Doctoro vs WhatsApp and spreadsheets for running a clinic
Plenty of clinics book patients on WhatsApp, keep lists in a spreadsheet and send results as photos. It works until a phone is lost, a staff member leaves, or a result sits unread in a chat.
The short answer
WhatsApp and spreadsheets cost nothing and everyone already knows them. But patient details end up on personal phones, results get lost in chats, and nobody can tell who saw what. Doctoro keeps bookings, lists and results in one record built for health information.
Side by side
How the two compare, question by question.
Question
WhatsApp and spreadsheets
Doctoro
Booking
Messages to one staff member’s phone, easy to miss on their day off.
Requests arrive in the hospital’s in basket, where the whole desk can see them.
Patient lists
A spreadsheet on one computer, with copies that drift apart.
One register the whole team works from.
Results
Photos of paper results in chats.
Kept against the patient’s chart.
Privacy
Patient details on personal phones and in group chats.
Each role sees what it needs, every access is logged, and patients control what they share.
When a staff member leaves
Their phone, and the chats on it, leave with them.
Their access is switched off. The records stay with the facility.
Data protection questions
Hard to show who had access to what.
The access log and the patient’s consent help you answer under the Nigeria Data Protection Act.
Cost
Free.
Speak to us about pricing for your facility.
What WhatsApp still does well
Everyone already has it, and it costs nothing.
It is good for general announcements and quick reminders.
Keep it for those. Keep patient records out of it.
What you gain with Doctoro
Patient information off personal phones.
Requests the whole desk can see, not one person’s chat.
Results that stay with the patient’s record.
A clear answer to who saw what.
What switching looks like
Send the onboarding request. Tell us how your clinic books and keeps lists today.
We set up your workspace. Staff accounts with the right role for each person.
Move your list across. Import the spreadsheet you already have.
Point patients to Doctoro. They ask to be seen from the app instead of a staff member’s WhatsApp.
Questions clinics ask
Can we import our spreadsheet?
Yes. Your existing patient list can be imported from a spreadsheet, so nobody retypes it.
Is it really a problem to keep patients on WhatsApp?
Health information is sensitive personal data under the Nigeria Data Protection Act. Chats on personal phones make it hard to control who has it or to show who saw it.
Do we have to stop using WhatsApp?
No. Many clinics keep it for announcements and reminders. The difference is that patient records and results live in the EMR.
See the EMR for yourself.
Tell us about your facility. Nothing is set up or charged until we have spoken with you.
