Workflow · Inbound
Urgent & emergency calls
Urgent call handling recognises callers with an urgent problem early and gives them the next step your practice has chosen. Patients get prompt help, and urgent cases stand out clearly for your team.
At a glance
- What it does
- Recognises urgent calls and routes, advises or books them the way you decide
- Channels
- Inbound calls, with additional channels available
- Integrations
- Your practice management system, such as Dentally, and your phone line for transfers
- What you can customise
- What counts as urgent, the advice and contacts given, who is contacted and what happens next
- What your team sees
- Urgent tasks, emergency bookings in your system and urgent cases in your analytics
- Setup
- Done for you by our team, around your emergency policy
How it works
Urgent call handling runs inside every call Intavia answers. Our team does the setup work: we agree with you what counts as urgent and what should happen next, turn that into rules, and Intavia applies them from the caller's first words.
- Plan: we agree with you what counts as urgent for your practice, the advice and contacts callers should be given, and the next step for each case. Our team builds the rules from that.
- Recognise: Intavia listens for urgent concerns from the start of the call, whatever the caller first asked about.
- Advise: where your rules include safety advice, such as your urgent-care number, it is given first, in the words you've approved.
- Act: the call follows your chosen route, such as booking an emergency appointment, transferring to your team or taking an urgent message.
- Outcome: urgent calls end with a recorded outcome and are flagged as urgent for your team where your rules say so.
- Next step: urgent messages become urgent tasks with the details already captured, and your team can be alerted by SMS or email.
Rules
These are the options we agree with you, not fixed settings. Each one can be shaped around how your practice works, and anything not listed here can be built into the plan.
| Rule | What we agree with you |
|---|---|
| Coverage | When urgent handling applies, such as every call Intavia answers, with different routes in and out of hours |
| What counts as urgent | The concerns your practice treats as urgent, such as severe pain, swelling or an injury, and which appointment types are emergencies |
| Safety advice | The advice and contacts given, such as your urgent-care service and emergency number, in wording you approve |
| Emergency booking | Whether emergency appointments can be booked on the call, how soon they can be offered and any questions asked first |
| Calls about someone else | How urgent calls about a child or another adult are passed to your team, and what is asked |
| Urgent messages | What is captured for an urgent message, such as who it's for, the concern and whether they can come in soon |
| Hand-over | Whether urgent calls are transferred, and to which number, in and out of hours, such as an on-call number, or become an urgent task |
| Fallbacks | Alternative routes that keep things moving, such as an urgent message when no transfer is available, or your urgent-care contact when no emergency slot is free |
Outcomes
Each outcome has a default next step. Any of them can be changed to suit your practice.
| Outcome | What happens next |
|---|---|
| Emergency appointment booked | The appointment is created in your system, and a task can let your team know it's coming |
| Transferred to your team | The caller is put through, after any safety advice |
| Urgent message taken | An urgent task is created with the details already captured, and your team can be alerted |
| No emergency slot free | Your approved advice is given, such as your urgent-care contact, and the case goes to your team |
| Routine concern | The call carries on as an ordinary request, with an appointment offered where that's set up |
Safeguards
- Intavia doesn't diagnose or suggest treatment. Safety advice uses only the wording and contacts you've approved.
- Safety advice comes before any transfer, message or booking.
- Callers only hear the emergency and urgent-care numbers you've approved.
- Urgent calls about someone else go straight to your team.
- Urgent messages are recorded as urgent requests, not as bookings or promises of care at a set time.
Works together with
- 24/7 call answering: Inbound calls answered with a natural conversation, day or night.
- After-hours & missed calls: Calls answered and enquiries moving outside reception hours, including bank holidays.
- Call routing & transfers: Calls that need a person reach the right one, with context.
- Team hand-off, tasks & alerts: Clear tasks and alerts so your team knows exactly what to do next.
- Appointment booking, changes & cancellations: Appointments booked, moved and cancelled during the call, directly in your system.
- Practice rules & policies: Your booking rules, cancellation policy and hand-off rules, followed on every call.
FAQs
It runs on every phone call Intavia answers. Urgent concerns raised by text, WhatsApp or your website widget follow the same rules where those channels are set up for your practice.
No. It doesn't diagnose or suggest treatment. Safety advice uses only the wording and contacts you've approved, and clinical questions can go to your team.
Your out-of-hours route applies. If you have someone on call, urgent calls can be transferred to them; otherwise your urgent-care contacts are shared and an urgent task is created for your team.
The call goes straight to your team as an urgent request, after any safety advice. The caller is asked only for the details your team needs.
No. Everyday aches and pain are handled like any other request, with an appointment offered, unless your practice treats them as urgent. Intavia still listens for the signs your rules call urgent.
Yes. Tell your support team what you need and they update the rules. There's nothing for you to configure.