Template: Medical Office Main Line + After Hours
This template gives a medical office separate staffed-hours and after-hours call handling in one Flow. During staffed phone hours, callers can reach scheduling, the clinical or nurse team, prescription and refill requests, billing and insurance, records and referrals, office information, or a scheduled telehealth visit. After hours, routine requests use separate limited callback mailboxes while an urgent path can try the approved on-call clinical team.
The Flow routes calls and captures limited callback requests. It does not provide emergency dispatch, medical triage, diagnosis, treatment or medication advice, prescription approval, appointment confirmation, insurance verification, records delivery, payment processing, or a guaranteed answer or response.
Medical Office Main Line + After Hours
How the Flow Works
The first action is a Medical Office Hours Check Condition. The template starts with Monday through Friday, 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM, in the America/Los_Angeles timezone. Replace it with the exact hours when the configured teams can answer calls.
The Condition and both Direction and Hours actions serialize their schedules and timezones separately. Update and test all three. Scheduling, clinical, refill, records, billing, telehealth, and on-call coverage may differ; each greeting must explain the actual availability without suggesting that an unstaffed mailbox is continuously monitored.
During staffed phone hours
Callers hear the open-hours greeting and then this menu:
| Key | Option | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Appointments and scheduling | Rings the approved Scheduling and Appointments group. If nobody answers, a privacy notice leads to the Appointment Request voicemail. No appointment has been created or confirmed. |
| 2 | Clinical or nurse team | Tries the approved Clinical and Nurse team. If nobody answers, a privacy notice leads to the Clinical Callback voicemail. The Flow does not assess symptoms or give advice. |
| 3 | Prescription or refill request | Routes to approved staff. If nobody answers, a medication-safety and privacy notice leads to a limited Prescription and Refill Request voicemail. A message is a request, not approval, authorization, transmission, or a promise that medication will be available. |
| 4 | Billing and insurance | Routes to approved Billing and Insurance staff. If nobody answers, a privacy and payment warning leads to the dedicated callback mailbox. No balance, benefit, coverage, authorization, or payment is verified. |
| 5 | Records and referrals | Routes to approved Records and Referrals staff. If nobody answers, a privacy notice leads to the dedicated callback mailbox. No record transfer, release, referral, or authorization is confirmed. |
| 6 | Office information | Opens the medical-office information submenu. |
| 7 | Scheduled telehealth visit | Connects only a caller who already has the intended approved Phound visit. If the meeting is unavailable, a neutral Message states that no other patient session or appointment is being joined or confirmed, then uses the Appointment Request voicemail. |
| 0 | General voicemail | Records a basic callback request after the privacy warning. It does not accept clinical details, appointments, prescription instructions, records, payments, or emergencies. |
| * | Repeat | Repeats the menu options. |
The template demonstrates all three group-dialing modes: Appointments and Scheduling rings simultaneously, Clinical or Nurse rings in sequence, Prescription and Refill uses distributed ringing, Billing and Insurance rings simultaneously, Records and Referrals uses distributed ringing, and the approved On-Call Clinical group rings in sequence. Every live-team Dial starts with a 20-second timeout. Confirm membership, order, availability rules, and timeouts against actual staffing before activation.
Medical-office information submenu
| Key | Option | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Directions and hours | Reads the approved public address and office schedule, then returns to this submenu. |
| 2 | Public department directory | Lets callers search only non-clinical departments and contacts approved for public discovery. |
| 3 | Text public office resources | Sends a one-time, caller-requested text containing only approved public links and office information, waits briefly, plays a confirmation, and returns to this submenu. |
| 4 | Current office update | Plays an owner-approved public Message, such as a closure or holiday-hours notice, then returns to this submenu. |
| 9 | Main menu | Uses Go To to return to the staffed-hours menu. |
| 0 | General voicemail | Records a limited general callback request after the privacy warning. |
| * | Repeat | Repeats the submenu options. |
The caller-requested text must contain public office information and public HTTPS links only. Do not include a patient name, appointment or telehealth status, diagnosis, symptom, medication or refill status, record or referral status, insurance detail, balance, payment request, or individualized instruction. Patient-specific work belongs with verified live staff or the medical office's approved secure portal.
