Template: Dental Office Main Line + After Hours
This template gives a dental practice separate staffed-hours and after-hours call handling in one Flow. During staffed phone hours, callers can reach appointments and new-patient intake, the current-patient and clinical team, billing and insurance, office information, a scheduled virtual consultation, or the approved urgent-dental team. After hours, routine requests use limited callback mailboxes while an urgent path can try the approved on-call dental team.
The Flow routes calls and captures limited callback requests. It does not provide emergency dispatch, diagnose a condition, give treatment advice, create or confirm an appointment, establish a dentist-patient relationship, verify benefits or coverage, take a payment, or guarantee that someone will answer or respond.
Dental Office Main Line + After Hours
How the Flow Works
The first action is an Open Hours Check Condition. The template starts with Monday through Friday, 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM, in the America/Los_Angeles timezone. Replace it with the exact hours when the configured teams can answer calls.
The Condition and both Direction and Hours actions serialize their schedules and timezones separately. Update and test all three. If clinical, billing, or urgent coverage differs from front-desk hours, the spoken prompts must explain the difference without suggesting that an unstaffed line is monitored.
During staffed phone hours
Callers hear the open-hours greeting and then this menu:
| Key | Option | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Appointments and new patients | Rings the approved Front Desk and Appointments group. If nobody answers, a privacy notice leads to the Appointment and New-Patient Inquiry voicemail. No appointment has been created or confirmed. |
| 2 | Current patients and clinical questions | Tries the approved Current-Patient and Clinical team. If nobody answers, a privacy notice leads to a limited callback mailbox. The Flow does not evaluate symptoms or provide advice. |
| 3 | Billing and insurance | Routes to approved Billing and Insurance staff. If nobody answers, a privacy and payment warning leads to the dedicated callback mailbox. No benefit, coverage, balance, or payment is verified. |
| 4 | Office information | Opens the dental-office information submenu. |
| 5 | Scheduled virtual consultation | Connects only a caller who already has an approved Phound consultation, with a neutral general-office voicemail fallback when the meeting is unavailable. |
| 6 | Urgent dental concern | Plays emergency and limitation language, then tries the approved urgent-dental and on-call team. If nobody answers, a limited urgent callback voicemail explains that a response is not guaranteed. |
| 0 | General voicemail | Records a basic callback request after the privacy warning. It does not accept clinical details, appointments, payments, or emergency requests. |
| * | Repeat | Repeats the menu options. |
The group-dialing modes are deliberate examples of Phound's three strategies: the Front Desk and Appointments group rings simultaneously, the Current-Patient and Clinical group rings in sequence, and the Billing and Insurance group uses distributed ringing. The approved urgent-dental and on-call group also rings in sequence. Each Dial starts with a 20-second timeout. Review every member, order, availability rule, and timeout before activation.
Dental-office information submenu
| Key | Option | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Directions and hours | Reads the approved public address and office schedule, then returns to this submenu. |
| 2 | Current office update | Plays an owner-approved Message, such as a closure or holiday-hours notice, then returns to this submenu. |
| 3 | Text public office resources | Sends a one-time, caller-requested text containing only approved public links and office information, waits briefly, plays a confirmation, and returns to this submenu. |
| 4 | Public department directory | Lets callers search only the non-clinical departments and contacts approved for public discovery. |
| 9 | Main menu | Uses Go To to return to the staffed-hours menu. |
| 0 | General voicemail | Records a limited general callback request after the privacy warning. |
| * | Repeat | Repeats the submenu options. |
The caller-requested text must contain public office information and public HTTPS links only. Do not put a patient name, appointment status, treatment information, diagnosis, medication, insurance details, balance, payment request, or individualized instruction in the Notification. Direct patient-specific work to live staff or the practice's approved secure portal.
After hours
After hours means the configured call-coverage schedule is closed. It does not mean that voicemail is continuously monitored or that the practice offers emergency service.
| Key | Option | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Urgent dental concern | Plays emergency and limitation language, then tries the approved urgent-dental and on-call team. If nobody answers, the limited urgent callback mailbox states that no response or timing is guaranteed. |
| 2 | Appointment or new-patient request | Plays the privacy and no-confirmation notice, then records a basic callback request. |
| 3 | Current-patient callback request | Plays the clinical privacy notice, then records a basic callback request without soliciting symptoms, diagnoses, medications, or treatment details. |
| 4 | Billing or insurance callback request | Rejects member, financial, and payment details, then records a basic callback request. |
| 5 | Directions and hours | Reads the approved public address and schedule, then returns to this menu. |
| 6 | Text public office resources | Sends the caller-requested public-links text, uses Wait, plays a confirmation, and returns to this menu. |
| 7 | Scheduled virtual consultation | Connects only a caller who already has the intended approved consultation, with a neutral general-office voicemail fallback if it is unavailable. |
| 0 | General voicemail | Records a limited callback request after the privacy warning. |
| * | Repeat | Repeats the menu options. |
No input, an unsupported key, or maximum attempts must never dial the urgent team automatically. These outcomes must use the configured non-urgent fallback.
