What happens when a referred patient calls my physical therapy clinic and gets voicemail?
By the Margin Media team · Updated
When a referred patient calls a physical therapy clinic and gets voicemail, many hang up and call another clinic, because a referral can often be taken anywhere that will see them. The physician sent the patient to therapy, not always to you. The clinic that answers and offers an evaluation time is the one that keeps the referral.
Why doesn't a referred patient just leave a message?
A referred patient does not leave a message because they do not have to. They are holding a piece of paper or a portal note that says physical therapy, and a search shows several clinics within a short drive.
They are also often in pain or just out of surgery, and they want a date. Leaving a message means waiting for a call they might miss at work. Dialling the next clinic feels faster.
Why does the front desk miss these calls?
The front desk misses them because the phone is one job among many. In a physical therapy clinic the same person checks patients in, schedules the next visits, chases paperwork from physician offices and runs checkout.
A caller who needs a first evaluation takes several minutes: details, the referral, a time that suits. That call is the hardest one to pick up when four patients are standing at the counter.
How do I find out how often it happens?
Compare two lists. From your phone provider, pull the unanswered calls by hour for a month. From your own records, count the referrals you were told about that never became an evaluation.
Then call your clinic yourself at the busiest hour and after closing. What you hear is what a referred patient hears. Write down how many rings it took.
- Unanswered calls by hour, from your phone provider.
- Referrals received that never scheduled.
- Voicemails left by new callers and how long each waited for a call back.
How does Margin keep referred patients for a physical therapy clinic?
Margin puts Mia, an AI receptionist, on the clinic's line for every call or only the ones the front desk misses. She takes the caller's details, finds an open time and books the evaluation onto your portal calendar, and the office is told so the referral paperwork can be matched up.
Callers who hang up get a text back within a minute, once carriers have approved the clinic's texting number. Questions she has not been given an answer for go to your team as a call-back, with the conversation attached.
What Margin sets up for this.
- Mia, the AI receptionist, on every call
- Booking onto your calendar
- Missed calls texted back within a minute
- Your portal: every call, text and booking
What a business needs is decided on its audit. It is a one-time setup fee and a monthly fee, with exact numbers on the audit.
How Margin works for chiropractors and physical therapistsSee the portal with a sample business
Related questions
Can a patient take a physical therapy referral to a different clinic?
In many cases a patient can choose where they go, though plans and referral terms vary and your team should know the rules that apply to your patients. For a physical therapy clinic the practical point is the same: do not assume a referral is yours until the evaluation is booked.
Should a physical therapy clinic call referred patients first?
Yes, when the referral reaches the clinic before the patient calls. A physical therapy clinic that phones or texts a referred patient the same day, and keeps trying, gives itself a far better chance than one that waits for the patient to ring.
How quickly should a physical therapy clinic return a new patient voicemail?
As close to immediately as the clinic can manage. A new caller to a physical therapy clinic who leaves a voicemail has often called a second clinic by the time the message is heard. Returning calls at the end of the day is too late for many of them.