After hours
After hours means the configured staffed phone schedule is closed. It does not mean the mailbox is continuously monitored, a refill will be processed, or a clinician is guaranteed to respond.
| Key | Option | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Urgent health concern | Plays 911, U.S. 988, and limitation language, then tries the approved Urgent and On-Call Clinical team. If nobody answers, a restricted urgent callback mailbox explains that a response or timing is not guaranteed. |
| 2 | Appointment request | Plays the privacy and no-confirmation notice, then records a basic callback request. |
| 3 | Prescription or refill request | Plays the medication-safety, privacy, and no-approval notice, then records a basic callback request. It does not accept dosage changes or urgent medication instructions. |
| 4 | Billing or insurance callback | Rejects member, financial, and payment details, then records a basic callback request. |
| 5 | Records or referrals callback | Rejects clinical record contents and identifiers, then records a basic callback request. |
| 6 | Directions and hours | Reads the approved public address and schedule, then returns to this menu. |
| 7 | Text public office resources | Sends the caller-requested public-links text, uses Wait, plays a confirmation, and returns to this menu. |
| 8 | Scheduled telehealth visit | Connects only a caller who already has the intended approved visit. If unavailable, the neutral no-other-session/no-confirmation Message leads to the Appointment Request voicemail. |
| 0 | General voicemail | Records a limited callback request after the privacy warning. |
| * | Repeat | Repeats the menu options. |
No input, an unsupported key, or maximum attempts must never dial the on-call team automatically. These outcomes must use the configured non-urgent fallback.
Safe urgent, crisis, and no-answer behavior
The urgent path is routing, not triage. Before dialing, tell callers to hang up and dial 911 for a medical emergency or any situation requiring immediate police, fire, or ambulance help. In the United States and its territories, the prompt may also direct people seeking suicide, mental-health, substance-use, or emotional-crisis support to call or text 988. The Flow must not imply that either resource is reached through the medical office.
The office must define which callers and concerns belong on its on-call path, the hours and roster, what the on-call team can do, and what outside services callers should use. The Flow must not infer severity, direct treatment, or promise a response.
Suggested urgent no-answer structure:
No one from the approved on-call clinical team is available to answer right now. For a medical emergency or immediate police, fire, or ambulance help, hang up and dial 911. In the United States, call or text 988 for suicide, mental-health, substance-use, or emotional-crisis support. This voicemail is not emergency dispatch, triage, or medical advice. Leave only your name, callback number, and a request for an urgent callback. Do not leave symptoms, diagnoses, medications, dosage instructions, treatment details, date of birth, insurance information, government identifiers, or payment information. A response or timing is not guaranteed.
Suggested prescription and refill request structure:
This mailbox accepts only a request for a callback about a prescription or refill. It does not approve, authorize, transmit, or guarantee a prescription, and it does not provide medication instructions. Leave only your name, callback number, and a request to speak with the prescription team. Do not leave medication names, dosages, symptoms, diagnoses, pharmacy details, date of birth, insurance identifiers, or payment information. Use [Edit: Patient Portal URL] or speak with approved staff for patient-specific details.
Suggested routine callback structure:
After the tone, leave only your name, callback number, and the office team you need. Do not leave clinical, medication, record, referral, insurance, identity, or payment details. No appointment, prescription, referral, benefit, payment, or response has been confirmed.
The selected mailbox may play its own greeting. Test the complete caller experience so the Flow message and mailbox greeting do not duplicate or contradict each other.
Flow Settings Included
Flow Settings apply across the entire Flow; they are separate from actions on the graph. Review them after import even when the defaults appear correct.
| Setting | Shipped value | What to review |
|---|---|---|
| Voice | Jane | Choose the available voice the office approved for its caller experience and safety wording. |
| Dial timeout | Auto | Confirm each department and on-call attempt rings long enough without creating misleading silence. Individual Dial actions can have their own timeout. |
| Max loops | 3 | After the final unsuccessful attempt, each Menu must follow its limited non-emergency fallback. |
| Menu timeout | 15 seconds | Confirm callers have enough time to hear every option and the emergency direction. |
| Repeat key | * |
Keep this key out of numbered menu choices. |
| No input prompt | Please make a selection | Keep this global prompt neutral because Menus have different safe fallbacks. |
| Unsupported option prompt | Your input is invalid | Replace it only with another neutral, approved prompt. |
| Max attempts prompt | Menu maximum loops reached | Do not claim that a request, appointment, refill, or urgent message was accepted. |
| Internal error prompt | Internal error has occurred | Consider an approved plain-language alternative that gives the public number or website without promising care. |
| Notification on hangup | Off | This would notify a configured recipient after every call. Leave it off unless the office approves the recipient, content, access, retention, and data handling. |
| Admin PIN | Blank | A PIN permits phone re-recording of Play Message actions and is stored in exported files. Set a unique PIN after import if needed; never publish it in a shared template. |
Verify the Medical Office Hours Check and both Direction and Hours actions individually. Their schedules and timezones are distinct serialized fields even when the shipped values match.
