After-hours coverage
After-hours coverage
The calls that reach an answering service today reach a receptionist that knows your practice, your on-call rota and the difference between a refill and a red flag.
What happens after close.
At close, forward the line
Configure forwarding for your agreed coverage hours with your phone provider, and test how staff take the line back. The billing plan does not configure your carrier's forwarding rules.
Every call is answered
The caller hears the practice's name, that the office is closed, and that the assistant can help. Routine matters become a message for the morning, with a booking if the caller wants one.
Urgent calls page the on-call
A screened red flag pages the on-call clinician by text with a secure link to the summary. No patient details in the text itself. If nobody acknowledges, the backup is paged, then the practice contact.
Emergencies get 911 instructions
Emergency words stop the screening at once. The caller is told to hang up and call 911 or go to the nearest emergency room, and the on-call is alerted in parallel.
The morning is ready
Messages, tasks, bookings and escalations are waiting in the dashboard when the desk opens, each with the call's summary and outcome.
The plan
The nights-and-weekends plan
$50 per provider per month, then $0.20 a minute on calls the receptionist handles. A call that arrives inside your open hours is still answered, because nobody is left hanging, and its minutes appear on their own line of the bill.
$50
per provider a month, then $0.20 a minute on handled calls
- Closed hours, weekends and holidays
- Urgent calls page your on-call, then the backup
- Messages and bookings waiting at open
- The same rate at 2 p.m. and 2 a.m.
Before you forward the line at close.
What does an after-hours medical answering service do?
It receives calls while the office is closed and follows the practice's instructions for messages, scheduling, and escalation. Callinzo can answer approved routine questions, book against the available schedule, and create staff tasks. When the approved screening identifies an urgent concern, it alerts the on-call contact. Your practice supplies the clinical protocol, on-call coverage, and next-day follow-up team.
What happens when a patient calls after the office closes?
The assistant identifies itself and explains that the practice is closed. It can help with an available appointment or an approved routine answer. A request that needs a person becomes a message for the team; an urgent concern follows the practice's escalation rules. Messages, bookings, and escalation outcomes are available in the dashboard for staff to review when the office opens.
How can we avoid paging doctors for every routine after-hours request?
Write down which requests can become next-day tasks and which answers require an immediate page. Callinzo follows your approved screening and routing rules: routine refill or records requests go to staff, while urgent responses trigger escalation. The assistant collects and routes a refill request; it does not approve medication. Your clinicians define and review the protocol, including exceptions and fallback contacts.
What happens when a patient reports an urgent post-operative concern?
Callinzo uses the screening questions approved by your clinicians for that workflow and records the caller's answers. An urgent result alerts the on-call clinician with an expiring link to the summary. An emergency follows the configured emergency instructions and alerts the team in parallel. The assistant does not diagnose or promise a response time; assessment and treatment remain with the clinical team.
What happens if the on-call clinician does not acknowledge a page?
At the acknowledgement deadline configured by your practice, the escalation moves to the backup contact, then to the final practice contact if needed. If the contact sequence is exhausted, the system records that outcome and creates an urgent follow-up task. A delivered alert is not proof that a clinician has responded. Confirm every contact and test the full sequence before launch.
Are medical answering services still available for nights and weekends?
Yes. Callinzo offers a nights-and-weekends plan for the practice's closed hours, including holidays. The platform fee is $50 per provider per month, plus $0.20 for each handled minute. Setup includes your hours, forwarding, approved answers, and on-call contacts. Availability of your own staff and clinicians is separate from the assistant's phone coverage.
Tonight can be covered.
Forward the line at close. The morning's messages, bookings and escalations will be waiting in the dashboard.