Medical answering service, answered in Australia.
A patient on hold is a patient deciding to try somewhere else. We answer overflow and after hours calls for medical practices and allied health clinics: booking appointments, filling cancellations, and escalating the calls that must not wait.
Stated first
What we will never do.
In a clinical setting the limits matter more than the features, so here they are first.
Hard limits, written into your plan
Press9 receptionists are not clinicians and never act as any part of a clinical service.
We do not give health advice, interpret symptoms, suggest a diagnosis, comment on medication, or triage in a clinical sense. We recognise the calls your practice has told us must be escalated and escalate them at once, including directing a caller to ring 000 where your plan says to. Every one of these limits is written down and approved by you before we answer a call.
Where practices lose calls
Three predictable failures.
The 8:30 wall
Everyone rings the moment the doors open.
Your reception staff are also checking in the people standing in front of them. The queue builds, hold times climb, and callers give up and try the practice down the road.
Cancellations
A 3pm cancellation is only revenue if someone works the list.
Nobody at the front desk has a spare twenty minutes at 2:40pm to ring down the waitlist, so the chair sits empty.
After hours
A recorded message is the least reassuring thing you do all day.
A worried patient told to call back tomorrow does not feel looked after.
How a practice call runs
Escalate first, then book.
First check
Anything on your escalation list
Chest pain, breathing difficulty, severe bleeding, or a caller who says it is an emergency. Heard first, acted on immediately, exactly as your plan words it.
Close of call
Booked, moved or waitlisted
Directly in your practice software where it allows it, otherwise as a structured message with every field filled.
Scope
What the service covers.
The split is simple. We take messages and bookings. Your practice keeps every clinical decision.
We do
Answer, book and escalate
We answer in your practice name during the hours you set. We book, reschedule and cancel appointments. We work the waitlist when a slot opens. We recognise the calls on your escalation list and act on them at once.
You keep
Every clinical judgement
Assessment, triage, diagnosis, medication and results stay with your practitioners. A receptionist who is asked a clinical question takes it as a message for the practice, and says plainly that she cannot answer it.
You approve
The wording, before anyone answers
You sign off the greeting, the questions, the escalation triggers, the 000 wording and the hard limits. We answer no call until your practice approves the plan.
Cover
Overflow, after hours, or the whole phone.
You choose how much of the phone comes to us. Your existing practice number stays as it is, because the forward sits behind the number already on your listings.
Overflow
Only when the front desk cannot pick up
We answer when your line is busy or rings out. Reception keeps answering first. Most practices start here.
After hours
Evenings, weekends and public holidays
Your front desk takes the phone in clinic hours. We cover everything outside them. There is no after hours loading and no public holiday surcharge.
Full time
Every call comes to us
Your staff stop being interrupted at the counter. Instead of a callback list they receive a filled diary and a worked waitlist.
Either way
The same written plan
An after hours answering service for a medical office is only useful if it runs the same rules as the day shift. Ours does, including the escalation list.
Outside your hours, a caller on the escalation list reaches the path your plan names: your on-call practitioner, the after hours service you already use, or the 000 wording you have written. Everything else is booked into the first suitable slot, or taken as a message for the morning.
Sample script
What a patient call sounds like.
Your plan sets the wording. This is the shape of a booking call for a general practice.
Patient intake, sample wording
Greeting. "Good morning, Riverbend Family Practice, this is Alex speaking."
Escalation, listened for before anything else. A caller who says chest pain, trouble breathing, severe bleeding, or that this is an emergency hears your written words back. Where your plan says so, that is to hang up and ring 000, then the receptionist follows your escalation path.
Identify. "Can I take your full name and date of birth? Have you been to the practice before?"
Appointment length. "So I book you enough time, is this a standard appointment or do you have a few things to cover?"
Preference. "Do you have a doctor you usually see, and does a morning or an afternoon suit you better?"
If the caller asks for advice. "I am not able to advise you on that, and I would not guess. I can book you the next available appointment, or give you the after hours path the practice uses."
Close. "You are with Dr Nguyen on Thursday at 9:20. You will get a confirmation by text. If anything sooner opens up, would you like me to ring you?"
The wording changes by practice type. A dental practice asks whether the patient is in pain today. A psychology practice asks nothing about the reason at all, and books to your rules instead.
Routing
Who gets put through, and when.
Transfers and escalations run on your written list, never on the receptionist's read of the moment.
Escalation list
Acted on, not assessed
Your practice writes the triggers and the exact words to say. We recognise the trigger and follow the words. We never decide whether the symptom is serious.
Backup
Two names, never one
Every escalation path names a primary and a backup contact. An urgent call never depends on one phone being answered.
Clinical questions
Taken as a message
Results, medication and advice go to the practice as a structured message for a nurse or doctor callback, with the caller told when to expect it.
Off plan
Escalated, never guessed
Anything your plan does not cover reaches a person at the practice. Guessing is not one of the options.
Messages
What lands with the practice.
Every call produces a written outcome, by SMS and email within the minute, including on the calls we screen out.
Format
Structured fields
Patient name, date of birth, contact number, what they wanted, what we did, and the practitioner and time if we booked. Your plan sets the field list.