Actions Used in This Template
| Action | Purpose in this template |
|---|---|
| Menu | Staffed-hours, office-information, and after-hours choices |
| Go To | Returns callers after public information, updates, texts, and safe notices without duplicating menus |
| Dial Someone | Routes scheduling, clinical, refill, billing, records, and approved urgent calls to configured teams using all three group strategies |
| Play Message | Greetings, transfer notices, emergency and crisis resources, privacy warnings, refill limitations, office updates, and text confirmations |
| Direction and Hours | Reads the approved public address and schedule |
| Company Directory | Exposes only approved public medical-office departments or contacts |
| Record Voicemail | Limited general, appointment, clinical, refill, billing, records, urgent, and meeting-fallback callback requests |
| Connect to Meeting | Connects callers who already have a scheduled telehealth visit |
| Condition | Separates staffed phone handling from after-hours handling |
| Notification | Sends approved public office resources only after the caller requests the one-time text |
| Wait | Adds a brief deliberate pause after the text is sent and where configured before a fallback |
Why Podcast is not included
Podcast is the only currently available Flow action intentionally omitted. A generic feed could play stale clinical content, medication or treatment claims, advertising, third-party material, or guidance that is inappropriate for an individual caller. That is not a safe default for medical-office routing.
If the office owns an HTTPS feed and has a documented clinical, privacy, advertising, rights, and update review process, it can add Podcast as an optional public-information choice. Give it a tested internal Go To return and test unavailable, empty, and malformed feeds. Never use an episode for triage, diagnosis, treatment or medication advice, a patient-specific decision, emergency direction, or a coverage or appointment statement.
Before You Go Live: Exact Setup Checklist
Every action beginning with [Edit] must be opened and replaced with the intended resource or approved content:
- [Edit] Medical Office Hours Check: the staffed phone schedule and timezone
- [Edit] Dial Appointment and Scheduling Team: the approved group, simultaneous-ringing membership, and timeout
- [Edit] Appointment Request Voicemail: the limited callback mailbox, access list, and monitoring procedure
- [Edit] Dial Clinical or Nurse Team: the approved group, sequence order, and timeout
- [Edit] Clinical Team Callback Voicemail: the restricted callback mailbox and no-clinical-details greeting
- [Edit] Dial Prescription and Refill Request Team: the approved group, routing behavior, and timeout
- [Edit] Prescription and Refill Request Voicemail: the restricted callback mailbox, no-medication-details greeting, and no-approval wording
- [Edit] Dial Billing and Insurance Team: the approved group, distribution membership, and timeout
- [Edit] Billing and Insurance Voicemail: the restricted callback mailbox and no-member-information/no-payment greeting
- [Edit] Dial Records and Referrals Team: the approved group, routing behavior, and timeout
- [Edit] Records and Referrals Voicemail: the restricted callback mailbox and no-record-content/no-identifiers greeting
- [Edit] Dial Approved On-Call Clinical Team: the authorized roster, coverage procedure, group behavior, and timeout
- [Edit] After-Hours Urgent Health Callback Voicemail: the restricted mailbox, monitoring procedure, 911 and U.S. 988 direction, minimum-data greeting, and no-response-guarantee wording
- [Edit] General Medical Office Voicemail: the restricted general callback mailbox reached from multiple menus
- [Edit] Connect to Scheduled Telehealth Meeting — Not an Appointment Confirmation: the intended Phound meeting; its neutral unavailable path uses the Appointment Request voicemail
- [Edit] Approved Public Medical Office Department Directory: only departments or contacts approved for public discovery
- [Edit] Medical Office Hours and Directions and [Edit] After-Hours Medical Office Hours and Directions: the public address, matching schedule, and matching timezone
Open and approve every [Edit] content action as well:
- [Edit] Open-Hours Medical Office Greeting and [Edit] After-Hours Medical Office Greeting: office name, 911 and U.S. 988 language, privacy limitations, hours, and no-response wording
- [Edit] Current Medical Office Update: an owner-approved public notice with a review or expiration date
- [Edit] Text Public Medical Office Links and [Edit] Text Public Medical Office Links After Hours: caller recipient, public links only, one-time-text explanation, and approved opt-out language
Replace every bracketed content token:
- [Edit: Medical Office Name] in greetings, Messages, and caller-requested texts
- [Edit: Medical Office Address] in both Direction and Hours actions and texts
- [Edit: Main Phone], [Edit: Office Hours], and [Edit: Time Zone] in approved public Messages and texts
- [Edit: Patient Portal URL], [Edit: Appointment Request URL], and [Edit: New Patient Forms URL] in the public-resources text and applicable Messages
- [Edit: Current Office Update] in the current-update Message
- The starting Monday-through-Friday, 8:00 AM-to-5:00 PM schedule and America/Los_Angeles timezone in the Condition and both Direction and Hours actions
Also confirm:
- Every URL uses HTTPS, belongs to the correct office and location, and is actively maintained.
