A clinic's hours on its Google Business Profile should be entered correctly by session, with holidays and closures set in advance, and should match what your website and LINE say. When nearby people search Google Maps for a clinic open now, or ask AI for a pediatric clinic open on Sunday, these hours are often what gets read. Get them wrong and a patient may make a wasted trip, or simply choose another clinic. Below we go through regular sessions, public holidays and long weekends, unplanned closures, and who keeps it all updated.
1. Set morning, afternoon and evening sessions separately
Many clinics split the day into morning, afternoon and evening sessions with breaks in between. A Business Profile can hold several time ranges on the same day, so enter them by actual session rather than as one block from morning to night; otherwise patients who arrive during the midday break find the door closed.
- Set each day separately, and enter weekends separately if they differ from weekdays
- Mark regular closed days as closed
- If registration closes at a different time from the end of the session, spell that out on your website's timetable
2. Set public holidays and long weekends in advance
A Business Profile has special hours, which let you set different times or mark a closure for a specific date. For public holidays, the days around long weekends and the clinic's own time off, we'd suggest setting them on the same day you announce them. Patients may start checking whether you're open over a long weekend days ahead, so set it early rather than on the day.
3. Handling unplanned closures
A doctor taking unexpected leave, or the clinic closing at short notice, is a common reason for wasted trips. On the day of a closure:
- Business Profile: if there are no sessions all day, set special hours for that date
- Website: post a closure notice above the timetable, in text, with the date, session and doctor
- LINE Official Account: post an announcement, and notify booked patients separately
- AI assistant and AI phone answering: update the information they use, so they answer with the new details when patients ask
If there are no sessions all day, mark the Business Profile as closed. If only one doctor is off and others are seeing patients as usual, leave the Business Profile hours as they are, and spell out which doctor is off and for which session on your website, on LINE and in the AI assistant's information.
4. Common mistakes and fixes
| Common mistake | Change it to |
|---|---|
| The whole day entered as one block, with no midday break | Enter morning, afternoon and evening sessions separately |
| Nothing set before a long weekend, so the map shows normal hours | Set special hours on the day you announce the time off |
| Closure notice only taped to the clinic door | Update the Business Profile, website, LINE and AI assistant information the same day |
| Timetable only as an image | Write the timetable as text on the website, with the image as a supplement |
| A doctor who has left still listed in various places | List every place a doctor's name appears and update them together |
5. Name one person responsible
When hours live in several places and anyone can change them, they often end up changed by no one. We'd suggest naming one person responsible, with a checklist: Business Profile, website timetable, LINE Official Account, the AI assistant's information, and other sites that list the clinic. Each time the schedule changes or there's a closure, they work through the list item by item and log the change.
Part of this can be automated. For example, when the clinic posts a closure in one place, booked patients can be notified and the AI assistant's information updated automatically; whether the Business Profile and website can be connected depends on whether each system offers a way to do so.
6. How to tell whether it's working
| What to watch | Where to look |
|---|---|
| Calls and direction requests from Google Maps | Your Business Profile performance data |
| Patients who arrived because Google said you were open, and found you closed | Front desk tally |
| Whether AI gives the right session times | The same set of local questions across 5 AI platforms |
Note these before you start, and look again a few weeks after. Changes usually take a few weeks to show; record no change as no change, then check which item still isn't right. The description also has to follow the Medical Care Act's rules on medical advertising: no efficacy claims, and no discounts or gifts to attract patients. This is a plain-language summary, not legal advice; the latest rules from the health authorities prevail.
The short version
Enter your clinic's hours on Google by morning, afternoon and evening session, set holidays and closures in advance, and have one person update them on the same day as your website, LINE and AI assistant.
Frequently asked questions
- If only one doctor is off, do I change the Business Profile?
- If other doctors are seeing patients as usual, the Business Profile hours don't need to change; spell out which doctor is off and for which session on your website, on LINE and in the AI assistant's information.
- Can the Business Profile description mention discounts or gift promotions?
- We don't write them. The Medical Care Act doesn't allow clinics to attract patients by improper means, such as discounts or gifts. This is a plain-language summary, not legal advice; the latest rules from the health authorities prevail.
- What if AI gives the wrong hours for my clinic?
- First check that the hours on your Business Profile, website and other sites match and are current. AI uses these sources; once they're corrected, re-test with the same questions. Each platform updates at its own pace, and it usually takes a few weeks.
- Can closures sync to every place automatically?
- It depends on whether each system offers a way to connect. Notifying booked patients and updating the AI assistant's information are easier to automate; where a system can't connect, the person responsible updates it by hand from the checklist.