For Swiss family doctors and specialist practices

The phone rings.
Your assistant keeps treating.

Swiss practices receive 60 to 100 calls per day — up to half go unanswered during treatment hours. fonea books appointments, takes prescription requests, answers standard questions, and routes urgent matters straight to the clinical team. FADP-compliant with data hosted in Switzerland.

Ärztin im Gespräch mit einem älteren Patienten in einer Schweizer Hausarztpraxis
Made in Switzerland

What is fonea for medical practices?

fonea is an AI phone assistant that answers calls in Swiss medical practices 24/7, books appointments, takes prescription requests, and instantly escalates urgent medical matters to the practice team — FADP-compliant with persistent data hosted in Switzerland.

60–100
calls per day in an average group practice
50%
calls missed during treatment hours
3–6 months
to fill an open MPA vacancy
24/7
availability with fonea

The reality at reception

Why the phone is the biggest bottleneck in Swiss medical practices

Up to half of all calls go unanswered

An average group practice with two to four doctors receives 60 to 100 calls per day. During treatment hours, MPAs are in the treatment room — and 30 to 50 percent of calls go unanswered. Behind each one is a patient with a concern.

50 % missed calls at peak times

The MPA shortage makes it worse

Around 40 percent of Swiss medical practices struggle to fill open MPA positions. Time-to-hire is three to six months. Hiring more staff is rarely an option — and an experienced MPA costs CHF 5,500 to 7,000 per month including social contributions.

40 % of practices cannot hire

Every interruption destroys focus

In an SVA survey, 68 percent of MPAs name the phone as their top stress factor. Every ring interrupts lab work, clinical assistance, and patient conversations. The result: stressed teams, higher turnover, and frustrated patients who book elsewhere.

68 % of MPAs: phone = top stressor

What changes

How fonea relieves your medical practice

Every call answered

100 percent availability — Monday 08:02, during lunch, or after hours. No queue, no busy tone, no frustrated new patients.

Appointments land in your calendar

fonea sees your doctors' availability in real time and books check-ups, preventive visits, and new-patient slots. Prescription requests arrive structured for the doctor's approval.

Urgent matters go straight to the team

Keywords like "severe pain", "shortness of breath", or "bleeding" trigger an instant handover to the practice mobile. Clinical judgement stays 100 percent with humans.

FADP-compliant, hosted in Switzerland

Persistent patient data stays in Switzerland. Transient voice processing runs on EU servers with adequate data-protection levels. FDPIC-compliant AI disclosure at the start of every call.

Set up in 30 minutes

How we configure fonea for your practice

01

Kick-off & practice profile

We capture your specialty, consultation hours, top call types, and the ratio of routine matters (appointments, prescriptions, info) to urgent concerns.

02

Scripting & urgency routing

We define answers for your top questions plus the keywords that trigger an instant handover to the practice mobile — in German, French, and Italian.

03

Calendar & practice software integration

Connect Google Calendar, Microsoft 365, or your practice software. Call forwarding via Swisscom, Sunrise, or Salt — no number change required.

04

Test call & go-live

You run live scenarios: appointment, prescription, emergency. After fine-tuning we go live. You can edit scripts and escalation paths any time.

Typical call scenarios

How fonea handles patient calls in practice

Check-up appointment

Anrufer
Hello, I am a patient of Dr. Keller and would like to book a check-up."
fonea
Happy to help. So I can find the right slot: is this an annual check-up or do you have a specific concern? Dr. Keller has availability next Tuesday at 9:30 or Thursday at 2:15 pm. Which works better for you?"

Most frequent call type (around 60 %). fonea checks the calendar in real time and books without a callback from your MPA.

Prescription refill

Anrufer
Hi, I need my blood-pressure medication again. Can I order a refill?"
fonea
Of course. May I take your name and date of birth? I will note the medication and dosage and forward the request to Dr. Keller for approval. Once approved, you will receive an SMS and we will notify your pharmacy."

fonea logs the request in a structured form. Clinical approval always stays with the doctor — fonea never gives medical advice.

Urgent medical concern

Anrufer
My son has had a 40-degree fever since yesterday, I am worried."
fonea
That sounds urgent. I will connect you immediately to our MPA on the emergency line. One moment, transferring now. If nobody picks up, please dial 144."

Emergency triage: keywords trigger instant handover to the practice mobile. No queue, no AI judgement on clinical severity.

