department; the booking page asks for a department, then a doctor, then a free time, and the AI receptionist names the doctors in a department on a call and books the visit on name and phone number. Visits sit on a Doctors’ day board with a lane per doctor.
Walk-ins and arrivals get today’s token by WhatsApp or SMS, and the patient who is second in line is texted to come back. A booked patient can tap “I’ve arrived” on their own link to check in and get a token. Invoices can be paid by the patient or billed to a panel and split into instalments; each doctor’s per-visit share goes to their pay ledger; a follow-up interval per service sends the next reminder; and a report shared from the patient file appears on the patient’s link.
- One price per clinic, with no per-doctor or per-booking fee
- Your patient list and history export to CSV from the app
- Not an EMR or HMS — the clinical chart, lab and pharmacy stay where they are