A phone call to a care facility is rarely routine. It may be a family member checking on a resident, a physician returning a call, a pharmacy confirming an order, or an urgent report from a hospital. Where that call lands, and how quickly someone answers, affects care and family trust. Designing call routing around how your facility actually works is one of the most practical improvements you can make.
Before changing anything, listen for a week. Who answers the main line? Which calls go to the nursing station, and which get transferred? Where do calls get lost? Ask front desk staff, nurses and the business office what frustrates them. A simple log of missed or misdirected calls shows what to fix.
An automated greeting can offer choices such as nursing, admissions, business office and a directory. Keep options few and wording plain. Always provide a way to reach a person, and make sure an urgent clinical call is never trapped in a menu.
A hunt group rings a set of phones in a defined pattern: all at once, one after another or in rotation. For example, a nursing station group might ring every phone at the station, then roll to a second group if nobody answers. Decide how many seconds to ring before moving on, and where the call ultimately ends up.
Different units have different staff, and staffing changes by shift. Calls for the memory care unit should reach the people on that unit now, not whoever worked there last week. Many systems let you schedule which group is active at which times, or let staff log in and out of a group when they start and end shifts.
Paging helps reach staff who are not at a desk. Define who can page, which zones exist and what etiquette applies, since constant overhead announcements disturb residents. Wireless handsets or a mobile app can reduce the need for overhead pages.
Set clear rules for who checks which mailbox and how often. Consider routing voicemail to email or a shared mailbox, keeping in mind that messages may contain protected health information and should be handled securely.
Decide where calls go when the front desk closes. Typical options are to the nursing supervisor, a charge nurse's phone or an answering service. Test it from outside the building at odd hours.
Build a chain: if the first group does not answer in a set time, ring the next, then the supervisor, then the administrator on call. Document it and share the on-call schedule with whoever manages the phone system.
Think about what happens if the internet or power fails. Ask your provider about failover to cellular or a backup line, and about how phone lines and emergency calling work when connectivity is lost. Also confirm that 911 calls from every phone identify the correct location, including each building or wing.
Your emergency plan should include communication methods if phones fail, such as mobile phones, radios or a designated runner. Review it alongside your phone design.
Residents may have their own phones or use room phones; nurse call systems may interact with the phone system. Staff should know how to transfer calls to a resident's room and how to take a message politely. Family calls often come at meal times and shift changes, so it helps to staff for those peaks.
After each change, place test calls to every route, including after-hours, and record the results. Keep a simple diagram of the call flows, with the schedule and owners. Review routing whenever you change staffing patterns, open a unit or move offices.
Many systems provide call reports showing missed calls, wait times and busy periods. Use them to adjust staffing and ring times.
UnityCare IT can review your call flows, recommend a design that fits your shifts and units, and help configure and test routing, paging and after-hours escalation.
An outsourced IT department with proactive maintenance and one number to call.
Call or text: 405-285-3845
New customers: start@unitycareit.com
Existing customers: support@unitycareit.com
Address: UnityCare Technologies, 2524 N Broadway Ste 554, PMB 947974, Edmond, Oklahoma 73034-4172