A shared clinic enquiry register

Start with the process, not another inbox

When an enquiry arrives, your team needs to know who is handling it and what happens next. A shared process register is a place to record that responsibility. It can refer to the approved system your clinic already uses; this guide is not a patient-record template.

Choose one place for the team to review open administrative work. Agree who creates an entry and who updates it after a handoff. A process that depends on someone remembering a conversation is difficult for the next shift to follow.

Use a small, consistent set of fields

• Internal reference: a non-identifying work reference, rather than a patient name or phone number.
• Source channel: for example, telephone, website or walk-in.
• Owner role: the front-desk role currently responsible for the next step.
• Status: an agreed label such as new, awaiting team action, awaiting reply or closed.
• Next action and due point: a concrete administrative step with a date and time understood by the team.
• Last reviewed: when the owner last checked that the recorded status was still accurate.

An illustrative entry

ENQ-001 · Website · Front desk · Awaiting team action · Confirm which appointment slots can be offered · Due at the next agreed review. This is a fictional example, not a real enquiry or a recommended response-time target.

Keep identifying or clinical information in the clinic’s approved systems with appropriate access. Do not paste patient details into our free tools, email an example record to us or add them to a public spreadsheet.

Check whether the register is being used

During a weekly review, look for open entries with no owner or no next action. If someone has left a shift, check who accepted the handoff. Record unknown status as unknown until it is checked; do not count it as an appointment or a lost enquiry.

The free enquiry check asks whether a shared register, ownership, channel labels and outcomes are documented. Use it to choose one process to improve, then use the printable checklist at your next review.