A patient on hold is a patient deciding to try somewhere else.
We answer overflow and after hours calls for practices and allied health clinics: booking appointments, filling cancellations, and escalating the calls that must not wait.
Stated first
What we will never do.
The limits matter more than the features in a clinical setting, so here they are before anything else.
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. What we do is recognise the calls your practice has told us must be escalated, and escalate them immediately, 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 single 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. The chair sits empty and costs exactly what a booked one costs.
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. Tone matters more here than in any other industry we answer for.
How a practice call runs
Identify, then act.
On answer
Your practice name
The caller believes they have reached your front desk, because as far as they are concerned they have.
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.
Then identify
Name, date of birth, existing or new
Plus preferred practitioner and preferred times, so the booking is right the first time.
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.
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 is responsible for its obligations under the Privacy Act 1988 and the Australian Privacy Principles. We will work to whatever handling requirements you set and write them into the plan. Have your own privacy officer read it before it goes live, and we will make the changes they ask for.
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.
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.