The market for AI-powered healthcare communication platforms has exploded. In 2026, medical practices have dozens of options claiming to "handle your phones with AI." But the differences between these platforms are enormous—and choosing wrong can cost a practice more than it saves.
Some platforms are rebranded consumer chatbots with a healthcare skin. Others are sophisticated clinical communication systems built by physicians with decades of healthcare experience. The marketing looks similar. The outcomes are vastly different.
This evaluation guide provides a structured framework for practice administrators, medical directors, and operations leaders who are actively comparing AI call platforms. Every criterion is based on real-world requirements from practices ranging from single-office clinics to 200+ location enterprises.
Why it matters: Without deep EHR integration, every AI-handled call creates manual documentation work for staff. The AI answers the phone, but someone still has to transfer the information into the patient's chart.
Questions to ask:
What to look for: Native integrations with major EHR systems (athenahealth, eClinicalWorks, Epic, Allscripts) that have been validated at scale. CallMyDoc maintains production integrations with all four of these EHR systems, including an official athenahealth Marketplace listing.
Red flag: "We integrate via Zapier/API" or "integration is on our roadmap." These indicate the platform wasn't built for clinical workflows.
Why it matters: A patient calling about a prescription refill needs a fundamentally different workflow than one reporting chest pain. If the AI can't distinguish between these, it's just a transcription service.
Questions to ask:
What to look for: Platforms that categorize into clinical workflow types (CallMyDoc uses 12 distinct request types) and route accordingly. The categorization should drive actual workflow automation, not just tagging.
Red flag: All calls go to a single inbox or dashboard regardless of type and urgency.
Why it matters: 40–50% of patient calls come after business hours. Any platform that only works during office hours is solving less than half the problem.
Questions to ask:
What to look for: Full after-hours coverage with mobile provider access, on-call scheduling, and automatic EHR documentation. Castle Hills Family Practice documented that 51.9% of their calls came after hours—all captured and documented through CallMyDoc.
Red flag: "After hours, we take a message and deliver it the next morning." This is an answering service with an AI label.
Why it matters: AI that makes clinical decisions autonomously creates malpractice liability. The safest and most legally defensible architecture keeps AI in a support role while humans make clinical judgments.
Questions to ask:
What to look for: Platforms where AI handles transcription, categorization, and routing while humans make all clinical decisions. CallMyDoc's human-in-the-loop architecture means providers always have final judgment—AI is the infrastructure, not the clinician.
Red flag: "Our AI handles patient concerns autonomously" or "AI resolves calls without staff involvement." Autonomous clinical AI increases malpractice risk.
Why it matters: In malpractice litigation, documentation quality determines outcomes. Every patient interaction needs a timestamped, searchable, permanent record.
Questions to ask:
What to look for: Automatic, comprehensive documentation with millisecond timestamps, integrated directly into the EHR. CallMyDoc has processed 26 million+ calls with zero lost calls—every interaction is permanently documented.
Red flag: Documentation lives only in the vendor's dashboard and requires manual export or copy-paste to the EHR.
Why it matters: A platform that works for a 3-provider office may collapse at 30 providers or 300. Practices should evaluate whether the platform can grow with them.
Questions to ask:
What to look for: Proven deployments at enterprise scale. CallMyDoc ranges from single-office practices to Millennium Physician Group (200+ locations, 900+ providers, 1,354 dashboards, 34,000+ monthly calls). ThinkMedFirst operates 187 dashboards processing 21,000 monthly calls. That's proof of scalability, not a sales claim.
Red flag: "We work great for small practices" with no enterprise references. Also watch for per-call or per-minute pricing that becomes prohibitive at scale.
Why it matters: The United States has over 25 million limited-English-proficiency individuals. Section 1557 of the ACA requires meaningful access to healthcare services regardless of language. A platform that only handles English leaves a significant gap.
Questions to ask:
What to look for: Comprehensive multilingual capabilities. CallMyDoc supports 43 languages with real-time translation between patient language and English, with bilingual documentation in the EHR.
