Phone systems for clinics and healthcare practices

Common situations at a clinic front desk

• Morning and post-lunch peaks when the phone rings while staff are registering patients at the counter.
• Repeated simple questions about opening hours, address, parking and public-holiday schedules.
• Calls that need a clinician, such as a doctor or nurse returning a patient's call later in the day.
• Several branches sharing one advertised number, or each branch with its own number.
• After-hours calls that need a clear, safe message.

Design ideas we can scope with you

A short auto attendant (IVR)

A greeting with a few options can direct callers: for example, appointments, opening hours and directions, and other enquiries. Keep it short. Patients find long menus frustrating, so two or three options is often enough. Hours and directions can be played as a recorded message, so staff are not interrupted for routine questions.

A call queue for the front desk

Instead of a busy tone, callers wait in a queue with a message while the next available front-desk staff member answers. Queue reports show missed and abandoned calls, which helps you decide whether to add a staff member at peak times. If you have several reception positions, a ring group or queue can ring them together.

Time-based routing for after hours and public holidays

Outside clinic hours, calls can play an after-hours message with your opening times, go to voicemail, or forward to a designated mobile if your practice offers an on-call arrangement. A phone system is not an emergency service. Your after-hours message should tell callers to call 995 in a medical emergency.

Branches on one system

With a cloud PBX, several clinics can share one system. Each branch keeps its own extensions and numbers, staff can transfer calls between branches, and a central number can route callers to the nearest or chosen branch. Remote administrators can manage it from a browser.

Clinicians calling back from their mobile

Doctors and nurses can use the Linkus mobile app to return patient calls with the clinic's number as caller ID rather than their personal mobile number. Availability of caller-ID presentation depends on your telco service and is confirmed during scoping.

Call recording and patient privacy

Office plans list 500 minutes of call recording, and call-centre plans include recording storage. Recording patient calls has privacy implications. Under Singapore's PDPA you should tell callers that calls may be recorded and why, limit who can listen to recordings, and decide how long recordings are kept. We can set up an announcement and access permissions. Your clinic remains responsible for its own policy, so please check it with your data protection officer. We can switch recording off for lines where it is not needed.

Messaging and integrations

Some clinics prefer patients to message rather than call. WhatsApp and SMS messaging inside the phone system, and Microsoft Teams integration, are available depending on plan. CRM and helpdesk integrations are listed on all office plans. Integration with a specific clinic management system needs a separate assessment, so we will not promise it before checking.

Devices that suit a clinic

Front desks usually do well with a desk phone with programmable keys or a headset. Staff who move between rooms may prefer a cordless DECT handset. Consulting rooms may only need a basic phone or the desktop app. See IP phones and headsets. Check your network and Wi-Fi with the network readiness checklist.

Choosing a package

A small single clinic often fits the smaller office packages. LinkusPBX CP10 (10 extensions, 4 concurrent calls) is SGD 39 per month and CP20 (20 extensions, 8 concurrent calls) is SGD 79 per month, on an annual commitment. Larger practices with dedicated call agents may suit a call-centre package. Telco, numbers and external calls are quoted per customer, and setup and number porting are quoted case by case. We start with your branch count, front-desk staff and peak call times.