SimplePractice · Experience
SimplePractice Follow-Up Call Handling
Katie answers the calls your follow-up generates: returning clients, replies to staff messages and referral check-ins, each summarized for its owner.
Every outreach produces an inbound call
Your staff leave messages all day. A coordinator calls a client who missed a session. A biller leaves a voicemail about a form. A clinician reaches out to a client who has been quiet for a month. Each of those messages produces a return call, usually when the person who left it is busy or gone for the day.
If the return call reaches voicemail, the cycle repeats. Follow-up is only as effective as the practice's ability to answer when the client finally calls back.
Phone tag is especially costly in behavioral health. A client who missed a session because they were struggling may only find the energy to call back once. If that one call goes unanswered, the next contact may be months later, or never.
Calls that follow up on something
These are the follow-up calls a behavioral health practice sees most:
- Returning a call from a named staff member
- Responding to a missed-session check-in
- A former client asking to resume therapy
- A referring physician or school counselor checking whether a referral was received
- A client calling back with information a clinician asked for
Returning clients
Clients often step away from therapy and come back months later. Their return call deserves a smooth path. Katie records who they saw before, roughly when, whether anything has changed with insurance or contact details, what they are hoping for now, and how soon they would like to be seen. If the former clinician has room and your rules allow it, Katie books the return session directly into SimplePractice; when a new match is needed, your coordinator decides.
Calls for a specific staff member
"Jenna left me a message about my paperwork." Katie identifies the staff member and the topic, and routes the call according to your rules. While the office is open, it can be transferred to that person if they are available. Otherwise, the structured summary goes to them with who called, why, what they need and how urgent it is. MedReception AI is live with practices on SimplePractice, so the follow-through stays in your existing workflow.
Who places the follow-up calls
Clinical follow-up should come from your clinicians. For routine scheduling, practices that turn on Sallie, MedReception AI's outbound scheduling agent, can have her call clients who are due for recall and offer open times. Katie covers the inbound half: the replies, returns and check-ins that your outreach produces are answered immediately and captured completely.
A practical tip: when staff leave a message, have them say what the call is about in general terms your policy allows. When the client calls back and mentions it, Katie can route the call to the right person straight away instead of starting from scratch.
Frequently asked questions
- Will Katie call clients after their sessions?
- No. Katie answers when clients and partners call the practice, including when they are returning your calls.
- A referring doctor wants to know whether their patient came in. Can Katie answer?
- Whether anything can be shared depends on the client's authorization and your policy. Katie records the inquiry and routes it to staff, who check before responding.
- Can returning clients go straight back to their former therapist?
- That is your practice's call. Where your rules allow it, Katie books them with that therapist in SimplePractice; otherwise she captures the preference for staff.
- What if the person who left the message has gone home?
- Katie captures the reply in a structured summary marked for that staff member, and Annie does the same after hours. The return call is not lost just because the original caller has left for the day.
Ready to implement this for your SimplePractice practice?
Book a demo and we'll run your own calls through Katie: new client inquiries, sessions booked straight into SimplePractice, billing questions and the crisis escalation rules your clinicians set. You'll see the booking and the summary your staff receive after each call.