Admissions
The call that fills a bed usually rings once.
A referral call does not wait. If it reaches a voicemail box at 6pm, or rings a desk that nobody is standing at during shift change, it goes to the next facility on the list. Nobody logs it, so nobody knows it happened.
What fixes it
Five changes, none of them expensive.
A dedicated admissions number
Separate from the main line, so admissions calls can be routed, tracked and reported on their own — and so you can see how many arrive.
A ring group, not a desk
The call rings several people at once, or in order, so it is not dependent on one person being at one desk.
A defined after-hours path
To the on-call phone, then to a mobile, then to voicemail-to-email — set in advance rather than improvised.
A text when a referral fax lands
The fax arrives as an email and a text, so it reaches a person instead of a tray.
A missed-call report
You cannot fix what you cannot see. The report shows how many admissions calls went unanswered last week.
The rule we build to
Every route needs somewhere to go.
The single most common defect we find in facility call flows is a branch that ends nowhere. An after-hours path that rings a desk. A menu option that goes to an extension that left. A queue with no overflow.
We design every flow with a fallback on every branch, because a call that vanishes is indistinguishable from a call that never came.
Questions
What operators ask us.
Can we route by referral source?
Yes. Separate numbers for hospital referrals, families and general enquiries make the reporting meaningful, and each can have its own routing.
What about weekends and holidays?
Holiday schedules are set in advance, so the building does not rely on somebody remembering to change the greeting on Christmas Eve.
Can we record admissions calls?
Yes. We set who can play recordings back and how long they are kept as part of the build.
How quickly can the routing change?
Portal requests get a response in under five minutes. If your on-call rota changes on a Friday afternoon, it changes on a Friday afternoon.
Keep reading
Related guides.
Find out in two minutes
How many admission calls did you miss last month?
If you cannot answer that, the assessment is the fastest way to find out what to change.
The referral call
It rings once.
Ring groups · Fallbacks · Alerts
A dedicated admissions number
So it can be routed and counted.
A ring group, not a desk
Not dependent on one person standing there.
A report of what was missed
You cannot fix what you cannot see.