Safe urgent and no-answer behavior
The urgent path is a routing option, not triage. A Message before dialing must tell callers to hang up and dial 911 for a life-threatening emergency or any situation requiring immediate police, fire, or ambulance assistance. It must also state that the Flow is not emergency dispatch, does not provide dental advice, and cannot guarantee that the on-call team will answer or respond.
The practice must define who qualifies for the on-call option, which patients it serves, what happens for people who are not patients of record, when staff are available, and what outside referral instructions are approved. The Flow must not invent these policies.
Suggested urgent no-answer structure:
No one from the approved urgent dental team is available to answer right now. If this is life-threatening or you need immediate police, fire, or ambulance help, hang up and dial 911. This voicemail is not emergency dispatch and does not provide dental advice. Leave only your name, callback number, and a request for an urgent dental callback. Do not leave symptoms, diagnoses, medications, treatment details, date of birth, insurance information, government identifiers, or payment information. A response or timing is not guaranteed.
Suggested routine callback structure:
After the tone, leave only your name, callback number, and the office team you need. Do not leave clinical, insurance, identity, or payment details. No appointment, treatment, benefit, payment, or response has been confirmed. Use [Edit: Patient Portal URL] or speak with approved staff for patient-specific information.
The selected mailbox may play its own greeting. Test the full caller experience so two prompts do not duplicate or contradict each other.
Flow Settings Included
Flow Settings apply across the entire Flow; they are separate from actions on the graph. Review them after import even when the defaults appear correct.
| Setting | Shipped value | What to review |
|---|---|---|
| Voice | Jane | Choose the available voice the practice approved for its caller experience and clinical-safety wording. |
| Dial timeout | Auto | Confirm each team and on-call attempt rings long enough without creating misleading silence. Individual Dial actions can have their own timeout. |
| Max loops | 3 | After the final unsuccessful attempt, each Menu must follow its limited non-emergency fallback. |
| Menu timeout | 15 seconds | Confirm callers have enough time to hear every option and the emergency direction. |
| Repeat key | * |
Keep this key out of numbered menu choices. |
| No input prompt | Please make a selection | Keep this global prompt neutral because the Menus have different safe fallbacks. |
| Unsupported option prompt | Your input is invalid | Replace it only with another neutral, approved prompt. |
| Max attempts prompt | Menu maximum loops reached | Do not claim that a request, appointment, or urgent message was accepted. |
| Internal error prompt | Internal error has occurred | Consider an approved plain-language alternative that provides the public number or website without promising care. |
| Notification on hangup | Off | This would notify a configured recipient after every call. Leave it off unless the practice approves the recipient, content, access, retention, and data handling. |
| Admin PIN | Blank | A PIN permits phone re-recording of Play Message actions and is stored in exported files. Set a unique PIN after import if needed; never publish it in a shared template. |
Verify the Open Hours Check and both Direction and Hours actions individually. Their schedules and timezones are distinct serialized fields even when the shipped values match.
Actions Used in This Template
| Action | Purpose in this template |
|---|---|
| Menu | Staffed-hours, office-information, and after-hours choices |
| Go To | Returns callers after information, updates, texts, and safe notices without duplicating menus |
| Dial Someone | Routes appointments, current-patient and clinical, billing and insurance, and approved urgent calls to configured teams using all three group strategies |
| Play Message | Greetings, transfer notices, emergency limitations, privacy warnings, office updates, and text confirmations |
| Direction and Hours | Reads the approved public address and schedule |
| Company Directory | Exposes only approved public dental-office departments or contacts |
| Record Voicemail | Limited general, appointment, current-patient, billing, urgent, and meeting-fallback callback requests |
| Connect to Meeting | Connects callers who already have a scheduled virtual consultation |
| Condition | Separates staffed phone handling from after-hours handling |
| Notification | Sends approved public office resources only after the caller requests the one-time text |
| Wait | Adds a brief deliberate pause after the text is sent and where configured before a fallback |
Why Podcast is not included
Podcast is the only currently available Flow action intentionally omitted. A generic feed could play stale clinical content, treatment claims, promotions, advertising, third-party material, or advice that the practice has not reviewed for a caller's circumstances. That is not a safe default for patient routing.
If the practice owns an HTTPS feed and has a documented clinical, privacy, advertising, rights, and update review process, it can add Podcast as an optional public-information choice. Give it a tested internal Go To return and test unavailable, empty, and malformed feeds. Never use an episode to diagnose, triage, recommend treatment, describe a caller's coverage, or replace emergency direction or a clinician.