- Public Notifications never contain patient-specific information or state that an appointment, telehealth visit, refill, referral, record transfer, callback, coverage decision, or payment is confirmed.
- Patient-specific details move to verified live staff or the office's approved secure portal; no generic voicemail or caller-requested text solicits symptoms, diagnoses, medications, dosages, treatment details, record contents, date of birth, Social Security number, insurance member or policy IDs, or payment information.
- Prescription and refill prompts never instruct a caller to start, stop, skip, double, or change medication and never promise approval, authorization, transmission, pharmacy receipt, or availability.
- Billing voicemail and text do not request balances, payment-card numbers, bank information, insurance identifiers, or coverage details.
- Records and Referrals voicemail and text do not include record contents, diagnoses, authorizations, referral details, or identity documents.
- Access to every voicemail, Notification, Meeting, and Flow is restricted to approved workforce members under the office's policy.
- The directory contains only public departments or contacts; it does not expose clinician or employee personal numbers.
- The telehealth Meeting is scheduled-only and cannot expose another patient's visit, audio, or identifying information.
- The urgent roster, coverage, no-answer procedure, outside-service instructions, and mailbox monitoring are operationally accurate.
- Messaging registration, caller request or consent language, opt-out handling, and applicable requirements are approved before enabling Notification.
- Every current update has an owner and removal date so closure or availability information cannot remain stale.
Do not go live with placeholders. Shared resource identifiers make the Flow portable; they are not production destinations. Replace every resource and token, then test it in the importing account.
The exported Flow has an empty environment object and contains no production destination by design. Importing it does not bind a mailbox, person, group, directory, Meeting, or external Flow in the new account; the importing office must deliberately replace every [Edit] resource.
Go To and cross-Flow rules
The template's Go To actions return to menus inside this same Flow. Keeping those destinations internal avoids a dependency on another account-specific Flow.
Phound can also use Go To to redirect into a different Flow. If the office chooses that design, use only an owned, approved destination; document which Flow controls emergency and crisis wording, privacy notices, prescription limitations, and final voicemail; verify the target exists after import; test every return and failure; and make sure the two Flows cannot redirect to each other indefinitely. A cross-Flow redirect does not transfer clinical, privacy, or compliance responsibility.
Medical Safety and Privacy Review
This template is a design starting point, not a HIPAA determination, clinical protocol, legal opinion, or certification of Phound or the importing office. The office must have its privacy, security, compliance, clinical, pharmacy or prescribing, records, billing, operations, and emergency-procedure owners review the final Flow, connected resources, access, retention, notifications, recordings, and staff procedures.
The HHS voicemail guidance says covered providers may leave patient messages but should use reasonable safeguards and limit what is disclosed. HHS also describes reasonable safeguards for electronic patient communications, including checking destinations and limiting information in unencrypted communications. Those principles inform this template's minimum-data voicemail and public-only text design; the template itself does not create compliance.
At minimum:
- Send any situation requiring immediate police, fire, or ambulance help away from the Flow. The National 911 Program says to dial 911 immediately in an emergency; this medical-office Flow cannot dispatch help.