FADP, revFADP and patient confidentiality

Why fonea is the right partner for medical practices

Specially protected patient data

Patient data is classified as specially protected under Art. 5 FADP. fonea supports you through the Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) under Art. 22 FADP and provides templates. Persistent data sits with our Swiss hosting partner Supabase.

No audio recording without consent

Calls are transcribed in real time; the audio stream is discarded immediately. That removes the recording issue entirely. Transcripts are encrypted at rest and deleted per configurable retention windows.

FDPIC-compliant AI disclosure

Every patient is informed at the start of the call that an AI system is in use — required under Art. 19 FADP and FDPIC guidance. This announcement cannot be disabled.

No voice ID, no biometrics

fonea does not create voice profiles. No patient names leave for the US persistently. The full subprocessor list (Supabase, Telnyx, ElevenLabs, Google, Anthropic) is published transparently.

Prezzi

Prezzi trasparenti

Garanzia soddisfatti o rimborsati 30 giorni

Basic

Per 1–10 chiamate/giorno

CHF 90/mese
Inizia ora

Incluso

  • 120 minuti di conversazione IA inclusi
  • DE, FR, IT, EN, ES + svizzero tedesco
  • Integrazione calendario e prenotazione appuntamenti
  • Segreteria IA 24/7
  • IA interattiva per il servizio clienti
  • Notifiche email e SMS
  • Disdetta mensile, senza vincoli
Popolare

Professional

Per 10–50 chiamate/giorno

CHF 290/mese
Inizia ora

Incluso

  • 500 minuti di conversazione IA
  • 3 chiamate simultanee
  • 3 numeri di telefono
  • Assistenti illimitati
  • Utenti illimitati

Funzionalità

  • Tutto di Basic
  • Chiamate in uscita

Scale

Da 50 chiamate/giorno

daCHF 590/mese
Inizia ora

Incluso

  • Da 2'000 minuti
  • Chiamate simultanee su misura
  • Numeri di telefono su misura
  • Assistenti illimitati
  • Utenti illimitati

Funzionalità

  • Tutto di Professional
  • Voce personalizzata
  • Zero Data Retention
  • SLA su misura

Frequently asked

What practice owners need to know before using fonea

Is fonea FADP-compliant for medical practices?

Yes. All persistent patient data (contacts, transcripts, summaries) is hosted in Switzerland with Supabase. Transient voice processing (STT, LLM, TTS) runs on European servers in Germany — data is processed there, not persistently stored. The revised FADP (effective 1 September 2023) including Art. 5 (specially protected data) and the GDPR are fully respected. We support your Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) under Art. 22 FADP.

How fast does fonea learn our practice?

Initial setup takes about 30 minutes. We configure fonea with you: top call types (appointments, prescriptions, info, referrals), response scripts in German, French, and Italian, and calendar integration. After go-live you edit scripts anytime in the dashboard — or we handle changes.

What happens in a real emergency?

Keywords like "severe pain", "shortness of breath", "bleeding", or "fever above 39 degrees" trigger an immediate handover to your practice mobile. If nobody is reachable, the assistant points the caller to 144 (ambulance) or 145 (poisoning). fonea never makes clinical judgements — that stays 100 percent with your team.

Can fonea take prescription requests?

Yes. fonea captures the request in a structured form (patient, medication, dosage) and logs it. Clinical approval always happens through the doctor. This matches today's workflow where the MPA takes the request and the doctor approves it — just without the manual phone call.

Will older patients cope with an AI assistant?

In most cases, yes. fonea holds a natural conversation, asks simple questions, and adapts to the caller's pace. Patients who prefer speaking to an MPA can always be transferred to a human. What matters is that the assistant is polite and competent — once that works, acceptance tends to hold across all age groups, because an immediate answer beats a busy tone.

Does fonea understand Swiss German?

Yes. fonea understands Swiss German in all dialects and replies in High German or Swiss Standard German. Additionally: French, Italian, English, and Spanish — important for practices in Romandy, Ticino, and for international patients.

Does fonea work with our practice software?

fonea connects via calendar interfaces to common practice management systems — Google Calendar, Microsoft 365, and most practice software via iCal or API. We clarify the integration in the kick-off call. If a direct connector is missing, the workflow runs reliably via Google Calendar or Outlook.

What if a patient explicitly does not want AI?

fonea introduces itself as a digital assistant at the start of the call. If the patient wishes to speak to an MPA, fonea transfers immediately — if someone is available — or captures a prioritised callback. The practice team receives the summary directly, and nobody is forced to use AI against their will.

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