Screening
The filtered calls too
Wrong numbers, silent calls, robocalls and sales calls are logged and never billed. You still see what the phone did.
Privacy
Patient information stays here.
Answered in Australia
Patient information does not leave the country, and the person answering knows how to pronounce your suburb.
Confidentiality agreements
Every receptionist works under a written confidentiality agreement covering all patient information.
Only the fields you specify
We collect what your plan lists and nothing beyond it. We never confirm to a caller that someone is a patient.
Your privacy officer should review the plan.
Your practice stays responsible for its own obligations under the Privacy Act 1988 and the Australian Privacy Principles, which the OAIC publishes in full. We work to the handling requirements you set and write them into the plan.
Have your privacy officer read it against those principles before it goes live, and we make the changes they ask for. Call recording is set per practice inside the plan, and callers are told at the start wherever it applies. Our own handling is on the privacy page.
The other option
Should a practice use an AI receptionist?
Automated answering costs less and never puts a patient on hold. It takes its consistency from being unable to deviate.
Where automation holds up
A known patient booking a standard appointment.
Clinic hours, the address, whether a referral arrived, a routine booking with a doctor the patient names. High volume and low stakes.
Where it breaks
The caller who buries the important part.
A patient talks about three weeks of feeling tired, then mentions chest tightness halfway through a sentence about parking. Your escalation list exists for that sentence. An automated system keeps what it recognises and drops the rest.
We sell human answering, so read our comparison of AI against a person knowing that. It still names the calls where automation is the better buy. Law firms weigh the same question against conflict risk instead, on the legal answering service page.
Due diligence
What to ask any answering service.
Put these to every provider you shortlist. The answers separate a medical answering service from a message pad.
| Ask this | Why it matters to a practice | Our answer |
|---|---|---|
| Where do the people answering actually sit? | Australian owned is not the same as answered in Australia. Patient information may leave the country. | Answered in Australia, by receptionists under written confidentiality agreements. |
| Who writes the escalation list? | A provider that writes it for you is making a clinical decision it is not qualified to make. | Your practice writes the triggers and the exact words. We recognise the trigger and follow the words. |
| Can you book into the software we already run? | A message your front desk has to re-key at 8:30am has moved the work, not removed it. | Tell us what you run during setup. We confirm what we can write to before you commit to anything. |
| What happens on a call that goes off script? | That is the call that turns into a complaint about your practice. | It reaches your named contact and is logged as a gap for the monthly review. |
| What will you refuse to say for us? | A provider with no stated limits has not thought about your risk. | No assessment, no triage, and no comment on symptoms, medication or results. |
| Are we billed for wrong numbers and telemarketers? | Screening is where a per call price quietly inflates. | Wrong numbers, silent calls, robocalls and sales calls are never billable. |
Pricing
Priced per practice, month to month.
Pricing is set per practice after the mapping call, because call volume and how much of the call you want us to finish vary enormously. No lock-in contract, no setup fee, and wrong numbers, robocalls and sales calls are never billable.
Entry
Overflow
We answer only when your front desk is busy or the line rings out, the 8:30 wall and lunchtime. Messages by SMS and email, in your practice name, to your plan.
Most chosen
Front desk
Everything in Overflow, plus booking into your calendar or practice software, waitlist work on cancellations, and warm transfer of the calls your plan escalates.
Full service
Reception team
Everything in Front desk, plus a named team who learn your practice, intake to your criteria, escalation rules by appointment type, and custom reporting.
Questions
What practices ask.
Can you book into our practice management software?
In many cases yes. Tell us what you run during setup and we will confirm exactly what we can write to and what comes through as a structured message instead.
What do you do if a caller describes symptoms?
We do not assess them. We listen for the escalation triggers your practice has written down, act on those, and otherwise book the appointment. If a caller presses for advice we say plainly that we cannot give it, and offer the next appointment or the escalation path.
Do you work for allied health as well as GPs?
Yes. Physiotherapy, psychology, dental, podiatry, optometry and specialist rooms all work the same way, with different escalation lists.
Can you cover just the morning rush?
Yes. Overflow cover for defined windows is common, and it is usually the cheapest way to fix the 8:30am wall.
What does a medical answering service cost?
We price per practice after the mapping call, because call volume and how much of each call you want finished vary too much for a flat rate to be honest. Plans run month to month with no lock-in and no setup fee, and wrong numbers, robocalls and sales calls are never billable. The pricing page explains what every plan includes.
Do you answer after hours for medical practices?
Yes. Cover outside business hours is included in every plan, working to the same written escalation list as daytime calls, so a worried patient reaches a person rather than a recorded message.
Get the phones off the front desk.
Map the plan with us, have your privacy officer review it, and go live when you are satisfied.
Before you forward the phone
Related reading
Method
From the fourth ring to the message landing with you, including what we never do with clinical questions.
Privacy
How patient details are handled
What we record, where it goes and what your practice remains responsible for under the Privacy Act.
Automation
AI against a human receptionist
An honest comparison, including the calls where an automated system is the wrong answer.