- In the United States and its territories, use office-approved wording for the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, which provides call, text, and chat support for suicide, mental-health, substance-use, and emotional crises. Keep 988 distinct from 911 and from the office's own on-call path.
- Do not use menu selections, Messages, or voicemail as medical triage, diagnosis, treatment or medication advice, prescription authorization, or evidence that the office accepted a patient or request.
- Do not promise that an urgent selection or voicemail will result in an answer, callback, appointment, prescription, referral, record transfer, or treatment within any time.
- Keep voicemail to the least information the office has approved. Use verified live staff or the approved secure portal for symptoms, diagnoses, medications, treatment plans, records, insurance, identity, and payment details.
- Honor approved confidential-communication preferences and procedures; a caller-requested public-links text is not a patient-specific secure channel.
- Apply any more protective federal, state, specialty, minor-patient, reproductive-health, mental-health, substance-use, or records rules that apply to the practice and caller. The generic template cannot determine them.
- Re-review the Flow whenever hours, clinicians, on-call coverage, prescribing or refill procedures, referral partners, record processes, portal URLs, privacy requirements, crisis resources, or communication policies change.
Activate the Flow
Importing the Flow does not make it live:
- Go to Account → Personas and select the Persona that owns the medical office number.
- Open Incoming Calls.
- Choose Custom Flow and select Template - Medical Office Main Line + After Hours (or the name you gave the imported Flow).
Custom Flows only work with numbers purchased through Phound or ported into Phound. Linked numbers cannot be assigned a custom Flow. Flows requires a Business plan.
Activate it first on a non-production test number or Persona. Switch the public office number only after every test and the office's privacy, clinical, prescribing, records, billing, operations, and emergency review pass.
Test Every Path
Call from a phone that is not one of the configured destinations and verify:
- The staffed-hours and after-hours branches switch at the correct local times, including the exact opening and closing boundaries
- The Medical Office Hours Check and both Direction and Hours actions use the approved schedule, address, and timezone
- Every staffed-hours key (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 0, and *) reaches the documented destination
- Every office-information key (1, 2, 3, 4, 9, 0, and *) returns or exits correctly
- Every after-hours key (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 0, and *) reaches the documented limited or public-information path
- No input, unsupported input, maximum attempts, and
*never dial the urgent team accidentally - Scheduling simultaneous, Clinical sequence, Billing distribution, Prescription, Records, and urgent-team dialing behave correctly for answer, decline, busy, and no-answer outcomes
- Every failed Dial reaches the intended department mailbox and never exposes a different department's voicemail
- Every voicemail is preceded by the intended privacy warning and reaches only approved recipients
- Urgent no-answer language sends emergencies to 911, provides the approved U.S. 988 resource, says the Flow is not dispatch, triage, or medical advice, and makes no response or timing promise
- No voicemail asks for symptoms, diagnoses, medications, dosages, treatment details, record contents, date of birth, Social Security number, insurance member or policy IDs, or payment information
- Scheduling, clinical, prescription, refill, billing, insurance, records, referral, telehealth, and urgent paths never state that a request or outcome was confirmed
- Prescription and refill routes never give medication instructions or imply approval, authorization, transmission, pharmacy receipt, or availability
- Directions, phone, hours, timezone, portal URL, appointment-request URL, and new-patient-forms URL are correct for this office
- The caller-requested text is sent only after the caller selects it and contains only approved public office information and HTTPS links
- The text arrives on supported mobile numbers, goes only to the caller, and has an acceptable failure experience
- Each Wait is brief, reaches the intended confirmation and Go To return, and does not sound like the call disconnected
- The Current Office Update is current, approved, and has not passed its review or removal date
- The public directory exposes only approved departments or contacts and routes every listing correctly
- The scheduled telehealth visit cannot expose another patient's Meeting and uses the neutral Appointment Request voicemail fallback when unavailable
- Every Go To returns to the intended staffed-hours, information, or after-hours Menu without an unintended loop
- Notification on hangup remains off and no Admin PIN or production resource remains in the shared template
- The office's privacy, security, compliance, clinical, prescribing, records, billing, operations, and emergency-procedure owners approved the final Flow
Repeat the most important tests from a mobile phone and a landline or VoIP service to confirm keypad input and audio timing.
More Templates
Browse the Flow Templates library for the General Business Line and other industry templates. Dental practice? Use the Dental Office Main Line + After Hours template. New to Flows? Start with What Are Phound Flows?