Before You Go Live: Exact Setup Checklist
Every action beginning with [Edit] must be opened and replaced with the intended resource or approved content:
- [Edit] Open Hours Check: the staffed phone schedule and timezone
- [Edit] Dial Front Desk and Appointments Team: the approved group, simultaneous-ringing membership, and timeout
- [Edit] Appointment and New-Patient Inquiry Voicemail: the limited callback mailbox, access list, and monitoring procedure
- [Edit] Dial Current-Patient and Clinical Team: the approved group, sequence order, and timeout
- [Edit] Current-Patient Callback Voicemail: the limited callback mailbox and no-clinical-details greeting
- [Edit] Dial Billing and Insurance Team: the approved group, distribution membership, and timeout
- [Edit] Billing and Insurance Callback Voicemail: the limited callback mailbox and no-member-information/no-payment greeting
- [Edit] Dial Approved Urgent Dental and On-Call Team: the authorized roster, coverage procedure, group behavior, and timeout
- [Edit] Urgent Dental Callback Voicemail: the restricted mailbox, monitoring procedure, emergency direction, minimum-data greeting, and no-response-guarantee wording
- [Edit] General Dental Office Voicemail: the restricted general callback mailbox reached from multiple menus
- [Edit] Connect to Scheduled Virtual Consultation: the intended Phound meeting and neutral unavailable fallback
- [Edit] Approved Public Dental Office Department Directory: only departments or contacts approved for public discovery
- [Edit] Dental Office Hours and Directions and [Edit] After-Hours Dental Office Hours and Directions: the public address, matching schedule, and matching timezone
Open and approve every [Edit] content action as well:
- [Edit] Open-Hours Greeting and [Edit] After-Hours Greeting: practice name, emergency direction, privacy limitation, hours, and no-response wording
- [Edit] Current Office Update: an owner-approved public notice with a review or expiration date
- [Edit] Text Public Dental Office Resources and [Edit] Text Public Dental Office Resources After Hours: caller recipient, public links only, one-time-text explanation, and approved opt-out language
Replace every bracketed content token:
- [Edit: Dental Practice Name] in greetings, Messages, and caller-requested texts
- [Edit: Dental Office Address] in both Direction and Hours actions and texts
- [Edit: Main Phone], [Edit: Office Hours], and [Edit: Time Zone] in approved public Messages and texts
- [Edit: Patient Portal URL], [Edit: Appointment Request URL], and [Edit: New Patient Forms URL] in the public-resources text and applicable Messages
- [Edit: Current Office Update] in the current-update Message
- The starting Monday-through-Friday, 8:00 AM-to-5:00 PM schedule and America/Los_Angeles timezone in the Condition and both Direction and Hours actions
Also confirm:
- Every URL uses HTTPS, belongs to the correct practice and location, and is actively maintained.
- Public Notifications never contain patient-specific information or state that an appointment, form, callback, treatment, benefit, or payment is confirmed.
- Patient-specific details move to verified live staff or the practice's approved secure portal; no generic voicemail or caller-requested text solicits symptoms, diagnoses, medications, treatment details, date of birth, Social Security number, insurance member or policy IDs, or payment information.
- Billing voicemail and text do not request balances, payment-card numbers, bank information, insurance identifiers, or coverage details.
- Access to every voicemail, notification, Meeting, and Flow is restricted to approved workforce members under the practice's policy.
- The directory contains only public departments or contacts; it does not expose clinician or employee personal numbers.
- The virtual consultation is scheduled-only and cannot expose another patient's meeting or conversation.
- The urgent roster, availability, no-answer procedure, referral instructions, and mailbox monitoring are operationally accurate.
- Messaging registration, caller request or consent language, opt-out handling, and applicable requirements are approved before enabling Notification.
- Every current update has an owner and removal date so closed-office or availability information cannot remain stale.
Do not go live with placeholders. Shared resource identifiers make the Flow portable; they are not production destinations. Replace every resource and token, then test it in the importing account.
The exported Flow has an empty environment object and contains no production destination by design. Importing it does not bind a mailbox, person, group, directory, Meeting, or external Flow in the new account; the importing practice must deliberately replace every [Edit] resource.
Go To and cross-Flow rules
The template's Go To actions return to menus inside this same Flow. Keeping those destinations internal avoids a dependency on another account-specific Flow.
Phound can also use Go To to redirect into a different Flow. If the practice chooses that design, use only an owned, approved destination; document which Flow is responsible for emergency wording, privacy notices, and final voicemail; verify the target exists after import; test every return and failure; and make sure the two Flows cannot redirect to each other indefinitely. A cross-Flow redirect does not transfer responsibility for clinical or privacy review.