Red flag: "We support English and Spanish" or "translation is available as an add-on." Limited language support creates compliance risk and excludes patient populations.
Why it matters: Healthcare communication involves Protected Health Information (PHI) in every interaction. The platform must meet healthcare-specific security standards.
Questions to ask:
What to look for: HIPAA compliant, SOC 2 certified, with PHI-secure end-to-end encryption, access controls, and a clean breach history. CallMyDoc's track record: zero breaches across 26 million+ calls.
Red flag: "We're working toward HIPAA compliance" or inability to provide a BAA. If a vendor can't produce SOC 2 documentation, walk away.
Why it matters: Hidden costs and unpredictable pricing models undermine the ROI that practices expect from AI adoption. The pricing model should align incentives: the vendor should want the practice to use the system more, not less.
Questions to ask:
What to look for: Flat-rate pricing with no per-call charges (so there's no incentive to rush patients off the line), no setup fees, no long-term contracts, and a meaningful trial period. CallMyDoc offers all of these—including a 30-day free trial and the ability to cancel anytime without termination fees.
Red flag: Per-minute pricing, long-term contracts with heavy cancellation fees, or "contact us for pricing" with no transparency. If a vendor won't discuss pricing openly, the structure probably isn't competitive.
Why it matters: Healthcare communication infrastructure is mission-critical. If the vendor fails, the practice loses its phone system. Startups with 12 months of runway and no healthcare pedigree represent real operational risk.
Questions to ask:
What to look for: Established companies with deep healthcare roots. CallMyDoc was founded in 2013 by Dr. Shahinaz Soliman (board-certified family physician, 30+ years clinical experience) and Carl Silva (Chief Scientist, 20+ years systems architecture). The platform has processed 26 million+ patient calls and includes 24/7/365 human support with on-call engineers who respond within minutes.
Red flag: Founded in the last 2 years, no healthcare founders, funded by VC with pressure to grow at all costs, or "community support" instead of dedicated human support.
Use this scorecard to compare platforms objectively. Rate each criterion 1–5:
| Criterion | Weight | Platform A | Platform B | Platform C |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| EHR Integration Depth | Critical | ___ | ___ | ___ |
| Clinical Workflow Categorization | Critical | ___ | ___ | ___ |
| After-Hours Capability | Critical | ___ | ___ | ___ |
| Human-in-the-Loop Architecture | Critical | ___ | ___ | ___ |
| Documentation & Audit Trail | Critical | ___ | ___ | ___ |
| Scalability & Multi-Site | High | ___ | ___ | ___ |
| Language Support | High | ___ | ___ | ___ |
| Security & Compliance | Critical | ___ | ___ | ___ |
| Pricing Transparency | Medium | ___ | ___ | ___ |
| Vendor Track Record | High | ___ | ___ | ___ |
Scoring guide: 1 = Not available or unproven, 2 = Basic/limited, 3 = Adequate, 4 = Strong, 5 = Industry-leading. Focus on the "Critical" criteria first—a platform that scores poorly on any critical criterion should be eliminated regardless of other strengths.
Beyond the checklist, these questions reveal the real character of a platform:
After evaluating platforms against this checklist, most practices find that candidates fall into three categories:
The first two categories may reduce phone volume. Only the third category reduces total operational burden while improving documentation, compliance, and care quality.
Choosing an AI healthcare call platform is a clinical infrastructure decision, not a software purchase. The platform you select will handle tens of thousands of patient interactions per year, generate clinical documentation, support after-hours care, and create (or fail to create) the audit trails your practice needs for compliance and malpractice defense.
Apply this evaluation framework rigorously. Ask hard questions. Demand live demos with your EHR. Check references at your scale. The right platform will transform your practice's communication efficiency. The wrong one will create new problems while solving old ones.
Schedule a 30-minute demo to see CallMyDoc evaluated against every criterion in this checklist—including a live demonstration with your EHR. No setup fees, no long-term contracts, and a 30-day free trial to prove the results before you commit.