How are your patients scheduled?

I work in a very busy pediatric office. We are looking at new ways to schedule same day appointments. The goal is to have our telephone nurses freed up from taking phone calls that have nothing to do with nursing. ie: "When is Mary's next appointment?" or "Can you tell me how to get to your office." One of the ways we are looking at is having our receptionists book these appointments. The receptionists would have a list of provider approved symptoms that they would be able to book, ie: ear ache, temperature. They would be given certain buzz words or complaints that would automatically be put through to a nurse to further assessment. ie: abdominal pain. The triage nurses are feel that this is not the way to go. They feel the receptionists will miss or not know when something is serious and needs to be seen immediatly. They feel there is a legal componant to this, such as giving advice. This is such a cultural change for our department. How do others in busy offices schedule thier same day appointments? I'd like to hear some other options.