I do things in a bit different way. My disclaimer is that I am a Sports Med office and very Rarely have a patient who HAS to talk to me.
Basically we have VoIP phone lines. We have menus for people to hit. When we are at lunch or the office is closed, we have a closed message and say leave a message and the office will get back to you the next business time we are open (for lunch it is 1 pm , for closed it is next business day)...you get the gist...
there is an option that says if this is an urgent or emergent matter only you can hit option 4. Then option four basically repeats that you should only use this option for urgent/emergent matters only and then you can call Dr. Mody on his cell phone at XXx-XXX-XXXX. The number we list is not directly my cell phone but a google voice number that we forward to my cell phone. There is a google voice app downloaded on my phone.
The nice thing about this is that i can get a call and know it is a patient. i can let it go to voicemail and read it on google voice (though transcription sucks) or listen to it and decide if i want to call back...if i pick up i know to answer it "ESMI , dr mody speaking"...if they start talking about med refill or hey i am having issues with PT script and all that i tell them to call back during work hours...sometimes for new patients i will listen to the story (as i need more patients!!) and then tell them when to come in and have them email me demographics for the girls to put in the system.
again i don't know if i would want to deal with 400 a year afterhours directly...i end up just dealing with maybe about a 100 calls a year on nights and weekends..