Dental Safety and Privacy Review
This template is a design starting point, not a HIPAA determination, clinical protocol, legal opinion, or certification of Phound or the importing practice. The practice must have its privacy, security, compliance, clinical, operations, and emergency-procedure owners review the final Flow, connected resources, access, retention, notifications, recordings, and staff procedures.
The HHS voicemail guidance says covered providers may leave patient messages but should use reasonable safeguards and limit what is disclosed. HHS also describes reasonable safeguards for electronic patient communications, including checking destinations and limiting information in unencrypted communications. Those principles inform this template's minimum-data voicemail and public-only text design; the template itself does not create compliance.
The American Dental Association's emergency-treatment guidance tells dental offices to define emergency procedures and says closed-office voicemail should direct life-threatening emergencies to 911 while providing approved after-hours and referral information. The practice must replace the template's generic language with its own clinician-approved procedure for patients of record and other callers.
At minimum:
- Send any situation requiring immediate police, fire, or ambulance help away from the Flow. The National 911 Program says to dial 911 immediately in an emergency; this dental Flow cannot dispatch help.
- Do not use menu selections, Messages, or voicemail as clinical triage, diagnosis, treatment advice, or proof that the practice accepted a patient.
- Do not promise that pressing key 1 or leaving an urgent voicemail will produce an answer, callback, appointment, prescription, or treatment within any time.
- Keep voicemail to the least information the practice has approved. Use verified live staff or the secure portal for symptoms, diagnoses, medications, treatment plans, imaging, insurance, identity, and payment details.
- Honor the practice's approved confidential-communication preferences and procedures; a caller-requested public-links text is not a substitute for a patient-specific secure channel.
- Re-review the Flow whenever hours, clinicians, on-call coverage, referral relationships, portal URLs, privacy requirements, emergency procedures, or communication policies change.
Activate the Flow
Importing the Flow does not make it live:
- Go to Account → Personas and select the Persona that owns the dental office number.
- Open Incoming Calls.
- Choose Custom Flow and select Template - Dental Office Main Line + After Hours (or the name you gave the imported Flow).
Custom Flows only work with numbers purchased through Phound or ported into Phound. Linked numbers cannot be assigned a custom Flow. Flows requires a Business plan.
Activate it first on a non-production test number or Persona. Switch the public office number only after every test and the practice's privacy, clinical, operations, and emergency review pass.
Test Every Path
Call from a phone that is not one of the configured destinations and verify:
- The staffed-hours and after-hours branches switch at the correct local times, including the exact opening and closing boundaries
- The Open Hours Check and both Direction and Hours actions use the approved schedule, address, and timezone
- Every staffed-hours key (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 0, and *) reaches the documented destination
- Every office-information key (1, 2, 3, 4, 9, 0, and *) returns or exits correctly
- Every after-hours key (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 0, and *) reaches the documented limited or public-information path
- No input, unsupported input, maximum attempts, and
*never dial the urgent team accidentally - Front Desk simultaneous, Current-Patient sequence, Billing distribution, and urgent-team dialing behave correctly for answer, decline, busy, and no-answer outcomes
- Every failed Dial reaches the intended department mailbox and never exposes a different department's voicemail
- Every voicemail is preceded by the intended privacy warning and reaches only approved recipients
- Urgent no-answer language directs emergencies to 911, says the Flow is not dispatch or dental advice, and makes no response or timing promise
- No voicemail asks for symptoms, diagnoses, medications, treatment details, date of birth, Social Security number, insurance member or policy IDs, or payment information
- Appointment, new-patient, treatment, billing, insurance, and urgent paths never state that a request or outcome was confirmed
- Directions, phone, hours, timezone, portal URL, appointment-request URL, and new-patient-forms URL are correct for this office
- The caller-requested text is sent only after the caller selects it and contains only approved public office information and HTTPS links
- The text arrives on supported mobile numbers, goes only to the caller, and has an acceptable failure experience
- Each Wait is brief, reaches the intended confirmation and Go To return, and does not sound like the call disconnected
- The Current Office Update is current, approved, and has not passed its review or removal date
- The public directory exposes only approved departments or contacts and routes every listing correctly
- The scheduled consultation cannot expose another patient's meeting and uses the neutral general-office fallback when unavailable
- Every Go To returns to the intended staffed-hours, information, or after-hours Menu without an unintended loop
- Notification on hangup remains off and no Admin PIN or production resource remains in the shared template
- The practice's clinical, privacy, security, compliance, operations, and emergency-procedure owners approved the final Flow
Repeat the most important tests from a mobile phone and a landline or VoIP service to confirm keypad input and audio timing.
More Templates
Browse the Flow Templates library for the General Business Line and other industry templates. Medical practice? Use the Medical Office Main Line + After Hours template. New to Flows? Start with What Are Phound Flows?