Eye hospital front desk: the calls you get and how to answer them

An eye hospital’s phone carries the same short list of questions all day, often from a son or daughter booking for a parent. Cataract is a good place to start: in India’s national survey of people aged 50 and over, it caused 66.2% of blindness (Vashist and colleagues, 2022), and by 1 September 2024, Ayushman Bharat PM-JAY alone had authorised 22,43,765 hospital admissions for cataract surgery (PIB, 2024). The example calls were written for this guide, with made-up names; fill in the words in curly brackets.

What callers to an eye hospital or ophthalmology OPD ask about

Put your own answers on one page, approved by your medical director:

1. How long a first visit takes, with and without dilating drops.
2. Whether to bring someone along, and sunglasses.
3. What contact lens wearers should do before a test or an operation (the UK’s NHS tells cataract patients they may need to leave lenses out for a few days: NHS, 2025).
4. The operation day (arrival, food, how long they’ll stay) and the check-ups after it.
5. The schemes and insurers you accept, and your Ayushman or TPA desk’s hours.
6. Where your emergency is, and where to send callers when it is closed.

Can a patient drive home after dilating drops?

Many eye check-ups include drops that widen (dilate) the pupil so the doctor can see the back of the eye. For a few hours afterwards vision may be blurry and bright light uncomfortable, so the US National Eye Institute asks patients to have a friend or family member drive them home, and to bring sunglasses (NEI, 2025). Say it when you book: a patient who rode in alone has no good choice left by lunchtime.

Whether to dilate is the doctor’s decision; the desk only says they might.

Cataract calls: explain the steps, never make the decision

Most cataract calls hide three questions: do I need the operation, which lens, and what will it cost. None is the desk’s to answer. The desk explains the path instead: an examination, then the counsellor on options and costs, then a date if the surgeon recommends one.

Questions about the operation day are answered from your surgeons’ counselling sheet. One answer holds everywhere: the patient needs someone with them, because they won’t be able to drive afterwards (NEI, 2024).

Glasses and spectacle prescription calls

“चश्मे का नंबर चेक करवाना है” (I need my glasses’ number checked) is usually a simple booking: the eye test with the right person, and the current glasses and old prescriptions brought along. Three calls need more care:

• “Has my number gone up?” Never guess. Book the test.
• “When should I get new glasses after my operation?” Patients may still need glasses after cataract surgery, and the prescription may change (UK NHS, 2025), so the timing is the surgeon’s call, given at the check-up.
• “Can you send my old prescription?” Only to the patient or someone they have authorised.

After an operation: book every check-up, and know the warning signs

The US National Eye Institute tells cataract patients to go to every check-up their eye doctor schedules (NEI, 2024). The desk makes that easy: book them all before the patient leaves, and call anyone who misses one.

The same page lists the problems after surgery that mean calling the eye doctor right away: vision loss; bad pain that won’t go away even with medicine; very red eyes; and flashes of light or a lot of floaters (dark spots or squiggly lines drifting across the vision). For any of them, don’t offer the next free follow-up slot: put the caller through to the surgeon or the duty doctor right away.

Ayushman, CGHS and insurance questions

Say only what the government says, and pass the rest to your Ayushman or TPA desk. The government says:

• PM-JAY gives each entitled family a cover of ₹5 lakh a year for secondary and tertiary care hospitalisation at empanelled public and private hospitals, cashless at the point of care (PIB, 2024).
• It covers up to 3 days of pre-hospitalisation and 15 days of post-hospitalisation expenses, including diagnostics and medicines (PIB, 2024).
• All senior citizens aged 70 and above are eligible (PIB, 2026), whatever their income, with a card of their own, the Ayushman Vay Vandana card (PIB, 2024). Seniors already on CGHS, ECHS or Ayushman CAPF can choose to stay with their scheme or opt for PM-JAY (PIB, 2024).

None of that settles one caller’s question: whether your hospital is empanelled for the treatment, what the card still covers this year, and what the family may still pay. That is the Ayushman desk’s answer.

Eye emergencies: what can’t wait

These calls stop the booking at once. The lists follow the UK NHS’s advice to the public; in India, that means 108 or 112, and your own emergency or the nearest one.

Emergency now. Go to emergency care, or call an ambulance, for:

• a strong chemical in the eye: keep rinsing the eye with water while waiting for help, and bring the container (NHS: eye injuries, 2026);
• a sharp object that has pierced the eye (don’t try to remove it), or something that hit the eye at high speed;
• after an eye injury: any change in sight, severe pain in the eye, a headache or sensitivity to light, feeling or being sick, an eye that can’t move or be kept open, or blood or pus coming from the eye;
• sudden loss of sight in one or both eyes, or sudden severe eye pain (NHS: vision loss, 2025);
• a red eye with any of these: a change in sight, pain on looking at light, a severe headache with feeling sick, a very dark red colour, one pupil bigger than the other, an injury, a dangerous liquid such as a chemical, or something stuck in the eye such as glass or grit (NHS: red eye, 2025).

The same day. An eye doctor urgently, today, for:

• floaters that appear or increase suddenly, flashes of light, a dark curtain or shadow across the vision, or sight that suddenly blurs, which can be signs of a detached retina (NHS, 2023);
• other changes in sight, such as blurred or double vision, pain in one or both eyes, a red and painful eye, or eyes that hurt or feel uncomfortable in bright light (NHS: vision loss);
• any of the warning signs after an operation listed above: put the caller through to the surgeon or the duty doctor right away;
• a very painful red eye, a red eye in a contact lens wearer, or red eyes in a baby less than 28 days old (NHS: red eye).

Around Diwali, expect firecracker injuries: they belong on the first list. Nobody with an eye emergency should drive themselves.

Then alert the duty doctor with the caller’s number.

Questions the desk never answers

1. Whether surgery is needed, or when. “मोतियाबिंद पक गया है?” (Is the cataract ripe?) is a question for the surgeon.
2. Which lens to choose. The surgeon and the counsellor explain the options after the examination.
3. Whether a symptom is normal, before or after an operation. Book the doctor, or follow the emergency lists.
4. Whether to start, stop or change any eye drops.
5. Whether someone is suitable for a procedure, such as laser treatment to stop wearing glasses.
6. A price on the phone, beyond the consultation fee on your fact sheet.

When a caller insists, say “यह डॉक्टर ही जाँच के बाद बता सकते हैं” (only the doctor can tell you, after the examination) and offer a time. The general emergency script and the questions no receptionist answers in any department are in our hospital call centre script.

Where DrMate fits

DrMate’s AI receptionist answers your hospital’s own number in everyday Hindi and Hinglish, books into genuinely free times and reads the booking back. Its built-in warning signs include a chemical in or an injury to the eye and sudden loss of sight, which get what to do now and a red alert to your staff, and flashes, floaters or a curtain over the vision, severe pain or a red eye with poor vision, and trouble after an eye operation, which get today’s earliest time. It never invents a fee or a doctor’s hours, and whatever it can’t answer goes on your call-back list.

With the eye specialty pack switched on (Built and Optional; reviewed with your ophthalmologists before it goes live), it also tells callers how long a first visit takes, to bring someone along if their eyes may be dilated, and what to bring. In the doctor’s room, DrMate has an eye OPD card for each eye and the spectacle prescription (Built). Hear the AI receptionist on our demo line, 080 6553 5931, where it answers as Sunrise Hospital, a sample hospital we made up.