How urgent calls reach a person
How 2care sorts every call into a routing lane, where emergencies and clinical questions are sent, and how to set the paths your practice uses.
3 min read
Escalation lanes
Every call is sorted into one of three lanes as the agent works out what the caller needs. The lane decides where the call goes and how fast.
| Lane | What it covers | Where it goes | How fast |
|---|---|---|---|
| Routine | Bookings, reschedules, cancellations, questions about the practice | Resolved on the call | 0 seconds |
| Emergency | Calls that show a red flag | To a person at your practice | 3 seconds |
| Clinical | Questions that need a nurse or provider | Your nurse or provider queue | 4 seconds |
Red-flag detection covers chest pain, stroke signs and severe bleeding. The agent routes these calls and gives no clinical advice.
Terms
- Escalation lane. The route a call takes, chosen from what the caller says: routine, emergency or clinical.
- Red flag. A sign in what the caller says that sends the call straight to the emergency lane.
- Escalation path. The staff number or queue your practice names for each lane.
- Warm transfer. A handoff to a person that carries the full transcript and a structured summary.
Routing is an operations decision
Escalation in 2care is about where a call goes, not about what a symptom means. The agent recognises when a call belongs with a person and moves it there. Your clinical team makes every clinical judgement.
The presentations that must reach a person are agreed with your practice in your own wording during onboarding. The same rules run on every call, at every hour.
Setting your paths
- Name your emergency contact. Choose the staff number that receives emergency-lane calls, and the hours it covers.
- Name your out-of-hours contact. Choose who receives emergency-lane calls when the practice is closed.
- Choose your clinical queue. Name the nurse or provider queue that receives clinical questions.
- Agree the wording. Go through your red flags and the presentations your team wants escalated, with your clinical lead.
- Test each path. Place test calls for each lane and check they arrive at the right place, with the summary.
These paths are part of the go-live checklist.
What arrives with the call
When a call reaches your team, the context comes with it. A warm transfer carries the full transcript and a structured summary, so the person who picks up already knows who is calling and why.
Clinical-lane calls arrive in your queue with the same detail, ready for a nurse or provider to act on. See warm transfer to staff.
Routine calls stay with the agent
Most calls are routine, and 60% or more of calls are resolved without a human handoff. That leaves your team's time for the calls in the emergency and clinical lanes.
Refill and result requests are routed to the queue your team works. See refill and results requests.
Questions
Does the agent decide whether something is serious?
The agent decides where a call goes. It recognises red flags and calls that need a nurse or provider, and routes them to your team. Every clinical judgement stays with your clinicians.
Can we add our own presentations to escalate?
Yes. The presentations that reach a person are agreed with your practice in your own wording, alongside the red flags 2care covers.
Does escalation work out of hours?
Yes. The same rules run at every hour. Out of hours, emergency-lane calls go to the contact you named for those hours.
Related
Was this page helpful?