Practice reachability check: where your patients’ calls get lost

Each answer earns points according to what it says about how reachable the practice is. A call picked up by a colleague scores higher than one that rings until the caller hangs up; a callback within the hour scores higher than one the next day. The score compares your total with the best possible total, on a scale whose lowest point matches the least favourable answers.

A question left unanswered, or answered “we don’t know”, counts as the least favourable option. That is deliberate: a share of calls nobody measures is a share nobody manages. The check pushes you to count first and draw conclusions second.

The three actions are the ones linked to the questions where you lose the most points. When two actions weigh the same, a fixed order breaks the tie: first what happens when the desk is already on a call, then returning missed calls, then calls outside opening hours. Each action describes a simple measure, such as setting two fixed times a day to return calls and naming the person who does it.

The calculator inside the result takes two of your answers: daily call volume and the value of a first visit. The other values are those of the specialty you chose in the first question; for “Another specialty” they are those of general practice, the most general we have. Their sources and limits are set out on our methodology page.

The score is calculated in your browser. If you ask for the report by email, you give your first name and email address and agree to receive it; our server then recalculates the score from your answers rather than trusting the one the page displayed. A Cloudflare bot check and a daily limit on reports protect the service.

Your first name, email address, answers and score are kept for the period stated in our privacy policy. The email contains a link that deletes them, after a confirmation, whenever you choose. The security page names the providers that host and carry this information.

Run the check again a few weeks after a change, for instance once callback times are fixed: the score shows whether the measure worked. The questions stay the same from one run to the next so that two scores can be compared, and the page does not keep your earlier answers.

The check describes your front desk as it works today. If you are considering a phone receptionist, how ClinicAll works shows how it answers as your front desk, transfers to the desk when it is staffed and a transfer line is configured, and otherwise takes a callback request. Pricing explains how the price is set, the other tools round out this first review, and the Hubert Vision case study shows a practice that answers with ClinicAll.