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Patience With Patients: Configure Your Doctor’s Office Phone System For Proper Call Routing

This is the fourth and final part in our series about phone systems for doctors offices. Click here to read Part I, Part II, and Part III.

In this post I’ll be covering a couple key points to keep your phone system running smoothly:

  1. How to configure your phone system’s auto attendant: This is important to route calls to the right person or department
  2. How to provide your staff with caller information before they answer the phone: Many new phone systems can sync a caller’s number with a patient database to speed up the communication process.

Who, What, & Why – Configuring the Auto Attendant

Whether or not each of your content pages contains a unique DID, or you have just one phone number listed across all of the pages on your site, once you’ve selected a phone system you should set up your phone system’s auto attendant.

It’s important that when your patients and partners call you, that they are routed efficiently to the proper person in the practice.

Start by Creating a list of who is potentially calling, such as:

  • New Patients
  • Existing Patients
  • Doctors
  • Insurance Companies

Next list what they might be calling about, such as:

  • Appointments
  • Referrals
  • Billing

You can then drill each of the items on your list down further and ask why they are calling:

  • Cancel an Appointment
  • Schedule an Appointment
  • Change and Appointment

After you’ve created this list, fine tune it to group categories based on how carefully and specifically you want to steer the call prior to the phone call and potential engagement with your practice.


At the very least, create the list and make it consistent, so people calling you aren’t tempted to just hit “0” immediately to reach an operator.


No More Than 2 Layers of Selection

Our advice is to never make this more than 2 layers of selection, and to limit each layer to no more than 5 meta selections (rather than branch the auto attendant into 9 categories with 9 sub category selection each).

Any more than 2 layers or 10 total selections can negate the efficiency you’ve gained

You don’t want the wrong person answering a call and spending unnecessary time dealing with frustrated patients who are trying to figure out how to get someone on the phone.

At the very least, create the list and make it consistent, so people calling you aren’t tempted to just hit “0” immediately to reach an operator.


Many new phone systems these days can provide screen pops, or information via a web portal to indicate the caller’s number and tie it into a patient database.


How to Get Caller Information Before You Pick up the Phone

In addition to having calls properly routed, providing information about who, what, and why the reason your phone might be ringing prior to answering the call will also increase efficiency.

Plus you’ll alleviate some of the stress that occurs during this initial moments of the phone call where the person calling and the person answering the phone are beginning to communicate.

Many new phone systems these days can provide screen pops, or information via a web portal to indicate the caller’s number and tie it into a patient database.

Extensions – All, Some, or One Category

Each extension on your phone system can be listed under all, some, or only one category in your auto attendant.

For example, maybe someone is calling to offer you their IT services, so they dialed the number that was listed on your content page for non-medical purposes and vendor management.

It wouldn’t be very efficient to have these calls handled by the front office administrator who is handling patient schedules. Rather, make that selection match the intention of the caller, so that both they and you are guided accurately and not tying up a valuable phone lines for an important new patient call.

By improving your phone system, practice processes, and practice marketing, you will improve your patient acquisition and run a more productive office.

Get started today with a Practice Marketing Checkup or call us  at 800-818-7199.

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