Valentina Akpan: Founder of Rellatech, providing administrative and operations support to executives, founders, business owners and teams. Her background combines technical support, customer success, administration and operations.
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The Starting Point
The client runs a healthcare practice where intake requests, appointment updates, and follow-up tasks were living in a mix of email, phone messages, and handwritten notes. They wanted to automate the workflow using Zapier and Google Sheets, and they needed the automation to work with the systems they already had, including HubSpot and SAP. This first phase connected HubSpot, Google Sheets and Gmail through Zapier. SAP stayed part of their environment but was not connected.
The budget was tight and the project was scoped as ongoing work, so I started with the highest-friction piece first: getting new requests into a single sheet, tracking them through a clear status, and sending a daily digest so the front desk could stop hunting through email for what needed to happen next.
What I Did
I built a Zapier workflow that takes new intake submissions, appointment updates, and contact changes from HubSpot and records them in a Google Sheet with a consistent set of columns. Each row has a timestamp, request type, patient or contact name, status, assigned staff member, and notes. The status columns match the real workflow the front desk already uses, so the sheet feels like a better version of their current process rather than a completely new one.
I also added a scheduled Zapier email that sends every morning at 8 a.m. with a summary of the day’s appointments, items that need follow-up, and anything that has been sitting for more than 24 hours. The team now has a single email to read at the start of the day instead of searching through multiple tools.
Error handling was the part I spent the most time on. I built for two failures: a required field missing from a submission, and an API call that times out. In either case the sheet adds a flag and a notification goes to a dedicated inbox, so the client can see what happened and fix the row. Anything outside those two cases still has to be checked in the Zapier history.
What Went Into the Build
One intake form that feeds the sheet
Every new patient or task request lands in the same Google Sheet with a timestamp, source, and next step, instead of being scattered across email threads or sticky notes.
Status columns that match the real workflow
The sheet has columns for received, in review, scheduled, completed, and needs follow-up, so the team can see what is moving and what is stuck.
Zapier connections to the existing systems
Zaps pull new contacts and updates from HubSpot and push completed outcomes back, without forcing the team to learn a new tool.
A daily digest the staff reads
A scheduled email every morning lists the day’s appointments, pending requests, and overdue items so the front desk starts the day with the same information.
Error handling for two known failures
If a required field is missing or an API call times out, the sheet flags the row and a notification goes to a dedicated inbox. Other failures still have to be checked in the Zapier history.
Why It Matters
Healthcare practices move fast and have very little room for error. A missed intake request or a delayed follow-up has real consequences for patients and staff. The automation does not replace the humans doing the work; it gives them a clear list and a single source of truth so they can focus on the parts that need a person.
Because the sheet is built in plain Google Sheets, the client can keep using it even if they stop working with me. There are no custom dashboards, no proprietary tools, and no locked-in platform. The documentation is short and lives on the sheet itself, so a new team member can read the instructions tab and understand the system in ten minutes.
The best automation in a healthcare practice is the one the staff can fix themselves when something changes.
Tools Used
Who This Is For
This case study is worth reading if you are:
- ●A healthcare practice owner or office manager who wants a simple intake tracker without buying a new system
- ●A team using HubSpot but needing Google Sheets as a shared daily view for the front desk
- ●Someone running Zapier workflows and worried about what happens when a zap fails or a field is blank
- ●A business that wants automation built in small, visible pieces so the team can adopt it gradually
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