Orthopedic Phone Intake

What an orthopedic intake call needs

Orthopedic new patient calls are dense. The front desk needs the body part, how the injury happened, whether imaging was done, whether it is a work injury or a car accident, and which physician handles that kind of problem.

Miss one of these and the visit goes sideways. The patient arrives for a knee and was booked with the hand surgeon, or a workers' comp case comes in without a claim number and the billing team cannot submit it.

Questions Katie asks a new injury caller

These are recorded as the caller describes them. Katie does not interpret an injury or suggest how serious it is.

Asked the same way on every call, these questions turn a rambling story about a fall on the stairs into a clean intake your staff can scan in seconds before the visit.

• Which body part, and which side
• When and how it happened, in the caller's words
• Whether X-rays or an MRI were done, and where
• Whether it happened at work or in a motor vehicle accident
• Who referred them, if anyone

Workers' comp and auto claims

Work injuries need the employer name, the date of injury, the claim number if one exists, and the adjuster's contact. Motor vehicle cases need the auto carrier and claim details. Katie collects these up front so billing staff are not chasing them after the visit.

She does not contact employers, adjusters or carriers. Those calls stay with your staff, who now start with the details already gathered.

Some practices only accept certain workers' comp carriers or require a case to be opened before the first visit. Those conditions can be written into the rules so the caller hears them before a slot is held.

Matching injury to surgeon

Many orthopedic groups route by subspecialty: hand, spine, sports, joints, foot and ankle. You tell us which physicians see which body parts, and Katie offers new patient time with the right one, booked directly into eClinicalWorks.

General orthopedists and physician assistants can take the overflow. If your rules say a new knee can go to any of three physicians, Katie offers the caller times across all three.

Post-op and therapy calls

Post-op patients calling with problems at the incision, calf pain or fever follow your escalation rules to clinical staff. Katie does not assess the wound or reassure the caller. Routine post-op visits, cast checks and suture removals can be booked under your rules.

With MedReception Autopilot, those calls are filed to the patient's eClinicalWorks chart from your staff's own signed-in browser, so the surgeon sees every post-op phone contact before the next visit.